Rollercoaster ride

Travel is like riding a rollercoaster with many ups and downs, hills and valleys, in rapid succession. Tanya and I went out in a light rain this morning, took one metro stop, and found the office where I should register my visa. There were 40 people waiting in line to do this. Always before it took 5 minutes to register my visa. I have never understood this requirement, but I always try to honor it. Tanya found out that Americans need to come to this office on Thursday and bring copies of all travel documents.

Next we found a Western Union office to retrieve the money my father sent. A transaction that should take two minutes was stretched into an ordeal lasting at least half an hour. The women behind the desk had to examine my passport many times, prepare multiple documents, have me fill in a form, ask why my father’s name was written Frank and not Francis, have me sign more forms, and then take all this to another woman behind a glass in an enclosed little closet. This woman inspected my passport, reviewed all documents, went into another room with my passport, studied her computer for a few minutes, inspected my passport again, and finally counted out the money in dollars. I was not in a good mood when we left.

I yielded to jet lag in the afternoon and took a long nap. When I got up I called Katya. She said that she had been in the hospital due to severe abdominal pains. Still she wanted us to come to dinner. It took nearly an hour by metro and tramway to reach the Paschkin’s apartment. I enjoy riding the metro because it is great for people watching. It is a quick and efficient system. Katya and her fiance greeted us. She explained that now six couples live in the apartment. Katya’s twin sister, Masha, was married in February to Dima. Katya will be married in July to Vitalik. Katya had prepared a nice meal for us. We watched a DVD of the girls singing in a restaurant two years ago. Then Katya showed us a double DVD of Masha’s wedding. I was very impressed with how fancy and fun it was with many nice Russian traditions. One of the traditions is to kidnap the bride and make the groom pass a variety of tests before can see her. One such test was to be able to pick out the lipstick impression of Marsh’s kiss from about six others. Masha looked very beautiful and everyone had a wonderful time at the wedding. I felt bad that I hadn’t attended the wedding and glad that we’ll be able to attend Katya’s wedding in July. Sasha, the girls' father had even written out a very nice invitation for “Sir William and Aunt Tanya” to come to the wedding. Katya gave me four jars of “maroshka”, a preserve made with cloudberries, impossible to find in the US. It is sweet and tasty. Before we left, Dima returned from work. I took a few photos which I’ll try to post tomorrow. In the backgroud of the photos you will see the American flag I mentioned in an earlier entry. It hangs in the apartment next to an Israeli flag.

So the up and down day ended on a high. Tomorrow we’ll take another rollercoaster ride.
As I am about to post this entry it is 1:20 a.m. and the sky is still not dark!