DAVID & GAYNELL LARSEN'S 1ST FAIRS
UKRAINE/SOVIET UNION VISIT
September-October 1990
Gaynell's Journal from the trip
It's 6:05PM US time, but 2:05AM in Russia (part of Soviet Union at that time). I've just changed my watch and I'm really beginning to feel as though we're "on the way" - we've known for 3 months that the trip was on, but until now it hasn't sunk in!!!
Today has been wonderful. My Mom and Dad took us to Roanoke to the airport. Our flight was right on time. The weather today has been perfect. It was about 60 degrees when we left home at 9:30 AM. Mom Larsen and Thelma were there to see us off!
Click on Photos to enlarge -
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| Ready to leave home all 10 bags. |
We're in line – just 3 planes ahead of us – maybe 20 minutes before take off. The plane isn't crowded at all – in fact, we're going to have plenty of room to stretch out to sleep – we'll probably need it tomorrow – or today – in Russia. We're OFF – the skyline of Manhatten is beautiful – we're up! We're to arrive in Moscow at 10:30 AM – should be plenty of time for a good night's sleep!!!!
SUNDAY AM: Yesterday, Saturday was a wonderful day – we were of course on the train – having gotten in the night before in Moscow. The train ride was really very nice except for the restrooms. They had a lot to be desired. On the train ride, we met a friend of Victor's, whose name was also Victor (Golutvin). He's a real computer expert here in Lvov and we enjoyed very much talking with him – he spoke very little English and by the time the train got to Lvov, he was doing quite well.
Our breakfast on the train consisted of apples – some peanut butter crackers we had with us and a cup of hot tea. Also from our visit in Moscow, Ludmila had packed us a few things that were left from dinner Friday night – cold meat, apple tart and a cake with cream filling. Really, very good! Dave and the 2 Victors had a lot of time to do computer talk – I really got caught up on my sleep so I don't have jet lag. I can't remember what day it is – we lost 8 hours in our trip!
sprinkled with cracker crumbs and some (I think) sour plums on it. The meat was a cutlet of some description fried in an egg batter – pretty good – some American French Fries and some beet and carrot relishes – sliced cold bread and coffee. This was Helen's first time to eat in this restaurant and only Victor's second. They mentioned that at home they ate whatever was available – not always very much!
We gave Julia her Barbie Doll with long blonde hair and she was thrilled! She spent all night carrying it around and combing her hair. Victor nor his father have a car, they walk everywhere or ride the train/tram. I'm sure it was well over 2 miles back to the hotel at 10:30 PM. They have no problem with walking at night – there seems to be very little fear of being out – the street had a few street lights, not many.
Back at Vlad's before we left, the excitement was very great about the computer – the very first Amtor PC station in the Ukraine. Vlad,
Victor, Helen, Tom and Julia helped Dave open it up – better than our Christmas. Dave gave Helen a package to open and her eyes really looked excited – it was a handi-talkie and I could see tears in her eyes. She said with excitement that she'd never held such in her hands. I've never seen such excitement. She's a real avid ham – just won 1st place in a DXpedition in Bulgaria - The night was wonderful – really makes you feel good to see such happiness.
It's hard to believe the life over here – as we were riding along on the train – everywhere it reminded you of the 1930's – 40's. No new buildings anywhere. Everything in the country was in full color for autumn. Really beautiful – the land was very flat from Moscow until we got almost to Lvov. Then a few hills. The hotel we stayed in is for tourist only. It's old, but really quite nice. We slept very well – the beds were very different – very unusual compared to ours at home. I nearly died laughing at Dave – part of our clothes were in the
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| Pic of Vlad's antenna on his 5th floor apt. |
computer suitcase which we left at Vlad's apt – we didn't have any heat, so while he was going through our bags and getting his teaching things straight – I went in to take a bath – Victor and Helen only have water from 6 to 9 AM and 6 to 9PM – no other time. I climbed up in the tub and with no shower curtain, I had to “squat” down in the tub to use the hand held shower head – I couldn't sit down because the tub was ice cold – Dave was so funny – kneeling down in the tub with me spraying him – I was standing outside of the tub shivering!! He didn't have any “long-johns” so he slept on his blue jeans – socks and not only his “nylon” underwear, but his sweater. I fixed him the hot water bottle to put his head on to keep warm. He shivered and shook and we laughed for an hour. I slept in my long-johns and put the old sweater I'd worn ever since I left home. In spite of everything, we slept great! The trip so far has been far more wonderful than I ever expected. Not one problem.
MONDAY AM – We were tired last night – a lot of walking miles – miles.
Victor was to pick us up at 9:30 so we were up at 8 so we could have breakfast. We went down to the dining room – menu just like yesterday – cold bread, sweetened water, then cold sausage and instead of mush, we had 2 eggs in a thin alum pan – sunny side up – coffee – real Russian coffee – grounds on bottom of cup and very strong.
We went with Serge to the Institute to see the rooms. They were very nice and set up was begun. It was decided that we'd need a driver to go get the teaching materials so Serge arranged this – we had a “van” green and white – which he'd rented for our move – the drive was something else – we zipped here and there – just missing cars and people – it's perhaps a 2 mile ride – we had a policeman – jump out in front of us – he took the driver's papers (I don't know what). Lots of loud talking and hand waving.
Before we got the driver, we decided to have lunch – it was 1PM – we walked miles, yes, miles! And finally got to a place to eat – we found they only had some type of cake and coffee (their coffee is very strong – with grounds of coffee in the bottom of the cup) No other food that day – no cream – black or with sugar. You can't go out on the street and buy anything – no soft drinks, etc. Also very few restaurants and not like ours at all. They don't serve any water and very few other drinks – usually only coffee at the end of the meal. We made it thru that and went back to office to get the driver. After that, the exciting drive back to the Institute to set up the equipment. This went very well and it only took us 3 hrs – we had an engineer and his helper. After set up we started walking again – to find something for dinner – Finally after only 2 miles, we stopped for dinner – Victor went up to get us something – that day they had some kind of chicken balls – small amount of cooked cabbage – a small tomato which had been dipped in boiling water with some herbs and small amount of noodles (nothing on them) small hard roll – nothing to drink.
Then we walked to Vlad's house to work ham radio and meet Victor's friends for a meeting. I put a message on Amtor for Glen and Dave
worked the radio for awhile. We stayed for 5 hours at Vlad's – he had some hot tea – bread and small tomatoes for us. Tasted really good – We had a long walk at 11:00 PM to the hotel – We walk everywhere! At least 10 miles a day. Needless to say, I didn't have to be rocked to sleep. I washed clothes and my hair both – the hair dryer worked!!!
I really slept – we don't have heat in our rooms, but made it fine – a little hard to take a bath – Breakfast was as usual – a hunk- piece of sausage – thinly sliced cheese and bread – (not like our bread at all) sugar water and today I had tea – not coffee!
11:00 AM – Twelve in the course – Lecture from 9:30 – seems to be going good. I'm in the back of the class – writing notes.
Now I'll get back to a few notes on our stay so far – things we've done so far – things I've found exciting so far ------ there seem to be only apples – tomatoes and a few watermelons in the markets. No stores like ours to go into to buy groceries – I haven't seen anything like ours. They only have one or two things to sell at a time. Today they might have tomatoes – next week potatoes – you can find almost nowhere to find something to drink in town – also no restrooms. I've only seen one public one – in the center of town – underground – have to pay to use – also only whole in the ground – covered with something like narrow sink with small amount of water running over it – also no paper at all – good rule – never go anywhere without your own “paper” - No restrooms in restaurants – paper like notebook paper if any – even in homes they don't have toilet tissue – no paper towels and no napkins – except for very formal dinners. I haven't seen any dish-washing detergent at all – even soap is very scarce – the hotel had cut a bar into almost 20 pieces and each room had a sliver! - I haven't seen anywhere to buy needed items. We do have running water and hot water. Much of Lvov is always water rationed. They only use bare necessities for everything.
There's always people on the streets – so many people walking around – yet they say “no unemployment”. I guess just lots of people laying out of work. Yesterday we saw a Ukrainian demonstration in center of town – they demo for 1 hour.
You always see people carrying shopping bags – they do this just in case they find something to buy. Which in the food line is quite unusual. There are lines everywhere! The longest line was for Vodka! One store had a long line waiting out front – that day they had a few pairs of shoes .
2:00 PM – Well, my tongue is hanging out – we left at 1:00 PM – walked to a restaurant (about ½ mile away). Had pizza (Ukrainian style) round bread – sm amount of hunks of meat with herbs – chunks of tomatoes on top – pretty good except for the meat - some juice (plum I think) and a pastry with sugar on top! We left there and walked about ¼ mile for coffee – They were closed! Next walked to another coffee house – found coffee – then ½ mile walk back to school – Dave has decided he can't make it out tomorrow – will have an apple here and rest. I made it pretty good, but I wore out a pair of shoes and my feet – I will remember to wear flats tomorrow!!! I made a stop at the restroom – they have one here at school – it may be the last stop!! Lecture is going now, the sponsor for the seminar is supposed to take us to dinner and talks tonight – They were supposed to have planned lunch, but we didn't see anyone. If they come for dinner, I hope they have a car – because it's a really lot of walking here -
Also, we learned that the pay in this country is really low – Victor, an engineer only makes 200 rubles a month – This is equal to $10-$12 US money. Helen makes 100 rubles - $5-$6 US money. Their apt (which they share with Helen's mother Olga, their daughter Julia and is 2 rooms) costs them 30 rubles. They have no car and they never expect to have one. Victor's Dad Vlad has never had a vehicle – there are very few cars here in Russia – Needless to say, they are very expensive – There are no individual homes in town – only small 2 or 3 room apts – some even share a common bath.
The Sponsor didn't get dinner arranged, so some of the people in the seminar decided to go with us for dinner! We walked at least 1 ½ miles to the restaurant – it was closed – no food – we then walked another mile or two and the next restaurant was also closed! We were very tired by then so we decided to go to Victor's Dad's home. We had to walk again and stopped along the way to get something to take home. All the booths with veg only had dried up old veg and fruit so we went by the bread store – the line was long, but Victor got in it and waited to get bread – we then walked to Vlad's so Dave could work the radio – Vlad had some food in ref and he fixed us potatoes, tomatoes, bread and hot tea. He also had a little pot of meat stew which he insisted that we share – one kilo (#) meat costs here in Russia many days pay. It was a real sacrifice to share.
We stayed until 9PM and Dave worked the radio. It was great. Victor walked us back to the hotel – at least 2 miles or more and then he had to walk back to his house – 3 to 4 miles. We were ready for bed when we finally got to the hotel – We couldn't even get anything to drink when we got there – the restaurant was closed and the bar also. It's impossible to find anything to drink here – only hot tea or strong coffee – my kidneys are drying out – we don't drink the water (They told us not to) and we can't find bottled mineral water.
WEDNESDAY – It's a beautiful morning – We had breakfast as usual – thin sliced whole-hog Polish sausages, bread and something that I think was a potato pancake with sour-sweet butter – sugar water and I got smart – I have hot tea - not coffee – too many grounds in the coffee.
(SPECIAL MEMORY) about our breakfasts!!!! Every morning we'd go down to the restaurant to eat at the hotel and I was sooooo thirsty I'd drink the (what I think was sugar water/apple juice) from all the glasses on our table – then I was surprised to find that the lady who came to pick up the dishes at the table after each use was pouring all the juice left in each glass into other glasses on the table and not pouring it out and putting new glasses out!!!! Anyway – I survived! Dave and I still laugh about this!
We walked to meet Victor down below the hotel at the street corner – walked to school and began the day – Victor brought lunch so we wouldn't have to go out and walk at lunch time. (SPECIAL MEMORY) of Dave's about his course – The first day of the course we had 12 attendees – the second day 11 and the third day 10 and we had 10 the rest of the course – to find out the reason – it was because to begin with there were 3 KGB agents there – second day only 2 and the last one stayed for the whole course!!!
We are going to walk to the Ham Club tonight and speak to them and show slides. Dave's really anxious to meet them. Hope I can find a place to buy bottled water today.
We may go to Kiev next week before we go to Moscow for a few days.
Back from lunch at 2PM to begin afternoon. We ate downstairs – Helen had prepared sandwiches of black bread with some kind of creamed/cottage cheese with egg spread on it -delicious – we had a granola bar I'd brought from the states and black coffee.
Around 3 PM I was able to go to a good art gallery for a showing – did some shopping and had cake and coffee – then walked back to the hotel – couldn't find bottled water anywhere so got apple juice to put in ref at hotel. I bought lots of craft things - very little to buy here. We are looking into the possibility of shipping “direct mail” a painted wooden Ukrainian egg which is hand-painted here – Very lovely -
(SPECIAL MEMORY) of the in-tourist hotel we stayed in!!!! It was very nice but I couldn't understand why all the walls were about 24 to 36 inches thick – and there were small holes at the top of the walls – later learned that we were probably being watched the whole time we were in the hotel!! Guess they got a laugh out of us taking a bath in the ice cold water and tub and shivering! I did get smart and the few hours we did have water – I used a rubber pad and stopped the water from running out and filled the tub up with water – we had a Samivar in the room to heat water for coffee and tea and I used it to heat water whenever we needed it to take a bath!!! Yea! It also made sense that we were being watched because when we came back into our room one day I noticed that my clothes in the suitcase seemed to have been moved around! The next day, I put a string across the clothes and yes, when we got back, the string was moved around!!
THURSDAY – We awoke with the sun shining – a beautiful day. Had a quick breakfast (bread, crepe of egg – hot tea) We met Victor on time and walked through town to the school – The class is really going well – Had good break with the participants in the cafeteria. Took pictures etc. -
Victor brought lunch from home again today – Good – Sausage with chives and creamed cheese on bread. We had a tomato and yellow peppers – also hot tea – I sure could use a nap right now!!! I went out to an art gallery – the park and a museum this afternoon.
We are going to Vlad's for radio contacts and to meet Paige – the girl from the US who's living here in Russia for a year. Julia and Helen should be there also. Helen came to visit us at lunch. Her sweater was a beautiful hand-knitted one and she said she knitted it. I'm going to send her some yarn for her to use. In the afternoon I went out to a few shops. The stores are almost all bare except for a few items here and there – clothes were very out of date – like 1950's and very poor quality – no shoes anywhere – a few household items but not a full line of anything. This “supermarket” was out in a big field – no roads- walks, etc. Very different. There were hundreds and hundreds of large tall apartment buildings out there and clothes hanging on each balcony. They have no washing machines or if they do get one they have to wait for years for their name to come up to buy one. The same is true for all appliances – TVs, Ref, stoves, etc.
After the trip outside of Lvov, we took the tram back to Lvov and took a long walk thru 2 parks which were really beautiful. We had an ice cream cone which was wonderful – very rich like real cream in it. We walked again and back into town.
We had coffee and sweets around 6 at a coffee house and then called Victor to come meet us so we could go back with him to his Dad's
house for dinner. Julia and Helen were waiting and we had dinner before the American girl Paige and her Russian Dad came in to visit. She will be here for 1 year. She's a ham radio operator and is really excited about Victor's computer. Dave gave Paige our recorder to use and she put a message on it for us to give to her parents.
We left Vlad's to head back to the hotel when Paige left and for the first time, we didn't walk the 2 or so miles – we took a taxi and my feet sighed with relief! We didn't need a rocking chair when we got to the hotel – we took our showers and I washed out some clothes – then hit the sack! No trouble sleeping at all – 7:15 came much too early.
FRIDAY – Morning was cool and a little rain falling – the wind also blowing some. We had a little breakfast – more cut thin sliced Polish sausage – cold bread and sugar water and this morning baked mush
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| Dave and Gaynell having lunch with Sponsors of the Workshop |
again with “mayo” and hot tea. 8:30 we met Victor exactly on schedule and walked to the school – Lecture and classes – a pretty good day and lots of excitement in the experiments. After we give out the Certificates Saturday we will go to Victor's Dad's house to work radio while we're out – It's almost lunchtime now – I hope I get awake before too long – I'm soooo sleepy. I worked on the Certificates and pictures today and have them all finished. Vlad and Alex came for us to go to lunch. It was 12:30 when we left because so many people wanted “to talk” to Dave
We drove “in a car” to the Restaurant – guess what? Not open!!! They kept knocking and finally someone let us in. They were having a wedding party there and were closed – said No Food. We did get to eat after an hour's wait. Their salad consisted of sausage patties with tomatoes and cabbage and hard-cooked eggs and bread. Not too bad. Then came some kind of soup with little round noodles, a few veggies and cabbage. You don't dare drink the water here so we had bottled mineral water. We finally got through and then had to drive back over to the school, but no one was upset that we were late – they're used to waiting for everything. We got started back to work at 2:30 and at 4, the course was over and all the participants gathered around and presented us with many gifts and me flowers – also very touching and they said many wonderful things to us (which Victor translated) and we all cried – I think we've made some long-time friends. The folks here are very receptive to help and so warm and friendly. We started packing up at 4:30 with the help of the 2 Vlads (engineer at Institute and a helper) Alex and Vladimer came to drive us to the hotel – and we put all the teaching thing in our room.
At 7 we went down to the restaurant to meet with Serge and _________, the sponsors of the course for a dinner. Had a wonderful time, but they really mixed the food with toasts – Vodka – champagne and then wine. Had a wonderful band and I danced with Serge, who's a wonderful danger – said he'd never danced with an American woman and he hadn't danced in 5 years – could have fooled me! It was very late when we came back up to the room so Victor stayed with us since he would have had to walk home 3 or 4 miles then come back Saturday AM.
SATURDAY – We went to school to give out the Certificates. Afterwards, Dave and Victor went back to Vlad's to work the radio and I did some touring museums. I only walked at least 10 miles!!!! got back to the hotel and I was very tired so I tried to take a bath and go to bed, but no water, so I used water from the Samivar to wash my face and brush my teeth and went to bed. At 11:30 Mike, Victor's brother, walked Dave back to the hotel so Victor wouldn't have to – Victor was very tired after all the translating and proposals.
SUNDAY – We had a wonderful day planned - the weather was warm and sunny and some friends of Victor's (they both have a car) came to the hotel at 11:45 to pick us up for a trip out to the country –
about 50 miles away – to see a castle and art museum. Dave and I had our usual breakfast in the hotel – cheese, bread and some kind of souffle (about the size of a 50 cent piece) and a hot tea – we were glad to get that because at first they told us they weren't serving any more!! Never know! We took 2 cars – 12 of us and you can only put 2 in the front seats. That meant 4 in the back of a car that is about the size of Dave's little Subaru. Very interesting!! Nevertheless we had a wonderful time.
Took pictures – toured and about 2:30 we stopped for picnic in the woods. Wonderful – the people here are sooo nice and giving. The
woman had fixed everything – it was all really good – slices of bread with polish sausages on them – jars of canned vegetables – green beans – carrots mixed together – evidently they cook the veg some and put in jar with little vinegar water and can – jars of chopped vegs (like a relish) and something like mushrooms in tomato paste /w/ vinegar canned. (In fact, I think it might have been egg plant instead of mushrooms.) Anyway, it was good – a baked chicken – mineral water – pieces of tomato and peppers – a sm cake and even some coffee. Great! I got back to Lvov and they dropped me off at the hotel and Dave went to Vlad's to work on the radio all night.
ANOTHER SPECIAL MEMORY - Helen told Julia that she needed to learn to speak English so she could talk to GayGay - Julia said "I don't need to learn English - GayGay understands me anyway!"
MONDAY – This morning it is rainy and very disagreeable so I got dressed and went down for breakfast - was as usual. Vic met Dave and they went to Mr. Sudrogin's office for a meeting. We are going to have lunch here at the hotel with friends. In the afternoon Vic and Dave and I stayed in the hotel and dictated a few Thank You letters on the tape recorder. We are going to make copies of the tape and send to the people who wrote letters and supported our trip to Lvov. Also to the ones who donated equipment, etc to bring to Russia. That afternoon we walked to the PO to get envelopes and stamps - Guess What? They were out!! Had to walk on further and finally found some. We then walked to a small shop and bought a large number of
Ukrainian hand-painted “Folk Art” wooden eggs. We are working on a marketing program through Brookfield (this is our Christmas Tree Business and we ship Christmas trees all over the US – one tree to one customer) to sell them direct mail. We do hope we can help the Ukrainians market some art products in the US. After purchasing the eggs, Dave, Vic and I went to a museum, a couple of very old beautiful Churches and then to a coffee house for cake and coffee. Dave and Vic walked back to Vlad's and I stayed at the hotel – it had rained all day and my shoes were soaked. Dave stayed at Vlad's apt again tonight so I called him and got ready for bed – I have really slept well every night I've been here – even staying here in the hotel alone – I slept great.
TUESDAY AM - Never moved all night! I just got back from breakfast. They sat some old man from Germany with me at the table for breakfast. He spoke some English so we got along fine – He left Kiev in 1945 and has not been able to get a Visa to return until now. He is a journalist and will be here for a month. Two weeks to write and hopefully 2 weeks to tour and see where he grew up. He's Polish – was very interesting.
I talked with Dave and he's having a ball on the radio – Vlad has been so kind and seems to enjoy having Dave over there. Dave's hoping to make over 1,000 contacts while he's here in Lvov. We are to have lunch here in the hotel at 1PM with some folks – I'm going to go to a couple of museums and go buy more Ukrainian eggs. Called Vic and he came down town to meet me and we walked back to Vlad's and on the way, we stopped by to meet Victor's friend who walked on with us to Vlad's. Two people came by with proposals for us to consider. Ukrainian clothes (art work). We left Vlad's at 11 and they drove us back to the hotel – wonderful – not having to walk those miles at midnight! I was pretty hungry because I couldn't find anything with food for dinner. Dave stayed at the hotel on Tuesday night with me and we packed things up and got ready for our trip home via 2 days in Moscow. Breakfast as usual at hotel – no service and not too much food – I went to see a couple of museums then met the guys back at the hotel for lunch with Vlad and his wife. Dave, Vic and I walked back downstairs for signing proposals meeting. Then we went to Vic and Helen's for a wonderful celebration and Ukrainian meal. Hated to tell Julia goodbye – They had more gifts for us – Everyone had gifts for us!!
Vic walked me back to the hotel at 11:00 and Dave went to Vlad's hoping to talk all night on the ham radio – the signals to the State were bad so nothing – only 2 contacts. I packed a little more when I got back to the room and took my bath. We had heat for the first time!!! I had washed some clothes out and I figured they would be dry by the next AM.
THURSDAY – I got up at 6:30 to be ready to leave for the train by 7:30 – Victor and Dave arrived on time and I watched from my window and Mr. Sudogrin and the car arrived. He had a bouquet of peach colored roses for me and we make our trip to the car with 4 big bags, etc. Guess what? Soviet car – only room for 2 people and our luggage – Victor goes with the driver to the train station and Mr. Sudogrin, Dave and I start walking. The driver comes back after 30 minutes and picks us up – at the station we are greeted by many people – Helen, Vlad and another Vlad – Victor's brother Michael and a guy from Plasticks with another proposal. They all had flowers for me too – red carnations – peach roses and white
geraniums – really touching. We all cried and “kissed” and hugged a lot – our train left right on schedule from Lvov for Moscow – Victor, Dave and I had a sleeper to ourselves and we then had breakfast – THANKS to Helen and Vlad. Sure tasted good – fried fish and meat – cheese and cold bread – tomatoes and peppers! Then we slept for a couple of hours and had plenty of time (23 hours) to visit and catch up on our tape (for letters) and writing.
Our trip has been wonderful!!! I never dreamed of anything like this!! I'm returning home with so many emotions – So much happiness for such a wonderful trip and sadness for leaving our wonderful friends who are faced with such a hard life and not a whole lot to look forward to –
(Written from the plane going home) I can hardly wait to see Jarrad – he's at our house waiting for us!!! I've missed him and Mom Larsen more than anyone – I hope everyone at home is well – it's like we've skipped 2 ½ weeks. Fall has gone and leaves have fallen – I've really been surprised at how similar Lvov and Floyd are – the seasons are alike – Lvov reminds me of a city 50 years ago and so much like living (buildings, etc) of 200 years ago. Very strange! Many of the streets (most) are still stone paved. Most of the buildings that are used as apt flats were built during the beginning of the century. It's like moving back in time – nothing new – everything stopped being built before WWII. They're still in the 30's. I can not believe the lines – lines for everything – You have lines in the bread stores – lines in the tool stores – can't get water- shortages of everything – they don't even know what cleaning supplies are – never heard of – have to use hand soap if they have it to do dishes with and wash clothes with.
I was just telling Dave here on the plane – I wish I could record all this – I can't write fast enough to get all the happenings down – I really Thank God for letting us have and experience such a wonderful 2 ½ weeks. I truly hope Dave and I together can do something to help these wonderful people.
The train ride to Moscow was good – slept OK and arrived 1 ½ hours late – crazy trains and I'm afraid really bad train tracks – I really learned about trains on my way from Moscow to Lvov – no TT, only newspaper and very little pieces of it – I brought US toilet tissue with us on trip back from Lvov to Moscow – was prepared!!!
MOSCOW visit on the way back to US -Vladimir met us at the train station at 11 – we were scheduled earlier. He took us straight out to the country to his home – took 1 ½ hours to get there – this is Friday. When we arrived (he and Victor and two friends had met Dave and me when we got to Moscow on our way to Lvov) we found out that we would be staying in his home – very unexpected but we've learned to go with the tide and not make
waves!!! Vlad and
Ludmila gave Dave and me their room – Vlad's Mom had arrived on
October 4 to live with them and they have 3 children – Michael 3 ½,
Olga 5 and Katrina about 8 or 9. They are such wonderful kids – we
still haven't figured out where they slept – they gave us their
room – we slept on an old couch which opened into a very large bed
– I couldn't figure it out and when we checked, they had put a
piece of plywood on the top then covered it with some type of feather
tick (??) clean! Sheet and then the traditional Russian cover – a
kind of sheet with a wool blanket inside – they had the same at the
hotel in Lvov. They really only had 4 rooms – kitchen, living room
and 2 bedrooms. Vlad's mother had a bed in a portion of one room (it
had previously been partitioned off for Vlad's office – she sleeps
in there and the children have the other portion – large room with
bunk beds, etc. Kitchen w/eating area – living/dining room and our
master bedroom – two closets had been converted into baths – all
Russian homes/apts we've seen have little room for toilet seat and
little room for sink & tub. If only candid camera had been around
for the bath Dave and I took our first night – no one else took one
– we both had to lean over the small sink to get the door shut –
we got ready and I got in the tub – told them we were ready for the
water and took a very quick bath – lukewarm – when I stepped out
of the tub, Dave almost had to sit on the basin. Earlier in the day
– after we had put our bags in our room, Ludmila had a lunch for us
– some kind of buttered toast w/sausages on it and melted cheese on
top – she's really a wonderful cook – had other relishes etc
also.
After lunch, we drove back into Moscow to see George at his home – he's “Chief of Police”. Beautiful home – up 3 flights of steps –
1800's stairway past coded doors – apt. was very nice. The best we've seen in our stay in Russia! He offered us coffee and gave us many gifts – one of which was a Soviet Union Police Hat (used) postcards, etc. We stayed for over an hour here and would have stayed longer but it was Vlad's Mother's Birthday and Ludmila was fixing a special celebration meal. George's wife and daughter came back and we visited his ham shack – his daughter gave us gifts also.
We rushed back to Vlad's and his family for celebration meal – had a wonderful Russian meal – they always have lots of salads – at least 4-6 – then meal – dessert and coffee – always toasts with Vodka – each course. They also had a couple visiting – he works with Vlad – very nice people. It was after midnight when we all settled in – slept until 9 Sat AM. Had a big breakfast – leftovers from celebration meal etc. and coffee (with grounds, etc) always black with sugar
After breakfast and some construction work on the house – had ½ doz workers out – Vlad, Ludmila, Victor, Dave and I took off to tour Moscow. The kids stayed with Vlad's Mom – we drove around –
went to the largest antique/folk art flea market I've ever seen. Bought souvenirs – tried to find a restroom or restaurant for coffee but failed on restaurants – Finally had to settle for underground restroom, just off Red Square – served the purpose anyway!!! At least I learned – always be prepared for any situation – Always carry tissues with you! Took pictures – Tried to get gas but all the lines were over an hour long so we drove home.
Saw McDonald's in Moscow – The line was VERY long – over several blocks long.
Couldn't believe it. When we got home Ludmila fixed chicken and potatoes – lots of other leftovers and we had dinner – after dinner and dishes and putting the children to bed, we sat around and talked and packed for today. At 11PM Ludmila goes to the kitchen and starts cooking. She fixed tea and the most wonderful little pancakes – potato cakes or something – ate with your fingers and put things on top – she had whipped cream – stewed apples – honey – fish etc – Very good. At 12:30, Dave and I went to bed and I just fell asleep immediately – Never moved until 7:30 when I heard Ludmila up – had a big breakfast – crepes with cream-apples-honey-fish etc on them – coffee etc.
We left for the airport at exactly 9 and arrived at 9:30 – really good – Many people trying to get thru Customs. At 11:45 we finally got thru and got to the plane – We've had lunch, it's 3:30 and I'm ready for a nap – Big lunch – I've finished my journal now so I'm going to sleep for awhile. My watch says 3:40 PM – New York is 8 hours earlier so it's only 7:40AM our time in States – we get to NY at 3PM so it's really confusing, isn't it? We're to arrive in Roanoke at 9:30 tonight – will really be a long day!
