LOOOOOOOOONG Day

Wow, today has been very very, very, very long.
After having a good nights sleep the night before our trip, I was doing great yesterday. We got to Portland, As I mentioned before, and I was having a great time. We knew that we would have a very long layover in Portland, so we took our time. When we got in to PDX, some of the team got some breakfast, while others looked around and sat with them. After a while, I was getting tired of just sitting around the airport, so I decided to to walk around the whole airport and see what was there. It was fun to be on my own and just walk around with nothing around me but people loading planes and my thoughts. We had a great team meeting that Bob Phillips led at 11am near our gate, then we waited for our flight to board. After a long layover in Portland, we loaded the plane around 1:15pm (Pacific Time).
Lufthansa was an amazing flight. There was lots of food and beverages for us. We were kinda nervous about this food issue because on our boarding pass it said the food was a snack.
THIS WAS NO SNACK!
In this flight, we were provided with a small snack and beverage shortly after boarding, then we were given a nice hot meal for dinner along with a beverage and coffee or tea. Then we had a beverage later on to top it off. Right before landing we got another meal- this time breakfast. We were all amazed about how much sustenance was provided on this flight.
Other than food, the flight was tough for me. It was very cramped in a seat that was in the middle of the row where I could not see out the windows and was having constant battles with my sleeping row mates who were constantly invading my space with their legs.
This was a long flight, 10 hours, and what made it worse was that we gained 8 hours on the way there to Frankfurt Germany. We arrived in Frankfurt around 8:30AM (Germany time) (12:30PM Pacific time) What's worse is that I did not sleep ANY on the way there. BUT, surprisingly, I was not all that sleepy. Entering Germany, we went through customs, this took a bit.
Funny story, I forgot that I had some water in my waterbottle- thats not allowed so I was was asked to drink the rest of my contents right there on the spot. I did. It was good though because I was kinda thirsty.
Anyways, we got through customs and then headed for our flight from Frankfurt to Riga. This flight was waiting for us because the previous flight got in a bit late. Of course, practically all of us went on the plane the wrong door and had to pass through people trying to get around us to the front of the plane as we were trying to get around then to the back.
I was lucky this time, because I got to sit in a window seat. This was great and made the time go by all the more quickly. I got some great shots of the clouds that I will load onto my Picasa Web Image show. http://picasaweb.google.com/timothykirkman/LatviaPhotos#
When arriving in Riga, we had to set back our clocks one last time, one hour later. So now our time difference is 10 Hours. Right now, I am typing this email from Riga, the time here is 9:10PM--- The time in Bend, Oregon is 11:10AM. Big Difference,

Again, surprisingly after all these flights and time changes, I was still feeling pretty good.
We got out luggage, Thank the Lord that all the luggage made it though three planes and was ready for us when we got into Riga. That is a big priase. I thank all of you who where praying for our flight plans.
After we got all our luggage, we headed towards the general area. We met Chuck Kelly, and his office manager from Bridge Builders International and they gave us some good information and we got on our way to the BBI office in Downtown Riga.
Chuck was very helpful with us today. He gave us the low-down on Riga, and things about Latvia, His ministry, and the culture of the Latvians and Russians.
We had a good time of sight seeing this afternoon from about 3:30 PM LT (Latvia Time) until 8:30. I have to be honest, by the time 8:30PM LT rolled around, I was tired of walking and being around people, I was just plain tired. But, We got to see LOTS AND LOTS of Riga. Many of those buildings are so many years old, its amazing to see their architecture. I will try to put up the rest of my photos of Day one, tomorrow morning sometime, but for now, I must be off.

*Disclaimer, I realize that some of writtings in this post have been negative, but most of that is from my long day and not having any sleep, including the time changes. I am sure that I will be in better writing moods when I am refreshed by a good (or at least some) nights sleep.