The Many Faces of Russia 1989

 

On 29 June, 1989 Wilma Slough and I departed Orange County, California to go to LAX for our flight to Helsinki, Finland. We checked in at 1220 then browsed around the airport until 1500 hours.  We boarded Finniar Airline Flight 164 for our flight to Helsinki, Finland.  We were in the air at 1540. It was a wonderful flight and the view over Canada, Iceland, Greenland and Norway was breath taking. We arrived in Helsinki at 1200 hours. It was approximately a 12-hour flight and it was daylight the entire time.  As we picked up our luggage I discovered the handle was broken on my new suitcase.  Wonderful. I have 6 weeks to go on this trip with a broken suitcase handle. I wonder how many other interesting things will occur during this adventure.

 

We were scheduled to stay at the Ramada El Presidente Hotel.  We were on the 7^th floor. Nice clean hotel. After checking in, I received a call from Essi.  She was a foreign exchange student I had for a year.  She and her boyfriend Arntee arrived at 1600 and we chatted until 1830. Unfortunately we missed our group-scheduled dinner in the dining room, so ate a snack (expensive) and went to bed at 1930.  Due to jet lag, time change and midnight sun we were awake at 0300. We spent the next 3 hours getting prepared for the upcoming adventures of the day. At 0600 (today is 1 July 1989) we decided to go for a walk. In Helsinki they still have early morning street cleaners. They push a trash cart around and sweep the sidewalks and curb of the streets. There was a great deal of cigarette butts and other items of trash.

 

Breakfast was served at 0700. It was a delightful Scandinavian buffet. The coffee was wonderful but very strong. Keep you awake for a week. We took extra food from the buffet (rolls and cheese) for our train trip to Moscow. Unfortunately we did not have any plastic baggies so we used our shower caps to protect the food.

 

Our train trip was scheduled for 1700.  Our bags were placed outside our rooms at noon for pick up and then went on a city tour of Helsinki. We saw the Monument for Jean Sibelius. He was a famous Finnish composer of the late romantic period. A best-known composition is Finlandia. To learn more goggle him for information. His music is beautiful. The next site of interest was Helsinki Cathedral. The oldest building in Helsinki, and The Church in the Rock. Weddings are scheduled at this church every 30 minutes which last for 20 minutes then 10 minutes for tourists to visit. Reservations to have a wedding at this historic place must be made one year in advance.

 

Our bus then delivered us to the train station for our overnight trip to Moscow. There was a super market near by where we shopped to purchase food for our over night trip. We purchased fruit, chicken, cheese, crackers, candy and bottles water. Check out was interesting. When you decided on a certain item you placed it in a bag then on a scale. There were pictures of different items. Press the button of the picture of the item and a price sticker pops out which you place on the bag for check out.

 

After our interesting shopping experience we crossed the street to the train station for our next adventure. A 14 hour train trip. The train looked like something you would see in the USA in the early 1900’s. Not much progress in luxury in this part of the world.

Stay tuned. It gets better. Or worse. How you perceive the situation. I highly recommend you have a very good sense of humor for traveling in Russia. It happens that was a must as Dr. Feldman interviewed each of us. If he thought you could not cope with difficult situations he would not include you in his tours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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