I headed out for Russia on May 23. Everything went smoothly until I landed in Korea. I couldn't find my luggage. It turned out that the lady at
my first aiport checked my luggage all the way to Vladivostok even though I specifically asked her to send them to Seoul. I had gifts for my girl
and my better clothes in my big suitcases. Not a major problem but it took about 40 minutes to get my luggage.
When I left the secured area of the airport my lady wasn't there. I was upset because I thought that she must have decided that I wasn't on that
plane. She doesn't have e-mail but she had given me a phone number to contact her. I had never tried this number because she went to Korea
only 2 weeks before I went to Russia. I was too busy to call her during those weeks. I decided to call her after I found a hotel. When I tried
calling her I got a Russian guy. I asked to speak to her in Russian. He said something very quickly to me that I didn't catch and hung up.
So I sat there wondering what to do. I ended up just going to sleep because I had been travelling for over 20 hours already. I decided that her
number wasn't the right one. I didn't try to get ahold of her when I was in Seoul on my way home. Bad mistake on my part. After I returned home
her mother e-mailed me asking what had gone wrong. It turns out my lady was late getting to the airport and missed me. She also tried to meet
me the next day before I went to Russia and missed me then also. She didn't know my dates for leaving Russia or she would have met me then.
So I blew a chance to meet a great girl. She still wants to communicate with me so we'll see what the future brings.
When I landed in Vladivostok RW's dad met me at the airport. He doesn't speak much English but because I speak some Russian we made out
okay. He took me to the apartment. The lady I rented it from wasn't there but her son gave me the keys. The apartment didn't have a phone but
was in a great location. There was a pay phone on the outside of my building that I used. I didn't know at the time that not having a phone in
my apartment would be a major mistake.
The lady who owned the apartment showed up later in the day and gave me a quick tour of the local area. After that I went back to the
rinok(market) and bought some food and water. Then I got lost walking home. I live less that 5 minutes walk from the market but it took me
about 30 minutes to retrace my path to my apartment. The streets in Vlad are rugged and rarely go in straight lines. A walk around the block can
sometimes be long and interesting.
The next day I had a tour scheduled with the interpretor that RW arranged for me. Natalia was an atractive 25? year old lady who is unemployed right now. So she was very eager to help me and earn a little extra money. She's travelled to the US, has a sister living somewhere in New York state, and speaks excellent English. She gave me a tour of the downtown area, bought me a phone card and showed me one of the internet cafes. Then we toured the aquarium. This took a couple of hours. I said that was good enough for one day. Natalia is willing to help anyone who might be travelling to Vlad. I have her e-mail and phone number if anyone is interested. She charges $10 an hour for interpreting and guiding. I never did use her as an interpretor because I speak Russian and prefer to visit one on one with people. I don't know if she is interested in doing letter translating.
After this I called the girl who had interested me most from our letters. Phone calls with somebody I don't know well are always a pain in the ass. But her mother cut in and invited me over for supper. So we set a time for my girl to meet me at the nearest bus stop. She met me there at the set time. Her mother needed time to cook for me so we went for a long walk. We went to the funicular, sort of a trolley car that runs straight up the one mountain. From the top of it you have a nice view of the Zolotoy Rog(golden horn) inlet. Then we went back to her apartment for supper. I showed her and her mother some of my pictures from home and the showed me some of theirs.
We liked each other and agreed to meet again but there was none of the being hit over the head with a hammer liked happened to me with my first Russian girlfriend. So I went home(to my apartment) planning when I would meet my other girls.
More to come later.
