CANDOER Retirement Group

Saturday, July 27

You've got to hand it to my midnight caller. He was consistent. I made a mental note to complain to the front desk in the morning.

My streak of unforeseen bad luck of yesterday with Intourist continued unabated. After breakfast, I stopped by the Intourist office to pay for my transfer to the airport. The airport is 60 kms from the city because terrain about the city is mountainous. Rimma and her two other colleagues were not working today. The man said there were no arrangements for the airport transfer nor did he have a vehicle or driver!

I said I personally made them two days ago with Rimma, and confirmed them with her again yesterday. He made numerous telephone calls, but each time came up with "sorry, we have no cars or drivers." It was now time to leave for the airport.

Suddenly Rimma burst into the room and excitedly said "Your vehicle is ready." I was delighted, but the Intourist man was stunned to say the least, dumbfounded and consternated to be sure. She demanded I come quickly. I did. I loaded the vehicle, paid her in dollars for the transfer fee, bid her da svidanya and was off to the airport.

It now became obvious. Rimma arranged a "private" transfer to the airport with her husband or possibly a friend. Intourist did not monetarily benefit from this at all. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Hotel Vladivostok Intourist service bureau Monday morning when Rimma comes to work and observe the fireworks which most certainly will occur between the man I dealt with this morning and Rimma.

After the 60 km ride, and witnessing two major auto accidents (they drive too close and change lanes without looking or signaling) I arrived at the airport.

It is an old airport, quite crowded, should be replaced, and was full of surprises. The few signs are in Cyrillic and there is no information booth. It is impossible to determine what to do or where to go. It's a challenge, but I was up to it now. I saw there was only one check-in counter for all flights, the one with the very long line. That's why they want you at the airport two hours in advance. It's a very inefficient operation.

Surprise No. 1. A Russian man who, seeing the perplexed expressions on my face, was able to give me advice and direction. It turns out he spoke English, and introduced himself as "Vassily." He is a school headmaster outside of Moscow. For seven years he used to teach high school physics in Dodoma, Tanzania! We made a lot of good conversation reminiscing about east Africa, some in Swahili, both in the airport and on our flight to Moscow.

Surprise No. 2. Checking in, I was charged substantial excess baggage fees. Internally, Aeroflot charges for everything exceeding 20 kgs.

Surprise No. 3. The security check was not anything like non-diplomatic people experienced 24 years ago. We breezed through relatively quickly.

No surprise. The passenger waiting area was a dark, dingy, small area which looked like a disaster just happened. Most furniture and glass windows are broken, ceiling tiles are hanging loose and the exit doors to the tarmac bus waiting area were ill-fitted. Only one set of doors work. While today was a lovely day, I wonder what happens the other bitter cold months of the year. There were people smoking everywhere outside, notwithstanding signs posted prohibiting it.

Surprise No. 4. This was supposed to be Aeroflot flight SU-134. It was, but the plane we boarded was Orient Avia with a subtitle "Subsidiary of Aeroflot."

It was an IL-62 carrying 155 passengers - full. Boarding was orderly and uneventful. The crew was very helpful, responsive and spoke good English. I recall incidents of 22 years ago when police had to come on the plane and physically remove the excess number of passengers who boarded without a seat and refused to leave.

Surprise No. 5. The lunch was chicken (no surprise), but it was edible, warm, de-boned and not made of rubber!

Surprise No. 6. The Orient Avia plane interior was almost like new. There was adequate space between the seats! With all the hand luggage passengers were allowed to bring aboard, overhead compartments were very tightly packed. There was a large room at the rear of the cabin where the excess was stored. This created a big traffic jam in the single aisle.

The nonstop flight departed on time at 1400 local, was smooth and uneventful. The path was a great circle route over northern Siberia to Moscow and lasted nine hours.

I talked a lot with Vassily and his wife who sat directly ahead of me and thanked them for their invaluable assistance checking in. I mentioned that in the past two plus weeks of traveling throughout the country I had noticed a very large number of men, women and even children wearing Christian crosses on chains around their necks. They are the standard cross of Jerusalem, not Russian Orthodox crosses. He suggested perhaps no one has thought of making them, or it was easier to obtain crosses from "the west." I asked if the wearers were doing it out of faith or conviction, dress jewelry, or was it faddish? He thought some of all three, but mostly conviction.

We crossed seven time zones and landed at Moscow Sheremetevo I airport at 1545 Moscow time, 45 minutes ahead of schedule on another beautiful, warm day.

The Intourist car got me to the Hotel Intourist in record time of 30 minutes. There was little traffic on a Saturday afternoon. I ate an early supper at 1800 as I was exhausted and still on Vladivostok time (0100) by my body clock. I made plans for Sunday activities and went to my room.

I made a USA Direct call to my spouse. While still on the line, I was surprised when a woman came in the room (the door was open for the breeze) to ask if I would like a massage! These Russians are so accommodating!

Sunday, July 28

The last full day in Russia I dedicated to personal nostalgia by visiting my old neighborhood and apartment building on Ulitsa Donskaya in the morning and the American Embassy area in the afternoon.

I exited the metro at the Oktyabrskaya station. The escalator there was the single deepest anywhere. (The Guinness Book of Records now shows one in Hong Kong .50 meters longer for a single stage.) In the passages under the street, I was astonished to find so many foreign goods for sale; i.e. Miller Genuine Draft Beer, Parmalat fruit juices from Italy, bananas from South America, South African oranges, and Japanese sake! Things have really changed here!

The Oktyabrskaya square has been completely rebuilt, and I must say is a vast improvement over what existed 22 years ago when we departed. The Warsaw Hotel is still there, but has either been demolished and rebuilt, or has had a complete facade replacement.

A number of new office buildings have been constructed on Ulitsa Donskaya, mostly banks. Another building is being erected by a German construction company with German workers, and they were working this Sunday morning! Obviously, they were there to get the job done without delay.

I was unaware if any American Embassy personnel still reside in our apartment building, but it is still occupied exclusively by foreigners with the militia on guard. The East German trade mission which existed on the ground floor has been replaced by several other commercial enterprises. It was only 0945, so there weren't any people outside in the parking lot with whom to talk.

The exterior of the apartment building is the same with one major exception, a large number of satellite dishes have been fastened on the rear balconies. Some are quite large. As the steel on the balconies has rusted so severely, a strong wind could easily rip the dishes and railings off of them.

The timing for this visit was perfect, but not planned. At 0950 the melodious bells of the neighborhood Russian Orthodox church "Deposition of the Robe" began pealing for the 1000 service. I walked over to the church where I even recorded the bell-ringer at work in the tower! I went into the church and respectfully stood at the rear, remaining 30 minutes to observe the liturgy and listen to the chant.

Time did not allow for me to walk up the street to visit the Donskoy Monastery which is a working facility again, no longer a museum.

Walking past our former bakery, then under Leninskiy Prospekt, I entered Gorky Park and walked to the Moscow River, then to the tall, creaky old ferris wheel in the center of the amusement park. Great view from the top! It used to cost 50 kopeks, now it is 1,000 rubles for adults!

Exiting Gorky Park at noon I went down into the Oktyabrskaya metro and this time took the circular line east and north to the Komsomolskaya metro station. Along the way I stopped at each intervening station to check out the diverse architecture of each.

Exiting the Komsomolskaya metro station, I had some unfinished business to take care of relative to the Trans-Siberian train trip. The Yaroslavl railway station with its beautiful facade is here, but when I departed over two weeks ago, I was unable to get a photograph with the facade in the background. It was impossible with the massive crowds around these three railway and two metro stations!

Today I located a willing Russian man who, took many photographs of me on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with the back drop of the Yaroslavl station.

I descended again into the metro and went back to the hotel for a late lunch.

I took the metro to the Barikkadnaya station by the zoo and a very short distance from the new American Embassy housing property. I took many photographs to compare with those of 22 years ago and to show friends who were with us then what it looks like today. The Russian Parliament, "The White House", is just across from the new embassy housing on one side, while the Moscow mayoral office building is on the other corner.

The Russian Orthodox Church of The Nine Martyrs, directly across the street from the new, controversial (understatement perhaps?) embassy office building, closed for many decades, is now a working church again. The interior has been renovated, but the exterior now needs it as well.

In front of the Embassy, I met a young political officer and had a pleasant discussion with him, comparing life there in 1972-74 with what it is like today.

It is unquestionably much better today. He said the employees facetiously refer to the church across the street as "Our Lady of Immaculate Reception". I said the last word could also be changed to "Perception" as well for it is less than 100 meters away.

The new embassy office building interior has been completely gutted. The exterior looks awful due to several years of neglect and rusting of metallic fixtures which have now grossly stained the red brick finish. Reconstruction of the interior starts in August by an all-American crew. That was the original plan in 1974 when President Richard Nixon ceremoniously dug the first shovel full of dirt for the foundation!

Black clouds had been gathering with strong winds whipping up. It was time to find shelter for a while. I crossed under Novinskiy Bulvar (the name was changed from Tchaikovsky a few years ago) and stood under the archway of the building (from which emanated the Russian microwaves) directly across from the present embassy office building, the one in which I worked on the 8th floor. The ornamental neo-rococo facade has been completely painted, recently I presume, and looks very nice. Certainly much better than the "new" building which has zero architectural character. Anyone with a kindergarten education could have done better. I was able to take several nice pictures.

Then the heavens opened up and a deluge descended for about 20 minutes. The traffic was not even slowed by it! But what was amazing was that no one stopped to place their windshield wipers on as used to happen in 1974! There no longer is thievery of wipers. The thieves apparently have graduated to bigger and better things, according to what we read in the Moscow papers, i.e. Jeep Grand Cherokees, Mitsubishi Pajeros, and Toyota Land Cruisers, all 4-wheel drive with air conditioning, if you please.

Just as I began my stay in Russia with a visit to Red Square, so appropriately did I end it as dusk began settling. The square was floodlighted as well as the multi-colored domed spires of St. Basil's Cathedral. The full moon was just rising over the Spassky gate tower with its bright red star on top. At precisely 2200 on the Kremlin clock, a fireworks display took place all over the city in honor of the 300th anniversary of Peter The Great's founding of the Russian Navy. It was quite dramatic. But, as fireworks displays go, those in Green Bay on July 4th were 100 times far superior. No kidding. By comparison, these were duds.

Monday, July 29

This being Monday, museums and tourist sights were closed, so I had the morning free for any last minute shopping.

My fabulous visit to Russia came to a close with my departure on the Intourist bus at noon for the airport. I was heading for Amsterdam on KLM where I would overnight and then depart on Northwest Airlines for home.

At Sheremetevo II I found the airport very crowded. It's a good thing you have to be there two hours in advance. You need all of it to battle the queues.

The first queue is for outgoing customs inspection. Each departing Russian seems to have at least 100 kgs of baggage, each piece of which must be inspected for illegal exports, especially works of art, antiques, money, etc. I noticed dogs working with the officials, so that probably includes drugs.

Once through that hurdle of one hour waiting in frustration, the check-in procedure with KLM went rather smoothly. At this point I asked the airport information office if there was a bank inside where I could change surplus rubles into dollars. She said "yes, no problem". She lied. The bank in the departure area refused to convert my rubles. Fortunately, I did not have many and spent them on lunch and purchase of one classical CD in the "duty free" store.

Arriving back in Amsterdam, I checked into the Ibis Hotel at the airport. My room had a large, beautiful watercolor painting of Ludwigstrasse, the Theatinerkirche, Frauenkirche and Alps south of Munich! From the angle, it almost appeared as if it had been painted from the roof of our apartment building when we lived there 36 years ago!

I spent the evening writing up notes and get a full night of sleep before the early wake up.

Tuesday, July 30

I had a 0700 breakfast and caught the shuttle bus to the airport. My flight was to Detroit-Green Bay, but it was three and one-half hours late in arriving. My departure was now scheduled for 1130. This was further complicated by a disaster which took place in one of the plane's galleys where a drain became stopped and major flooding ensued. Two hours were lost with everyone sitting on board while mechanics and other ground crew scrambled to repair the plumbing and clean up the mess. We finally departed Amsterdam at 1300, two and one half hours late.

The flight time passed very quickly, because sitting next to me on the plane was a young Russian man, 19, by the name of Yuri. I could not have picked a finer or more interesting seat mate. Yuri is an exchange student at Southeastern Louisiana University sponsored by the Methodist Convention of Tennessee. He is from Yekaterinburg.

I learned a lot about his family, schooling and life in the Urals, and his ambition in life (to study and be ordained a minister in his church). I took the opportunity to pose the same question to him as I did to Vassily on Saturday's flight from Vladivostok to Moscow about the large number of Russians wearing Christian crosses. He thought the majority wore them out of conviction with only a few for dress jewelry or as a fad.

Right now he is leading a group of 16 Russian tourists to the U.S. to attend a Methodist liturgical music convention in Nashville, with subsequent visits to a few other places in Tennessee and Louisiana before sending them home from Detroit the third week of August. None of his 16 speak English, but he is completely unconcerned about any potential difficulties he might encounter. I have to commend him for his spirit for leading a group of 16! I wished him the best of luck.

After he places his charges back on the plane to Moscow, he will return to his sophomore year at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Disembarkation in Detroit was delayed several minutes for Northwest Airlines had police come on board to arrest a passenger who continually disregarded the "no smoking" prohibitions, especially in the lavatory. He had disabled the smoke detector.

I arrived in Green Bay at 2030 to be greeted by Mary. We gathered my bags and headed for home.