Ukraine
UKRAINE - SEP.25 - OCT.7, 2007
MONDAY, 9/24/07: Got rid of all the items on my do-list before Ukraine (1. John: water Sunday. 2. Bill P.: Pick up Times Sat, Sun, Sat, Sun. 3. Stop delivery of Sun to 10/7. 4. Record phone message. 5. Park. 6. Send indexes and check with Workoff. 7. Mail three disks. 8. Look at index and phone Knox. 9. Shave. 10. Gym. 11. Check United bill: due 10/20. 12. Call Beard on 9/03 $150 charge. 13. Clip toenails) on Monday except pack, clear up the Beard question, and mail the diskettes. Start watching TV and begin nodding off, so I get to bed early, at 10:35, taking only a Librium.
TUESDAY, 9/25/07: Wake at 4:40AM, write some notes, but don't have time to finish page. Breakfast while watching end of Rich in Love, and then watch---some short film just to finish Ken's tape. Do pills, wash dishes, collect stuff to pack, can't find my usual stack of bags, and mail the diskettes. Pack 12 rolls of film, brochures, and fill up black bag with clothes, even spare shoes, lots of cornstarch, pills, magazines, umbrella, and save my shoulder bag for TV camera and camera, jacket, film, money, and books to read and puzzles to do. Do and do, try Beard twice but they never call back, a pain. Spartacus calls twice with trivia, and I manage to dress, get the garbage out, put the dishes away, forget to put out the watering can for John, pack all pills, deciding to take tomorrow's pills AFTER I get on the boat. Black bag weighs 20#, shoulder bag weighs 14#, for a total of 34#, heavy. Take 74.27 euros, in case they take them, and $446.22 in cash. Leave at 1:35, wait at Shelley's door, woman carries out her bag, car is there and I put bag in back, and we leave 1:48, cheery driver that Shelley knows, collecting $26 from me for half the fare. To airport 2:30, Austrian Airlines at very end, and I HAVEN'T registered the flights for frequent flyer miles on United, DAMN, but clip form from magazine to remind me. LAST window is ON wing, but I can see a BIT out behind it. WAY around to departure gate, through security; they take everything out of my bag, including $40 singles, still there, at 3:02. Sit doing puzzles, Shelley chatting, me dozing for moments, board at 5:11. 9.5 hour flight in airlines book, but they announce it as 8 hours, whew. Move back at 5:48, off at 6:20PM. Take Ambien at 6:35 with water, put on facemask, but can NOT sleep. Women chat INCESSANTLY. Sunny out, but cloudy below. Watch TV, but it's all junk: Ocean’s 13, Bambi II and seductive female singers. Windsurfing in Baltics in storms would be total madness. My light doesn't work, try turning it on from pilot's cabin, still not on.
WEDNESDAY, 9/26/07: 1AM ENORMOUS golden-glow AREAS in England and Netherlands and Germany: fields? malls? building tops? 6 hours difference, now 7AM. Sunrise 7:07AM and I'm hungry for breakfast, having had nothing since early "dinner" yesterday at 1:15PM. Breakfast at 1:40AM NYC time, after good breakfast of cold cuts of chicken, ham, salami, two cheeses, cream cheese, muffin, hot roll with butter and strawberry jam, OJ, and yogurt, and TWO cups of sugared, milked coffee to "wake me for the new day." I change my watch to 7:30AM, as I pee. LOW clouds over Vienna, no view, land at 8:16: 7:54 flight, thank goodness, but not a MINUTE'S sleep. Feel OK. Coffee? Off plane 8:27, check for next flight, window in rear, gate 10, board at 10:15 they say at 8:40AM. Sit at gate 10 at 8:48 and start typing. Shelley comes down in wheelchair with AT LEAST a dozen OTHERS: and we agree we've NEVER seen so many at once. Finish this at 9:30, making lots of stupid errors, and go pee again. Tempted to drink water, but figure I can wait for the flight to Odessa (and BOY did I drink then!). Long line to board at 10:37. Board bus about last at 10:57, chilly out. Get SEAT on bus, bus goes at 11AM. Great window seat in back, but it's all CLOUDY. Into seat over Gwen (?) (actually Lynn) after a pee at 11:11. 1:30 flight announced. Taxi at 11:26, lots of BIRDS in fields both here and in Odessa, a bit of a concern, I would think. Off at 11:40AM, sadly to TOTAL clouds after rising above ground. Roll 1: #1-2 Ukraine countryside from plane from Vienna 12:40PM. #3 town and farms 12:57. #4 Black Sea Bay on way down at 1:04. Good ham for lunch on bun, whole bottle of tonic with good gin and extra ice, AND a glass of orange juice AND a cup of coffee. #5 modern highway cloverleaf 1:10. Land at 1:12PM, 1:32 flight, temperature announced at 21°C. Park WAY out (and Shelley had NO wheelchair there, nor is there one on the BOAT!), and with all the disabled people getting their overweight bags down from above, blocking aisles, going by inches down the stairs, holding everyone up, it takes AGES to deplane, me sitting patiently in seat while everyone stands in aisle, to 1:35. SO MUCH disability! To FORMS line at 1:53, changing watch to 2:53, and change $40 to 200 Hryvnias at 3:07 when lots are doing it, though we'll stop tomorrow on the city tour to change others' money. Onto bus at 3:10, losing Lynn and Shelley. Our bus leaves with about 40, Natasha saying we're 79 in the group. I ask, but no pictures allowed in airport. Bus jammed, off at 3:20, past a lovely gate to a formal park, then an informal park, then a statue replaced by Catherine the Great statue, all of which I would like a picture of. 6:30PM meeting in 5th-floor bar, 7:30 dinner in restaurant below. #6 cargo port gate 3:58. I'm FIRST at givers of bread and salt, taking a picture #7 of them first, and only a little video of them playing later, missing the second bus. Get key, will get drink card from Natasha later. Talk to guy who says there are A HUNDRED from Denmark, and more tomorrow. 4:34 wait for second bus and my bag is at room already. TINY room, but NEXT to bar at top of fourth floor. Start unpacking 4:30 after a pee and finding towels and FUSS with mopping up cornstarch from EVERYTHING until Shelley knocks at 5:15 and we share moans, agree to dine with Lynn and her justice husband, so I go look in the upper lounge, no one there yet at 5:35, so I continue typing, talking to charming Christine and Oskar from Canada, and buying an 8H mineral water for Shelley, I type to 6:30, drinking a delicious beer for only 6H, hoping to identify Lynn to dine with! Then we see them, and I go and prostrate myself, begging to sit with them, leaving the choice of a table for 4 or 6 to them, but (to anticipate), when we get into the dining room, diabolical Shelley has corralled a table for FOUR, and she ALSO says she will NOT sit with the red-shirted fellow from Sarasota, since he NEVER shuts up, and somehow it resolves with the four of us at the same table, and later red-shirt comes over to laud the fact that the two of them from Sarasota joined FOUR OTHERS from Sarasota! So we have a wonderful dinner: talking about politics, my cornstarch for my feet, and other unpleasant topics, but have a GLORIOUS time as I buy a bottle of SHAMPAGNE, semisweet, for 30H, because "they say" they don't have the proffered glass of 200g for 8H. GREAT breaded veal cutlet, good shrimp salad to start, as I dash to room and pick up WHOLE DAY'S supply of pills and swallow them all down, and drink a half-bottle of semisweet Shampagne for 30H, and talk about MORE stuff, and the table seems to be a success. I pay for two tours for $56, Shelley signs me up for the Romeo and Juliet special tour, and I talk to Bill in #442 about a special tour of Chernobyl! Take a peach back to ripen, and finish this up-to-date at 9PM, TOTALLY plotzed, and ready for a GREAT night's sleep! Looking into my dop kit for my evening's Proscar and amino acid, I find only ONE and think I forgot to refill it, but then see that it spilled into the dop kit and I retrieve SEVENTEEN doses, much to my relief. Take a two-tablet dose with the bottled water supplied to the cabin. And it FIZZES and overflows all over the AlphaSmart, so I wipe it up and it's OK. And AGAIN they supply a filled duvet that I have to dismantle! Go through ENDLESS permutations of pills and lights and stacks and lists and FINALLY get to bed at 9:35PM! GWEN is actually LYNN, and my BATHROOM is lit THROUGH the wall that's opposite the wall to the room! Bed, at last, at 9:38PM. Asleep instantly, feeling good.
THURSDAY, 9/27/07: Wake at 2:44AM, and figure it would be 6:44AM in NYC, a normal time. Had had two dreams, but remember only a fragment. 3AM: Then, as I shit, realize it would be 6:44PM in NYC! 6:10AM: typed in file 8, then reviewed that I went to sleep at, say, 9:40, so by 6:18AM, now, I slept almost eight and a half hours, pretty good. But don't feel like staying awake now, either. Keep hearing small noises even through earplugs, from nearby rooms. Just the slightest beginning of light in the sky outside my window. Pee again. Uncertain what to do, hearing voices outside, I do a quick Actualism to gain energy from 6:32-6:51AM, just the required 20 minutes, type this, and decide to reorganize my room before listening to the wake-up announcement, which I now see is scheduled for 7:30AM, saying what the temperature will be today. #10 of room with flash and dockyards through window at 7:08AM. Put money in bottom of black bag with bags of "spare stuff" on top, under bed, and leave clothing in closet and only "current stuff" sparely on shelves above bed, and stuff for daily use on desk shelf. Crew wandering outside window swabbing and dusting the railings. Leave camera and bag out, putting ship-given water bottle in fridge and taking just a sip of my bottle in my shoulder bag. Now dressed and at 7:20 ready to go up to coffee room to say hello to people. 8:38AM: Few people in coffee room, talk to the Millers from south of Chicago, then onto deck, avoiding the just-mopped areas, and introduce the term "jellyfish" to a Danish mathematician who likes to improve her English. Then to souvenir shop, resisting paying $16 for a book about all the Crimea, though very attractive. Five postcards for $1. Then first to breakfast, ordering permanent hot chocolate, very rich and very hot, for 8H a day, paying $20 for 12 days of optional hot chocolate. Fill out the lunch and dinner requests, then have a hard-boiled egg, six slices of ham-like cold cuts and three slices of cheese, with two rolls with butter and jam, and also a cup of coffee they started me with. Shelley VERY unpleasant, demanding water glasses from the waitress, the salt and pepper from me though it WAS within her reach, and water poured by the husband, whose name I still don't know. Lynn invariably pleasant. Dining room VERY hot, so I'm back to room to type this and prepare to put on shoes and go down. They passed out many more optional tours (even charging $20 for the ethnic program ON THE SHIP), and a map of Odessa. Type to 8:44AM, feeling pretty good, though breakfast was a bit too much, even with passing up the yogurt. 12:33PM: FANTABULOUS DAY: Our bus arrives LAST at 8:56. Others go. Emilia wonderful guide: $2 to her, $1 to driver, owe Shelley $55 for ballet, she owes me 8H, I owe her $1 tip. #11 Potemkin Square 9:26. 192 steps in Odessa steps, opened free funicular 2 years ago. #15 Potemkin steps from top: built in 1841 by Italian, to get to palaces on Boulevard, AND to support against landslides. WAS 200 steps, now 8 are under concrete under the road. 21 meters wide at bottom, 10 wide at top for perspective. Hotel Odessa built in 2000, WAS 5 stars, now 4 stars. Potemkin favorite lover of Catherine the Great. #17 almost sunlight 9:36, HAZY after perfectly clear morning. "3 postcards $2." #18 Turkish Embassy 9:38. #19 Hotel London, Isadora Duncan stayed a week. #20 park down from side. #23 Concert House built as Stock Exchange by Italian 9:47. Husband is TERRY. #24 Baltimore (only US city) 8043 km. Maritime Club across from museum, was males only. Two years ago a fire destroyed facade. Pushkinskaya St. goes to railroad station. #27 Opera House 9:59, built 1887, burnt mid 19th Century, built "as in Paris." 40 designs: this one "Beautiful but cheap." #29 apartments across from opera 10:03. #30 opera front, guy on top 10:05. #31 military house, symbolic worker's statue 10:11. To bus 10:21, VERY busy. #32 railway station 10:22: trains to Warsaw, Moscow, Prague, etc. 10:54 to War Memorial. #33-34 War Memorial 10:57. Many photos. Roll 2: #1-7 to 11:13, and HASSLE with video with 5-8 "reinsert cassette" problems. #8 old balconies 11:18. #9 cars on sidewalk. #10 Gypsy Restaurant 11:29, in and they take my picture #11 with waitress and bear but don't allow me to photograph or video sumptuous interior. #13 city park. #15 park potpourri 11:36. #18 melange: Chinese, netting, old buildings 11:40. EXHAUSTIVE views! #20 cat 11:53. 12:01 CAN'T find bus 5! I thought it was white, but it's black, and no Shelley in window, but she's slumped down asleep, so I sit in seat in front until gathering crowd wakes her. Bus goes 12:17. Back 12:30 and type till lunch at 12:48. Good salad, then strips of beef in gravy with potatoes and beets, which I don't finish. Then ask Natasha how to get to foot of stairs, #21 gold baby 1:42 after home-exhibit in pass-through building. #23 bottom of steps 1:54, and Terry and Lynn walk to Internet shop, walking up the stairs while I'm number 12 in the funicular, which I video with problems of inserting diskette again. Start toward museum 2:05. 2:12 into museum: 12H entry, 20H book (which I suspect should have been free) on Odessa, but DON'T pay 20H for photos. MUCH from Olbia, Borysthenes, Berezan, Chersonesos, Taurica, Kerkinitis, and Kalos Limen (which means "beautiful beach"). 4th C. BC cypress sarcophagus! Tyras and Nikonion and Bosporan Kingdom from 6th C. BC to 1st C. AD. Pantikapaon 5th C. BC. Can't RESIST buying a 60H CD, hoping it works, since it lists IBM PC, Windows XT, and looks good. Leave 3:07 (oh, forgot basement with Egypt, mummies, skeletons, and lots of other stuff included on CD, so she assures me). DASH back, elevator down 1 flight, get lost, get onto boat at 3:25, up to fifth floor at 3:28 and get front row corner seat for 3:30 bandura concert in Sky Bar with about 70 tourists in attendance. HOT! Shelley plans NOT to dine, tired! Concert to 4:20 with good cold big beer, #26 or so of group, and lots of video. #27 about to leave Odessa 4:55, after lots of video of big and little jellyfish in outwash. #28 underway 5:08, again with lots of video. #29 enormous private Samar 5:09. #30 goodbye Odessa 5:19. Boat slews back and forth, passing container ships after it winds out of harbor, and boat REALLY ROCKS to 5:31, when I pee sitting down, but then it smooths. Type to 5:50, Terry waving to me at my curtain-aside window, Shelley leaving note saying, at 4:10: "Depending on quality of nap, MAY come to dinner---If not, see you at breakfast---," signing it 437 and leaving it in my keyhole. Land on hazy horizon, turn A/C off because it was cold, and now at 5:52PM nothing to do until 7PM "Presentation of the Captain and the crew on the Sun Deck" (the highest open deck), which I assume is outside the Sky Bar. NINE ships in view directly out my window, sadly on highest cabin-deck so we get the most sea-motion, which I hope doesn't bother me. Maybe I'll lie down to rest anyway now at 5:55PM. Eat the delicious peach, which had fallen to the floor, just about ripe, and at the same time realized that the "mystery water bottle" left in our seat on bus 5 was MY water bottle, slipped out of its sleeve in my shoulder bag, but at least I still have the ship's bottle in the fridge to replace it. Rocking worse now at 6:08. Lie and think and maybe doze for a few moments, but up at 6:58 and put on Edgardo's cashmere jacket and get upstairs to find their clocks four minutes behind mine, the full moon rising from cantaloupe orange to brilliant yellow-gold, so I sit in the cold, Terry and Lynn join me, the presentations start at 7:12 and are given first in Russian, then English, then Danish, and the leaders of the groups from Sweden and the small group from NORWAY are also introduced, and we meet the Captain, the dining supervisor, the administrative assistant, the assistant to the assistant, and finally it's over at 7:31 and everyone files down to the dining room (where Shelley, in fact, is not), and we have a salad and then fish, which we're all pretty sure we hadn't ordered, but it was edible, with a jelly roll for dessert, and I finally managed to convince our waitress that I DID have a half-bottle of Shampagne from last night waiting for me, and I got properly sploshed, talking about my IBM experience, my Columbia fellowship, my 99-day USA Greyhound trip, my meeting with Delores, my increasing age, and they talk about their stuff. Then, about 8:50PM, an announcement comes over in Russian, then in Danish, then in English: "There has been an emergency with a passenger which requires we return to Odessa, so our arrival in Sevastopol tomorrow will be delayed for seven hours; you'll get a new schedule tomorrow." Oh! By the time dinner ends I'm feeling warm, so by mistake down to floor 3 then back up to floor 4 and write a note to Shelley and put it under her door and catch up with this by 9:24PM, people from the bar next door quite loud in the hallway outside (but Shelley said she brought HER earplugs, too), and I resist the temptation to put my shoes and sweater back on and go back on deck to see our arrival in Sevastopol---though if we're going to be SEVEN hours late, we should BE there already, having left at 5:10, so if we turned around at 8:10 (well, no, not yet) we should be back by 11:10, and then ready to leave seven hours late at 12:10. We can only wait and see, and now at 9:26PM I'm QUITE ready for BED! Teeth feel VERY furry, but I'm just not UP for them now! In fact at 9:33PM there IS a distant line of land lights out my window. Get to sleep quickly and easily.
FRIDAY, 9/28/07: 12:21AM: Wake and look out to see what appears to be a far line of city lights receding behind us, so I guess that we're leaving Odessa once more. Type dream, conscious of boat making noise as it's rocking: maybe it's going at full power trying to make up for lost time. Go pee even though I've slept less than three hours: two hours and 40 minutes, exactly. Wake again at 1:56AM and type dream fragment just over 90 minutes from last one. This could go on all night. Finish typing another dream at 3:48AM, getting weary of constantly getting up and trying to remember salient details of wispy dreams. Pee again, convinced that when I look out the window again I'll see nothing of land or lights. But there IS an absolutely INCREDIBLY bright STAR above the horizon at two o'clock, almost moonlike in brilliance. Wake at 5:30AM and type more, getting tired of this. Wake at 6:33, up at 7:01 to shower. Replace batteries, thank goodness they work SO far. But can't find shampoo, which I thought I HAD packed. Shower's adequate, soap used for hair seems OK so far, type this at 7:48AM, sun streaming in window blocked by people walking on deck, seacoast fairly close out my window. Shelley's waiting outside breakfast room, having slept 4PM to midnight (waking for messages), then 1-6AM, feeling much better. Woman fell on stairs and hit her head with much blood, which someone said would prevent her from being lifted out by helicopter, so we went full steam back to Odessa, then back full steam to arrive tentatively at 1:15PM in Sevastopol, Balaklava tour's $26 returned, but asked to sign up today for Yalta tour tomorrow, 4 hours by bus. Terry gives me his butter and cold cuts and cheese, I have the yogurt and poppy-seed roll and odd juice and pay 120 for two hot chocolates yesterday and today. Terry has four cups of coffee with a whole glass of milk. They show me their double with a whole WALL of storage shelves and a DOUBLE closet, and I bring them to mine, which has been nicely made up already. To language lecture at 9AM, painful with its audience participation. Country is pronounced Oo-kry-EE-na, meaning "outskirts of suburbs." Russians worship TSAR, Ukranians worship KNOWLEDGE, and they play their new National Anthem and they're very pleased when we all stand up. Painful lesson, in which "we all speak without accent" to 9:54, ending at 10:03 with people getting changed tour-fees, but line is too long and they say they'll continue outside the dining room before and after lunch at 12:15PM today. 11:35 bridge tour, maybe 18 of us. Three thousand-horsepower engines, now FULL speed of 25 km/hour, 12 knots. Boat built in 1989---two years older than Ukrainia. 125m long, 16.7m wide, 15m high, 3m draft, 230 tons of fuel, using 6 tons of fuel/day. 200 tons of water. 240 tourists, 110 crew. Five locks, 36m deepest, narrow locks, we're in 40m of water. GPS, fire systems, alarms, dual controls. To 10:50, vacated because next tour coming on now. To room at 10:55, bath dry, put up towels, Shelley gave me a shampoo packet, I gave her $55 for ballet ticket. Feel out of it, type this to 11:17AM and lie down before going to lunch early to change tours. Tomorrow bus to Yalta $45, and we PASS BY Balaklava. Ukrainian national dish is salo, pork fat, smoked, served with mustard or horseradish. I'm really weary, knowing tomorrow is last full day which is NOT the last weekday of that day of the trip. Lie to 12:15, when lunch is announced, and have unidentifiable meat and veggies with lots of bread and butter. Watch the bay of Sevastopol slip by as we eat, marveling at numerous monuments in this monumentally embattled town. #31 band at dock 1:07. Onto bus 1:18, videoing band again. #34 (something) at 1:35. Roll 3: #4 1830 Russian-Turkish War Memorial 1:49. Constant blather from politicking for Sunday's election. To #7 monuments in Sevastopol Bay 1:59. Off at Panorama 2:24. #12 Panorama building 2:17. #13-14 Sevastopol bastion remains on hill past Panorama (Tolstoy fought here). New Panorama built in 1954, 19 painters, 3 years, 36 million tourists so far. Buy 5H map and 15H Crimea book by 3:11, taking LOTS of video and pictures through #20. To bus past cats, at 3:20, show Shelley, who moved up a seat, and first bus goes at 3:36 and we're late till 3:48, bus filled with people who LOVE to talk, think they know everything, interrupt worse than I do. Off on Redeemer Hill 3:58. #24 and #26 Lenin Statue from many angles (1/4 people here are retired and VERY conservative) 4:05. #28 and #29 outside St. Vladimir Cathedral, where I'd videoed lots inside to 4:15. To ship 4:21, to room at 4:30, and finally finish the original bottle of carbonated water by brushing my teeth for the first time on trip, reading New Yorker while doing it, and then going to far end of floor 4 to try to get hot water, but Ellie directs me to the far end of floor TWO for a machine that burns my hands while I fill the plastic bottle that I put in the fridge at 5:03, and catch up with this to 5:16, not quite ready for early dinner at 5:30. Take off undershirt, since I've been MUCH too hot, put jacket in shoulder bag, put other stuff away, and get out to dinner at 5:29PM. Dinner of stuffed peppers with buttered mashed potatoes (made better with butter just as the curly pasta was made better with butter at lunch) and a half-bottle of Shampagne until Lynn reminds me that I should be gathering outside at 6:45PM for the concert, so I leave at 6:32 and remind myself to charge my videocamera from 24 to 45 minutes in the short time before I leave at 6:42 and wait a bit before we start WALKING to the theater, some taking taxis, getting there at 6:50 and told it's free seating, but "front isn't good because the voices are too close," which I don't believe, so get a seat near the center of the second row, and get told by the Danes in the first row that they were told that NO cameras were even permitted in the theater! No one charged me more, and when the curtains parted there was a barrage of flashes from cameras, so obviously they were OK. Singing started, then dancing, with one or two cute guys, some good steps, and I videoed mostly the dance, including the women, and some of the better solos and a wonderful a cappella quartet with unusual sounds. Worried a bit as my time shrank to under ten minutes, but got everything in and it was over at 8:28PM, not even 90 minutes, but it was just fine. They were selling CDs outside, and it was crowded on the streets back to the boat, getting back (with my jacket on against the cool, the full moon still seemingly perfectly round) at 8:41 and immediately set my camera on charge, undress, pee, and record that I took photos through #32 of what is in fact roll 3. Catch up at 9PM, camera almost half-charged already. Pack TWO rolls of spare film, making sure one of them wasn't USED, as I'd found in my case today, but luckily I'd also included an UNUSED roll that I almost finished. From 9-9:36PM I try ALMOST successfully to rid the black case of the last of the cornstarch from the last plastic bag filled with objects, and think I did at least 95% of it, with relief. Also put Ertaczo on my balls, since they felt itchy, and checked my video camera to see that it was just about 100% charged, since I don't want to leave it connected all night. Since wake-up call is at 7AM tomorrow, if I get to bed before 10PM I can get as many as 9 hours' sleep, minus peeing and dream-recording time. Take night pills with the water from the fridge, which has cooled already, and fill up morning-pill containers for breakfast, and disconnect the charger at 165 minutes, not quite to 100%. Bed at 9:50PM. Type first dream from 11:21PM to 11:26PM.
SATURDAY, 9/29/07: 12:56AM: Just finish typing dream 2 tonight, and now have to pee. 5:19AM: Tried Actualism for about an hour, but it failed to return me to sleep. Kept thinking of the sheer EXOTICNESS of Odessa, Sevastopol, Crimea, Oo-kry-EE-na. Maybe the character of the dream was influenced by the historical panorama of cultures: Turkish, Russian, French, Muslim, primitive, ancient, Greek, pan-national. Some references somewhere to Bakchisarai, the Russian songs of the Black Sea Russian Fleet personnel, the echo of the ancient [start file 2 9/29/07, 5:24AM] Greek-colony names I'd first heard in the Odessa Archaeological Museum now on the maps of the Crimean Peninsula, the roads to ruins still there, which we won't get a chance to see, and the vague idea, as WHERE, recently, that I thought I could RETURN and loll in the loveliness of the countryside and the richness of contemporary and past cultures---surely Crimea would merit a return: the rush of impressions from Sevastopol making me think we should stay a few days, the lovely vistas in the Crimean book I bought (ah, yes, the previous area to revisit was the Kongyu (?) and other areas of Korea, visited in a too-short day on the Japan trip), and I now indulge in the luxury of the banana I brought back from breakfast yesterday, with my feeling this early morning of being hungry, and KNOWING the banana was waiting for me, as was the delicious peach, which had no effect on my intestines regardless of eating the forbidden skin. Looked at the day's calendar to see that the early-rising Panorama coffee room, just two doors from me, is open only at 6:30 this morning, just under an hour from the current 5:32AM. Maybe I can relax with some sudoku to exercise another part of my mind, since going to bed at 9:45PM is just about 8 hours ago, disregarding the half-hour transcribing the dream and the sleepless Actualism hour after transcription left me frustrated with my verbal lack of accuracy for the ineffable dream. Will lie back down, but may be up soon. Happy to be clean, with clean clothes, brushed teeth, and decent health of feet and crotch. Lie down, finish Actualism, and sleep again, dream, and wakened by 7AM call. Quick fix, breakfast 7:15-7:44, taking both their butters, milkier hot chocolate, a tiny crepe-like omelet, and they join us late. Shit (and forget to flush to the end!) and catch up at 7:55, rushing for 8AM bus. Bus crowded, but leaves LAST (for late- comers?) at 8:07. 388,000 people in Yalta, 70% Russian. TWO fleets, Russian and Ukrainian. 37 nationalities live here. #33 Pilots' Memorial from 1944 8:23. World War II left only SEVEN buildings standing. #34 Balaclava Valley, and #35 Balaclava 8:34. "Valley of Death: Charge of the Light Brigade." #36 rest-stop view at 8:53. #37 south tip at 9:02, Roll 4: #1 into sun 9:52. #5 private balcony for previous four pictures of coast, myself the only one going down here at 9:15. Las Pitas, "Mud," Kushkaya Mountain with the town of Alla below to RIGHT of balcony. #7 Kushkaya. #8 Gorbachev's rocks at 9:53, fleetingly from moving bus 9:33. #9 try at Gorbachev's again. #10 Second Resurrection Church, built in gratitude by Alexander III for not being harmed in a railroad accident, above town of Foros. #12 "Buckingham Palace" architect's castle 10:07---Varonsov Palace. Off bus 10:30, back at 11:20. #12 Swallow's Nest 10:32. #13 Black Sea coast and ship 10:37. Find steps below steps and go down and down, on my own, loving the wine salespeople along the way and tourists resting on benches from the climb up or down. Get down to the bottom pier, good photos UP at Swallow's Nest: in Terry's book "a terribly expensive terrible Italian Restaurant there now," probably a Lonely Planet guide, he thinks. Then count steps: 108 up to shops by 10:56. 19 DOWN to "overpass" visible in photos of the coast, #17 bathers in spa 11:00. 177 steps up to sit down, puffing, at 11:04. 349 steps to road by 11:08, then pay 3H for john, occupied by women overflow from women's line, 4H for good cold beer to relax and finish and talk to Shelley and finish beer to leave bottle on table before we leave. Bus goes 11:26. #19 hill hotel 11:28. #20 Czech spa 11:31. 11:42 at Livadia bus-line. Off bus 11:46, drunk from beer (and again, now at 10:48PM, they're playing the "Dance of the Damned Spirits" from Orpheus and Eurydice from the Panorama Bar next door as they did last night). #21 Livadia Palace and CROWDS waiting for tour: TWENTY busses, 2 ships (Delfin huge across on Embankment all day), start wait at 11:49. #22 Yalta meeting photo 11:52. Long wait, supposed to be back at bus at 1:15. HA! #23 gardens and Yalta in background. 5H for Romanov book (from canonization in St. Petersburg in 2004?) in family church at 12:06. English Crimean castles for 17H, later seen for 20H, at 12:05. Getting tired at 12:09, waiting for tour. #27 and #28 still waiting from courtyard. Not willing to pay 5H for photos and 15H for video at 12:30. Read both books twice, sitting at base of wall in shade. STILL waiting at 12:50! #26 doorway 12:51. Actually IN at 12:53, plain rooms, lots of talk and photos, I describe it like Kykuit: dowdy for such a rich family. 1:05 wait! #27-28 outside at LAST at 1:44, bypassing shop because we've got to get to bus. #33 garden 1:48. Bus leaves 1:53. Yalta 80,000 people. Off bus 2:11. #34 Delfin 2:15. To room, second shit of day. #35 crew playing at Ukrainian lunch, and video, increasingly a problem, 2:37. Lunch to 3:30. Sit outside and GABBLERS come out INSTANTLY and SURROUND me. 3:47 my eyes are closing, can't decide to go to town and finally don't. In to take shirt off and lie down. Up at 4:57 to check that champagne tasting isn't at 5PM but after dinner. Lots of food of which I eat not much: lobster appetizer unappealing, hot cheese and mushrooms good, beef stew too heavy, and finish last half of Shampagne. Then at 8:15 up to champagne tastings of 4: dry (which is not); semisweet, which I guess I have; sweet, honey-colored; and a ruby muscatel, good. Give Ellie $100 bill for Chekhov house and Botanic Garden tour tomorrow and wait as place clears out for her to return with $75 in change, not once asking for my name or room number, Shelley having made me soused by passing all her champagnes to me after a tiny sip. Good crew orchestra plays. Get change at 9:29 and try to photo harbor, but get constant "reinsert cassette." Get out book and new cassette, but no help. Take stuff to Terry in Panorama Bar, and he can't help, but loudmouth has a good suggestion: take battery out and maybe the whole thing will reset itself. Camera fuss to 10:31, checking that breakfast is at 8AM tomorrow, so I can still get 8 hours' sleep. Type this all and charge it to 95% by 11:08, but it STILL doesn't work. Put it back on charge, finish this at 11:09, undress and ready myself for bed (still loud people in Panorama Bar next door) at 11:18, battery FULLY charged to 167 minutes, and I take battery out to try to "reset it" overnight. Bed at 11:22.
SUNDAY, 9/30/07: Wake at 3:34AM and 6:43AM and type dreams and pee. Then try many things to get my camcorder to work: put in the battery, still get "reinsert cassette." Try both cassettes, same problem. Look at manual and see that a time indication starting with "C31" means that something unidentified is wrong: hit RESET. Try reset, then set clock, and try again, and still get "reinsert cassette." Try again and again, and can't record anything. Reasons may be: 1) moisture from the Baltics permanently ruined something in the camera OR in the cassettes, which had been crimped before, but I even tried fast-forward to get to a "clean" area on the cassette, but that didn't work. Maybe some of the cornstarch got into some of the workings. Try and try and get NOTHING to work, so finally I put the camcorder away permanently for the trip, figuring I've spent enough time trying things out, including trying Terry, who has the same Sony, and nothing works, so I'll just give up and rely on the slides for recording the trip. Well, maybe I'll leave it open, as suggested (and as worked before) and try it later to see if it's closed automatically. Finish at 7:29AM, waiting for the wake-up call at 7:30 for breakfast at 8AM. Call starts at 7:29:30 on my watch, and temperature is 16°C. AGAIN try fussing, but can't even find how to shut off the AUTO-DATE! Shelley knocks to give me a shampoo spritzer, saying she wants spritzer back. I'm preoccupied with camcorder, which she detects. Now 7:58AM and ready for breakfast. Lynn not there, lugubrious conversation among Terry, Shelley, and me, and I write words on Shelley's card to Norm and Dale, buy 5 cards and stamps for $6, and get to cabin at 8:38AM for stuff and get to bus at 8:45 for morning tour. #36 Yalta 8:43AM. On bus 8:47, near last, last two women on 8:50. Five million tourists this year. To Nikitsky Botanical Gardens 9:11. 28,000 species, founded in 1812. #37 Himalayan cedar or deodar 9:22. Roll 4: #1 Lenin and umbrella pine (gives pinola nuts) 9:25. Yalta had -20°C two winters ago and 50°C this summer. Tour season started early April and will end early October. Stone oak has green leaves all year; also called Holm oak. In water it SINKS: stone. Yew wood in wine kills. #2 Sequoia 9:49. Roses: Aphrodite dropped a drop of nectar she was drinking onto ground and white rose grew. She picked it, pricked by thorn, blood drop grew red rose. All roses and colors came from those two. #3 GREEN rose 10:06---rarest. #4 rose garden 10:19, not much to photo. #5 Crimean hillside (trolley ran by houses on hill later!). #6 Yalta from garden 10:15. #7-8 1200-year-old (oldest) pistachio tree 10:30. #9 crowds at pools 10:33, no good view from below. #10 pergola and teen? Stolid legs 10:40. To bus 10:45, tired. Tour half over. Walk for 1:35 and I'm TIRED! Crowds EVERYWHERE! Leave 10:54. NO gays on tour (visible, anyway); FEW attractive men in towns. Off at Chekhov's 11:18. Lived here last 5 years of life. First visited in 1888, lived in hotel now apartment-block, with lung problems. Moved into small house while large house built for his mother and sister 1899-1904. Wife an actress who lived in Moscow to act. Chekhov died in Baden, buried in Moscow in Devotchka (?) Cemetery. Mother buried in local Yalta cemetery, sister died in 1957, 90 years old, buried in Yalta. Inside house 11:33. #12 wife's bedroom 11:50. Upstairs being reconstructed. Tolstoy, Gorki, Chaliapin visited. #14 best possible shot of house 11:51. #15 Yalta from Chekhov's garden 11:52. Sit on Gorki's bench. Chekhov married in 1901! Wrote Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and Lady and Dog, and built a lung sanitarium for children. Died not of TB, as formerly thought, but of (how do they know?) a heart attack. #16-17 representations of house 12:15. Buy book for 15H. Bus goes 12:19. Masandra wine best. Off bus 12:30. #18 Koshavoy and Yalta 12:32. To deck 12:43. #19 ship, Lenin, McDonald's, and carnival ride 747 Boeing 12:46. 12:50: "Won't leave soon because of winds." Huge waves on shore. Some fall orange colors on trees on hilltops. 12:36 lunch. Play with myself 2:30-3, but no good. Puzzles. #21-22 leaving Yalta 4:02PM. Puzzles. 5:05 Pirozhki Party to 5:35, Wanda inviting me to sit with them, and Roy joins with constant comments about how his mouth keeps going. Uh-huh. Outside in almost perfect weather to 6:48 taking #23-24 of coast. Dinner and decide NOT to go to musical soiree, doing puzzles to 10:50PM and bed at 11:02.
MONDAY, 10/1/07: 1:14AM type dream and pee, same at 3:10AM, ROUGH rocking boat. 4:37 wake and play with myself to 5:04, no result, not even REALLY hard, just wanting to feel SEXY, and not even succeeding in doing that. Really DEPENDENT on rubber bands physiologically and porno psychologically. 6:25 get up to see scheduled Kakhovka Lock 5:45-6:30AM, but nothing from my window. 6:56AM up to shower to 7:15, soap vanishing, using Shelley's shampoo. Put on clean shorts and socks, cornstarch crotch, and put on same blue shirt and khaki pants. Put on shoes and go out to see VERY FAR lighthouses and land where we may be heading for the Dnieper River, but how can we do 1:15PM island tour if we're over three hours late? Cold and windy out, so go inside Panorama for about three couples and a single, get a coffee with three spoons of sugar and about half milk, and sit and listen to two conversations: the man behind talking to a woman about his wife's illness and "having to sit upright to get on a plane from Ireland to home," and the man in front talking to a man about the endless troubles he had with his car on a long-ago trip. For this I want conversation? Leave at 7:18, not really hearing 7:30 wake-up call, which Shelley doesn't hear either, and type 7:43-8:02, land STILL far away. Breakfast without Larues to 8:30, Shelley wanting me near if she goes to island so no one touches her right arm, and I excuse myself to come back here and finish this after we share a large fruited piece of what she calls smooth rice and I call cheesecake. Take my carafe to find water on the second level much CLOSER to my cabin than I'd remembered, and my bed still isn't made up as I type up–to-date at 8:43AM, only task left to brush teeth, but put on shoes and leave for outside viewing at 8:50. STILL far from ALL land, and at meeting they say we're in the transition from sea to river, though what I thought was an ISLAND we passed on the left they said was part of the mainland. Up to Sky Bar at 8:54 because it's too cold and windy and spray-y outside to stay out. I get good armchair in back at a table that Roy joins and REFUSES to shut up: about nonsense, about his finger getting slammed in door when he was pissing in the rocking boat, about his opinions about anything that no one CARES about, so I move to front of room to sit next to Shelley. Ellie is rather uncertain and boring, talking from 9:06 about World War II and how everything was destroyed and how the citizens united to rebuild everything after victory on May 9, 1945. In 1954 Khrushchev annexed Ukraine to USSR. In 1991 the last 13 republics left the USSR (the Baltics left earlier). I interrupt wonderful debate between Ellie and Natasha about relative merits of all parties to ask where we are, but then Ellie's sister calls with results, driving Natasha crazy when she delays with extraneous information, then says that "the good woman" won, followed by "the criminal," followed by a coalition of other good parties, followed fourth by the Communists, and I was puzzled when a few in the audience said "Good," and I asked Ellie who the Communists were, and she responded that they were the old oligarchs who wanted to return to totalitarianism. Talk goes to 10:13, they clarify that we'll get to Kherson on time and that the schedule was printed as if we were coming south from Kiev, so we won't get to the Kakhovka Lock until 8-9PM this evening after leaving Kherson on our way to Zaporizhzhya. Everyone applauds wonderful differences and compromises between the two young women, who confess to having been totally apolitical before, but now all the younger generation is involved in making sure the voting is fair, after the "Orange Revolution" in November 2004 protesting the fraud in that election. The "hero leader" betrayed the people's trust by changing his mind many times and then aligning with "the criminal," even though he was poisoned when the kleptocrats tried to get rid of him, and Ellie suggests that he KNOWS who did it to him, but won't tell in order to protect anyone else on his side. "The beautiful woman" has no leadership qualifications, but she at least is fair and tells the truth, but she has to make everyone align with her for a cooperative government between one party dominating the east side of the Dnieper, the other party dominating the west side of the river, and another splitting "central Ukraine" 50-50. Down to catch up with my journal by 10:31, ready, I guess, to brush teeth. Bed made up when I got back to the room, but they haven't yet fixed my bed-lamp, about which I registered a complaint at the reception desk before breakfast. Back to read New Yorker while brushing teeth at 10:33AM. Brush and read to 11AM, organize puzzles and refresh my memory of our itinerary to 11:15AM. Do puzzles until 12:30PM, while repairmen fix my bed-head lamp in three shifts. Then hear three foreign messages before we're told to use second boat at 1PM, meeting at reception desk. Go outside to look, and island seems quite flat and almost treeless. Not very interesting from here. Work on last of the Sun puzzles, the Friday one just impossibly difficult, so I looked at the solutions (like "psandqs" and "bjandthebear" and "ranintoabuzzsaw") and threw it out. The Monday one left should be easy. Getting hungry. Decide to take a magazine if things get boring, a jacket if it gets cold, and a sunhat if needed, and my only camera. Pass marshes with relatively little bird life, some swimming ducks, very dirty-green water, some locals fishing from beaches staring at us, and I sit inside and look at views. #25 ferry to island 1:25. #26 TWO boats at once 1:35. #27 pulling away 1:45, but the division of "Americans and Canadians in boat 2" and "Danish in boat 1" is very imperfect. Encounter Shelley quite by chance twice, and she's managing OK without me and with the "Don't touch" sign on her left arm. Flat, rather uninteresting island, a few fishing boats, some houses by the shore, and #28 fall colors 2:03. #29 boat 2:09. #30 table 2:39, a good spread: best were the beef patties baked between two pancakes, followed by kruschiki for dessert, then tasty meat and rice cooked in green and red peppers, better than the version on the ship, with OK herring, mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, zucchini with some white topping, and poor fish balls and deep-fried "fresh" fish that I don't even try when everyone agrees they're full of bones. "Compote" to drink is good, even better when the local moonshine is added to it. Embarrassing array of tablecloths, false amber, jewelry, fur hats in the $50 range, colored eggs, and other stuff on sale for yards around the two backyard tents with trestle tables for the two boats. Tour of kitchen and house after revealed plates of carrot sticks we didn't have, and lots of other stuff waiting for the boat that pulls in as we leave. #31 flowers 3PM. #32 bedroom 3:04. #33 sales row 3:10. Back to boat 3:22. Boat goes 3:38. #35 leaving 3:40. #36 riverfront 3:43. #37 color 3:45. Roll 6: #1 gold 3:50. #2 tower and gull 4:30 pulling alongside ship. #3 shipping hardware 4:33. #4 twin boats 4:35. End FOUR-boat transfer at (should take photo of watch) 4:44:44! #5 church (?) tower 4:46. 5PM Panorama Bar 12H (including 1H tip added to bill on card) Skry Draw which, after I mess it up, is Scru Driv for Screwdriver, with vodka and orange juice at 5:16. After ogling Andrey on the deck of the T.G. Shevchenko, later with his gray-sweatered boyfriend. When they announce red caviar with the blinis they sound more attractive, so I go up at 5:30 and sit with Canadian couple from Thunder Bay, which I could establish Avi and I drove through during our trip across the top of Lake Superior between New York and Yellowstone. #6 monument 5:33. 5:46 TWO glasses of champagne and room is HOT, wonder why? Out, plotzed, 5:53. 6:06 get jacket and cap and sit outside to watch river. #7 SECOND bridge, sunset lit at 6:11. #8 TRAIN on that bridge near sunset 6:22, sunset 6:23. Watch with gloves and hat and jacket and pants-bottoms stuffed into sock-tops to 7:28, well after sky gets dark, sighting on various lights we come to eventually. To dinner 7:35-8:26, telling Irina to take away my champagne tonight (pace Terry's "It'll lose bubbles"). Locks at 9PM? 9PM ship picks up Swedish group that went to see a Swedish village and thus had a late dinner that had them eating as I circumnavigated ship to watch stages of lock: back doors closing, lock filling, front barriers being flooded, then lowering straight down, with flotsam telling where the waters join, 3-inch fish swimming in the lights below. #9 into lock 9:27. #10 moon in lock with no flash, timed? at 9:30. Back doors close 9:35, through by 9:50, tired. Bed 10:03. Oh, added that I did a thorough Actualism while sitting on deck 6:15-7:20.
TUESDAY, 10/2/07: Up at 12:22 to pee, and forgot dream I'd had. Pee at 4:30, again typing no dream. Try video again, still not working. Start to jerk off at 6:04, going gradually, almost losing it, trying to pause at end but cum at 6:35 with very little intensity without rubber bands to constrict vessels. Calculate that I'm now 71.5 years and 3 days old, the first orgasm over 71 and a half. Decide to write my five postcards to Sherryl, Rita, Marj, Fred, and Charles. Shit, dress, and start typing at 7:17AM, windows open for window-washer to look in, passersby to see me typing, and see fishing dachas at riverside, some sandy-looking cliffs about 60 feet tall, reeds, few birds, some junk on slopes, and last night at 4:30, I guess, I looked out to see the passing lights of a substantial town. Sunrise after 6:22 because of past equinox, and now at 7:47AM look out to see a FLOTILLA of seven fishing canoes, a few with two men, mostly singles. Pass typical modern settlement in that many of the buildings look as if they'd been started years ago and have never been finished, and some old buildings look abandoned without having yet been torn down to be replaced by anything new. Wake-up call at 7:30 announced that it was 15°C, which translates to 59°F, getting cooler, but sky is still perfectly clear. Happy to be caught up with typing, with wastebasket full of old puzzles, leaving only a few from the Times and the book of them, and the same dreadfully boring and mournful saxophone drones coming from the Panorama Bar, which I was tempted to go to for coffee when it opened at 7AM, but with typing and getting ready for day, it's now 7:51, so I might as well just wait for breakfast---maybe address cards so I won't forget priorities. Now pass tiny low-lying island with ramshackle huts for fisherfolk. Address five cards and go to breakfast at 8:02AM. Finish at 8:35AM, having gorged on MY 6 salami slices and 3 cheese slices, but started with a bowl of oatmeal that I saw for the first time being served from the bar, with a bit of muesli thrown on top, then two rolls with butter and jam, with the leather omelet Irina offered, three pats of butter, two glasses of juice, and a container of yogurt, a second of which I stole, with a spoon, for my bag in case I'm hungry before lunch at 2PM or later. Docking late in Zaporizhzhya, hereafter Zap, as I go out to watch at 8:45. Actually rather depressing to think that today is HALF through the trip, since we've been in Ukraine 6 days (Wed-Mon) and have 6 days to go (Tue-Sat). #11 Zap 8:55AM. #12 Estate across from Zap 9:08. Cross Shevchenko again to shore 9:20. #13 Kids 9:22. Bus goes 9:26. Cossack means "free people." She talks of fierce Dnieper "rabbits," RAPIDS. #14 students on hill 9:47 outside Museum. #15 biggest hydropower station on river, built in 1952. Atomic station 70 km away. 9:58 into Museum. $2 for two booklets. Out 10:36. #16 plaque 10:38. Bus leaves 10:50. 1.5 million kilowatts per hour from dam. New lock built in 1970; 36 meters in 15 minutes: highest in world. #17 Main Street 11:08: Longest Lenin Avenue at 12 kilometers. #18-19 on Lenin Avenue. #20 art rocks in park 11:19. #21 art 11:07. Get 200H, $40, 3%=$1.20, and change single bill into ten 20s. Bus goes 11:43. 11:50 stop at ship to leave off those NOT going to Cossack show. #22 enter 12:18. Starts 1:13PM because Canadian bus broke down and "people had to push." Talk to Japanese couple from Vancouver and their golden-eyed guide, hot in sun. Regret not having video to capture fabulously muscled back and chest of shortest, cutest, sexiest Cossack. Try a number of photos #23-34 of moving horsemen, but most of them won't turn out, unless I'm very lucky. #35 Cossack props 1:56 at end of show, including dance moves, horsemen upside down, lying on horse, bending to pick hats from ground, riding backward, leaping off and back on horseback; then whip-work, taking off branch ends, joking by NOT whipping off hat but pulling it off blindfolded. Ate two plates of rice with bits of meat, and sipping on a third ounce of vodka after getting a spare one from guide next to me. #36-37 Zap from bridge from island 2:31. Roll 7: #1 city and boat 2:33. To boat 2:37, to room 2:43, tired. 2:50 to lunch to 3:49! Lie down in cabin, doze, and at 6:21 I'm aware we're moving---IN lock! 6:47 start upward. Doors open 7:15. 7:28 dinner invite. #2-16 probably futile "biggest lock" photos. #17 non-flash (moving) of industrial/refining smoky flames at 7:27. Cold. 7:32 to dinner, back 8:40. Puzzles to 10:13. Put on Ertaczo. Sort out rest of pills---I HAVE enough calcium through Saturday. Bed at 10:40PM, only THREE full days left.
WEDNESDAY, 10/3/07: 12:48AM: Practically make up a dream to transcribe simply because I have a dream that's so crazy I can't really remember what happened in it, but I write something in file 8, then write something here, then go pee, crotch still itching though I put Ertaczo on it before going to bed. In my compulsivity I have to add that I drank some cold water from the bottle in the fridge, and earlier I'd somehow pissed to the side so that I had to toilet-paper the piss from the floor and then try to wipe it from the shower curtain, which didn't wipe very well, so I just sprayed the whole thing with the Glade from the shelf. Hear odd noises and we seem to have docked, or at least stopped, across the river from a brightly lit city to the west, and it just doesn't square with going through a lock at 7AM, unless we're stopping to wait for our scheduled time. Or something is wrong. We're kidnapped? Some victim of the current electional mess-up? Well, back to sleep now at 12:58AM. Up twice more (see file 8 for dreams) and now at 6:56AM we're moving again, I guess toward our first lock of the day, [start file 3 10/3/07: 9:49AM] [Count 696 lines in file 1 and 691 lines in file 2.] and I want to pee and get dressed and go out and see. #18 locks at 7:07AM. #19 ship ahead 7:11AM. Nose of our ship at back lock at 7:24. #25 looking back at lock-housing and plane contrail 7:32. #26 back locks closing 7:37. #27 foam and two sailors on ship ahead 7:45. #28 train on dam behind 7:57. #29 out of lock at 7:59. #30 sailing onward 8:02. Breakfast to 8:45, Larues absent, Shelley feeling unreasonably low and will probably not be seen for rest of day. I tried and tried to describe two soft scrambled eggs to Irina, even bothering Natasha at her breakfast, but eventually get two soft-boiled eggs in shell, from which I make "eggs New Yorker," as I recount to Shelley from my childhood, and they're actually pretty good with rolls and butter and jam, and more cheese (no salami this morning, but I have some over-puffy cornflakes and milk and sugar), and two glasses of juice from absent partners. Type some, then to lecture on Ukrainian traditions at 9AM with Natasha talking about family-oriented Easter, week starting with Willow Sunday, since they have no palms, with which family is BEATEN to give good luck for new year. NO meat or meat products ALL through Lent. Easter Mass is from midnight to 4-5AM, everyone STANDING in atonement to Jesus Christ (as they always say) for his sufferings. They plead for "talent show," but only Wanda follows Ellie to "office below Panorama Bar" for rehearsal, and all others cop out. I'm back at 9:35, type to end of file 2, then PROOFREAD file 1 to 10:22, reorder overflowing file 2 to file 3 and finish proofreading file 2 at 11:09, and then finish this by 11:19, proofreading what I have of file 3 and finding two errors and adding two clarifications by 11:22. Now to proofread single file 8 on dreams to 11:51, counting lines there, too, to find that I'm just past half full, so will probably not exceed one file on this trip. Nothing on tap until 1:15PM lunch. Eat lovely large pear to 12:03PM. Triumph: write five postcards by 12:20PM. Now out to sit on deck. Level ground, reeds, occasional factories, some clearly outmoded; and high-rise towns with no particular distinction. Old men and women sit in sun to get leatherier skin. #31 riverside churches 12:40. #32 riverside industry 12:42. Into room 1:13 to change for lunch. Lunch 1:20-2:06, eating VERY little. #33 big deal drawbridge 2:32. Lots of people file off for optional Collective Farm tour at 2:53. Get ready for walk tour that starts at 3:15. Wash face for first time today. 3:04: "Walking tour starts in five minutes." I put on shoes and leave. 3:10: still missing one for Farm tour. Thirty on walking tour. "Park is full of elimination (illumination)." #34 Children's Park 3:22. 97% of city destroyed in World War II. #36 1917 Revolution Monument, 3:46. At 3:54 I trip and fall on both knees outside local museum, on step with SEVERE overhang on which I caught my toe, and a guy right behind me did exactly the same thing. I hoped my skin wasn't broken too badly and I'd bleed inside my khakis, but as I walked the pain lessened. 42°C was highest here, very unusual; snow stays only 1-2 days where it used to stay longer. Polish King Sigismund founded town in 1569, and Poles ruled until 1654. Leave museum 4:25, not much there: reconstructions of early settlements, prehistoric bones found in iron-ore pits, rulers and costumes and customs and utensils through the ages, but the third floor devoted to World War II is closed (thank goodness!). Leave museum 4:25, nothing booklet-wise to buy. #37 "Years of Starvation and Exile to Siberia" 4:40, monument against Stalin when he stole all food and 25,000/day died. They defied him and he showed THEM. Roll 8: #1 Independence Square, 1991 for Ukraine 4:44. Twelve go with Natasha to Internet, groceries, film, and synagogue. Eighteen with us at 4:49. #2 Pushkin and Square Monument 4:52. #3 Pushkin Boulevard, 4:54, with benches and lights from his time, same as in St. Petersburg now. #4 back on Square 4:56. Need 100H/day for basic food. President may not have been poisoned; he refused to have his blood tested; some say he went to Switzerland or Austria for youth-enhancing rejuvenation to which he had a very bad reaction. In store, buy Yalta Masandra Muscatel for 31.80H and two DARKEST chocolate bars for 9.2H. #5 synagogue interior 5:26. 97,000 people died in concentration camps in Kremenchug. Put on jacket from shoulder bag in synagogue and LATER look on floor to see a USED roll of my film. What LUCK that I SAW it!!! Eleven left for synagogue, many stuffing money into donation box and getting a booklet totally in Russian. Long walk back, glad I don't feel blood down my legs. Back to room 6:09. Take pants off: didn't break skin, but the kneecaps are SWOLLEN and tender to the touch. Could I have chipped kneecaps? Try video AGAIN, and it still doesn't work with either cassette, so put it on to recharge at 6:28 and sit down to catch up with typing to 6:49. Wash hands and face and put on semidried shirt and go to dinner at 6:57PM. Over half the tables not set up, but we four have our regular table while others are seated as they enter, and then they have to add about eight place-settings that they, for some reason, hadn't anticipated. Debate getting a last bottle of champagne, but decide I'll find some way to finish it even if wine is provided for the Captain's gala dinner tomorrow night. Shelley asks for the final tale of Terry's right eye, which I hadn't noticed anything wrong with, and in talking with Shelley on deck, after I mention I can't see a THING out the western windows, we go outside and AGREE we can't see anything across the river, and she launches into a HUGE description of her childhood: playing stickball and stoopball, being taught medicine by working for an optometrist, taking care of her eleven-year-junior colicky brother when her mother would beat him up, causing him, as he insists, to have NO memories before the age of fifteen! Hear what sounds like a panpipe from the ship next door, and when someone on a cell phone INSISTS on standing RIGHT next to our seats and talking, I suggest we go to the prow to see the band on the next ship, but then we find the ship is moving forward, and I go in for my jacket and she just goes in, and I see a bit of fireworks from some town ahead, then the ship behind becomes a brilliant light-display on a darkened river, and I still get cold, come in and fix my pills for tomorrow, take my night pills, and go down to the reception desk to get TWO new bars of soap for my shower tomorrow morning. Catch up with this at 9:45PM, tired enough to consider going immediately to bed, having tried the fully charged videocamera again for a momentary sign about "videohead dirty," and then the usual nonworking syndrome. Have the heater on, which gives enough warmth that I'll sleep with the usual duvet cover and nothing more. Bed 9:55PM.
THURSDAY, 10/4/07: 4:01AM: Dream and wake at 1:47AM and type and pee, and do the same at 3:42, but also shit and realize the floor is wet, so I must have peed on it before, and am glad I'm showering this morning to get rid of it, but spray Glade anyway. Odd sound of what's like female laughter, or a strange bird, penetrates my earplugs. Up 6:37 to shower, finishing astoundingly late at 7:19! Meticulously dry off, put on deodorant, cornstarch my feet before putting on clean socks, Ertaczo my crotch before putting on clean shorts, put on (what I hope is) my last medium shirt, which bulges disgustingly but I'll wear it because I've decided to wear it and then throw it out (or maybe wrap my wine bottle in it?), comb my hair, put on my slippers, put stuff in my pockets, and finish this by 7:47AM. Warm in room, so I shut off first-level heat, and at last take out earplugs I'd put in to stop What a Wonderful World on that awful droopy saxophone. And ate the drying-out peach from the refrigerator, the last of my kept food. First cloudy, drizzly morning, temperature 16°C, with only outside-garden lunch on trip, ironically. Put umbrella and raincoat in shoulder bag. We move slowly upstream, past fishermen fishing, we're told, for themselves, because the river is badly polluted and no one will buy the fish except the islanders, and breakfast is announced at 7:57, early by my watch. Larues not there, I get served two cernicki with sour cream, eat most of two servings of salami and cheese and a yogurt, juice, oatmeal with muesli to start, full. Then in fog to Panorama Bar, filled with mostly Danish (fairly quiet thank goodness, though I still put in earplugs), some of whom probably covet the empty seat across from me at a window table, but no one asks. Get in about 8:30 to sit to 10, watching not much of anything, except a hawk scaring two grebes underwater as it floated over. Fishermen, campers dejected in fog, and then it clears except for real RAINCLOUDS above whole north landscape. Dock next to Shevchenko at 10:10AM, Kaniv looking like not much of anything: hills beyond a green riverside with not really any discernible BUILDINGS. What are we going to do here all day? Type this to 10:14AM, getting ready for walk up hill. Type more to 10:18AM, ready to cross over Shevchenko. #6 Shevchenko Hill 10:26. #7 river 10:36. #10 tree shot of monument 10:44. From monument to caretaker's cottage 11:20. Shev loved as "reverse Onegin": she wouldn't have him, then became devoted after he died. Big deal. #11 cottage. #12 one room for caretaker, wife, and 11 kids! #13 museum and portrait by writer Repin 11:29. DIRGE music blocks translations of stories. #14 caretaker's tomb 11:37, free for 50 years from 1883-1933. Walk down ROAD 11:40-12:04 to room. #15 road 11:45. Pee. Many wildflowers, NO birds. Rains 11:49, then stops. #16 HUGE motel 11:52 (back), #17 front. Get out cash and left with $100 for remaining tours, giving $60 to staff (saying "part to crew") and $30 to crew (saying "part to staff") for guide of $90 to them all. Type this to 12:22, ready to fill out evaluation form as required NOW! 12:30: great unknowing: 1) Look for Ellie or Natasha to give envelopes and evaluation and to ask, "WHO is Cruise Director? Both? One?" 2) Look for Shelley: I'm running low on cash, how are you fixed? 3) Pay ship bill with Visa? 4) Hrinas left given as tip to Cruise Director? 5) Where are we having lunch? Step outside door and SHELLEY comes out: she'll check how much money she has for US! Go to dining room, some bitch that they'll NEVER eat ashore, and Ellie and Natasha come out of 401 and say we're eating on shore, bring a blanket to sit on and a jacket to wear. I pee inside and type this to 12:51, getting ready to go out to lunch WITH envelopes. Don't pass Shelley because she goes back to her cabin for a jacket, the first time she's worn it on the trip. I follow the crowd to an array of tables under trees, and blessedly the sun comes out and much of the sky turns blue, a real miracle. Look over the group and Terry is waving across at me and they've actually set up the same tables (we're USA 13) for the same people, negating the strange message from the daily handout. Look back and finally see Shelley, who nods when she sees us, and we sit to pour vodka into our tomato juices for Bloody Marys, I making a mistake by pouring most of Shelley's vodka into my small tomato glass, making a 50-proof drink. Salad, then soup, served by smiling Irina, and I chose the chair facing the sun to spare Shelley, and feel that I've gotten more sun during lunch than during the entire trip, bringing only my beret and NOT sunglasses, since I'd judged it impossible that I'd need them. Finally the skewers come, and they're perfectly done. I hope Irina got the shot I set up of the four of us at the table, and I took a shot of the barbecues, and the crowd, and finally #26 of the singers at 2:17. Quite drunk, everyone in the group's happy about how things turned out. A local woman does headstands and tricks with a circular trapeze while a group of babushkas, to whom I drop $1, sing for us, while our local band circles the group twice playing for us. I give the envelopes to Natasha, and Shelley goes back to her room to check her cash. I return to boat at 2:30, putting raincoat away (which has dried in the room), and type this from 2:34-2:42, wondering what to do with the rest of the day until departing for Kiev at 6PM. Start note card 10 on what I count to be the precise tenth day of the trip! And almost finished with roll 8, so I'll surely go to at LEAST roll 10 for the trip. At 3:20, having finished brushing my teeth obsessively, Shelley knocks at the door; I dash up to shut the bathroom door, which would have clashed with the room door; she hands me $50 to allay my fears of being short of cash. She also informs me it will be worth my while to stay with her in the wheelchair leaving Kennedy to get a cab home. That's three whole days away! But I do owe her $50. Get more water by 3:32, and decide to try finishing my New Yorker in the Panorama Bar---or maybe on deck. Sit in Panorama Bar for a while, but want to be outside. #27 tree leaves. Finish one New Yorker and start finishing an earlier one, by coincidence reading an article about colic that I mention to Shelley when she passes. Then inside at 4:56, cold and bored. Maybe try a sudoku. They go well until 7PM (do two of them, and eat my apple from lunch), when I quickly change into black pants, Edgardo's black sweater, and my dress shoes. Lynn is made-up and lovely in blue silk jacket, and Terry dapper in a red turtleneck and blue jacket. Shelley, however, makes a terrible point by wearing her ordinary blue shirt and baseball cap. No one says anything. The table is loaded: an appetizer plate of caviar, nova, and lox with a crayfish and carrot swirl, then some rich fish-cheese whip atop a tomato slice, then a shrimp cocktail with tiny shrimp. Also a plate of rolled eggplant strips, a general salad plate we can share, and glasses of champagne and vodka. Captain toasts each table with champagne, we dine, the Canadians sing a song they wrote for the ship, Ellie, and Natasha. Then the Captain has to go to the Danish group downstairs, George leaving with him; I can't believe George is called the Tour Leader, because he's had no contact whatsoever with us personally. We may as well tip the Captain. Then we get a wonderful rich cream and mushroom bake, and that's before the chicken Kiev with vegetables. Cream puffs for dessert. Then three Americans tell jokes and Terry does "Casey at the Bat," entirely leaving out the second strike. Then we're all persuaded to stand, about 15 of us, I in back mouthing words, singing "You Are My Sunshine," "A Song I Forget," and "God Bless America." Then Natasha does a humorous story with props for King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Curtain, Flowers, Rabbit, Butterflies, a Robber, and a White Horse---which is actually amusing. Then three couples come up, with Terry and Arman as judges, saying 1) How and when they met, 2) Their first kiss, and 3) The weather at their wedding. Then each is blindfolded and asked to identify their mate by touching 1) heads, 2) hands twice, 3) knees, 4) ears, and 5) noses. Finally it's over when Ellie and Natasha come out in bare midriffs and spangles on their hips and do a kooch dance. We're finally released with thanks and I get back to room with great relief at 9:58PM. Type this to 10:18, tired. Put stuff away, get ready for tomorrow, and get to bed at 10:30.
FRIDAY, 10/5/07: 2:21AM: Wake, forgetting dream, and pee. 6AM: Pee and, just for protection, take a Valium. 7:30AM: Wakened by wake-up call, temperature 11°C, only 52°F, and type dream and start next-last full day of trip, sedated. Look out window just before ship Shevchenko blocks view and take #32 docking in Kiev 7:51AM. Leave room 7:55 to deliver five postcards and go to breakfast, without Larues, filling in Shelley on last night, having two sunnyside-up eggs with toast (cold), and sign up for last two tours: Babiy Yar and Lavra, getting change for my last $100 and being left with something over $120 US for the rest of the trip, still hoping to give Shelley back her $50 before leaving her Sunday. Back to room to put everything in jacket pockets and leave shoulder bag behind for first time at 8:56, out for bus tour of Kiev. Bus JAMMED at 9, Shelley and I in LAST window seats. Leave 9:04. #33 Independence Square. #34 Kiev gate REPLICA 9:15. #35 St. Michael's Cathedral. #36 L-R: St. Andrew, St. Olga, Sts. Cyril and Methodius 9:20. Carrara marble. Roll 9. St. Michael's DESTROYED by Stalin because "Religion is the opium of the people, so it must be destroyed." Order had to be SIGNED by scholars, and one not signing was killed. It was rebuilt in 2000, along with the #1 bell tower 9:26. NO photos inside fabulous St. Michael's. Buy book for 4H. #2 fresco outside 9:41. #3 back from church. #4 Starvation Memorial from 1932-1933. #5 Starvation map, white areas HAD food 9:48. #6 Foreign Relations Government Building. TRIDENT symbol started in Kyiv-Rus days, maybe from Sweden, maybe grain scythe, maybe rivers. 18th C Rastrelli-designed (who did St. Petersburg's Winter Palace) St. Andrews, past Icon Museum, #7. Icons closed to 11AM Saturday. #8 St. Andrew's view 10:10, TOWERS in upper right in smog. #10 wedding party 10:20. Icons open Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday 11-7PM. #11 "funny couple" 10:29. Buy Kiev book (hardly any sold) for 15H. On bus 10:31, showing it to Shelley, who never got off. #12 St. Sophia 10:43. #13 fire tower and Chernobyl Museum 10:36. #14 Bohdan Khmelnytsky on horse 10:40. NO photos inside St. Sophia, on World Heritage list, with Yaroslavl's marble tomb from 6th Century AD. To 11:23. #15 singers outside church. #16 looking BACK to St. Michael's from St. Sophia 11:32. Golden Gate under wraps, no photos available (except in books?). #17-18 State Opera House 11:42, Shevchenko in niche, ballet tomorrow night. #19 Shevchenko again 11:45. #21 Kino, old building, and HUGE construction in back 11:50. #22 skyscrapers 11:57 from bus window. #24 round building is Bessarabian Food Hall 11:58. #25 casino 12:13. #26 "The Perished" man. #27 stainless steel 1992 Mother Ukraine (despite Russian symbol in her hand), 344 feet high including pedestal. To #37 going uphill to back of enormous vat, shooting up, shooting down, shooting into sun, shooting weapons and tanks, rushing to get back to the bus to 12:37, PUFFING, but not as bad as guy behind me taking multiple asthma inhales. Back to bus 12:39. Roll 10. Off bus 12:57, to room 1:02, THREE boats lined up, lots of luggage on busses of people checking in or checking out. Leave room for lunch at 1:08. Back to room 2PM after almost inedible meat, salad of which I left all lettuce at the bottom, lots of butter on spaghetti, awful veggies again, so I gorge on glorious pear for dessert. Lie down; snore myself awake a few times, check watch, and up at 2:47 and out for bus that isn't there yet, though Prigovo tour leaves with a full bus about 3:03PM. I sit and read the New Yorker I fortuitously brought along in my jacket, and our bus FINALLY arrives at 3:13, of course held up by traffic, as it was all day. Ukraine population down from 50 million to 46 million in a few years, just as Kiev's population was 3 million and is now 2.6 million as old people are dying off and few babies are being born. Eight million died in Ukraine in World War II. Nazis killed 68,000 in one day, 23,000 a second day, and they stayed 778 days. Vladimir chose Christianity in 988. Were 175,000 Jews, 25% of Kiev population before war. We go to Babiy Yar, "Women's Ravine," where they washed clothes in flooded valley. Killing started September 28, 1941, and they stayed until 1943, destroying everything as they left. Victims came to "travel elsewhere," and "Come or be shot." Type this far by 7PM, when I go to dinner. 33,000 killed in 2 days; in 778 days, 200,000 killed. At Babiy Yar we'll see 1) Soviet Monument of 1976, 2) park, 3) Jewish menorah at ravine. Six million in Holocaust, 1.5 million children. Three-kilometer ravine, 40 meters deep. In 1943 Nazis burned bodies. Off bus 3:57 after awful traffic. #1 new monument 3:59. #2-3 Russia Memorial, saying only 100,000 killed. Through #13 to 4:14. #14 from distance 4:16. On bus 4:18. NO mention of Babiy Yar on ANY signs on streets. 1991 Menorah: off bus 4:24. #15 at GREAT remove 4:23. #16 Menorah inscription 4:33. #17 Menorah 4:35. #18 actual ravine, no flash 4:42. #19 memorial to priests 4:44. #20 cyclists at site 4:45. "One more site." Bus goes 4:59. Monument to children from 2001. Bus stops 5:01. #21 5:04, through #23 to 5:06. #24 park 5:11. #25 street view of Russian memorial 5:13. Someone says, "No Canadians." Bus goes 5:20. Five synagogues in Kiev, this one built in 1895. "Last day of Jewish holiday" today. "Must be at boat at 6PM for next bus trip," at 5:32??!! Bus stops 5:40. #26 synagogue 5:42. #27 inside 5:44. #28 circular model 5:46. Bus goes 5:54. #29 abandoned building 5:56. "Saturday traffic will be much better, I promise you. Friday absolutely worst." Stop at boat 6:23. To room 6:27, many confused because entrance is to REAR of boat, and we have to walk length to get to reception desk for key, but others insist we're not on the right boat! Type 6:33-7PM. Larues LOVED eating with us, but also said there were LOTS of good people on trip. Couldn't prove it by ME. But I'm SO glad. Pigs in blanket, ice cream for dessert, Terry's "dragged macula" story and up to show at 8:13, in second row and it starts precisely at 8:15, #30-31 of group at 8:16. #33 panpiper 8:23. Concert to 9:06, a bit long and repetitious, and whatever happened to Yuri the accordionist? At 9:15 I take evening pills, night pills, and Librium. Fuss with money (having VERY FEW clean notes; have to trade some with Shelley so I can give, as I decided, $10 each to Natasha and Ellie, and $5 to Irina) to 9:31. Type 9:32-9:47, delighted to be caught up before bed. I think they're playing Gounod's "Ave Maria" in the Panorama Bar again, which I think is INCREDIBLY inappropriate. But the Kiev lights outside the Sky Bar were very impressive: a bridge lit VERY like the Brooklyn Bridge, and even the bright McDonald's is clear and vibrant. Day after tomorrow I'll be HOME! Four more meals on the ship. Can't WAIT. Bed now at 10:04PM. Asleep quickly.
SATURDAY, 10/6/07: 1:35AM: Finish typing a dream and now have to pee. Back to sleep and wake at 3:41, briefly, and back to sleep. Wake at 5:12AM with a dream. Finish typing at 5:19 and pee. Take first Librium of this last full day of very easy trip at 5:30AM. Type a third dream to 6:53AM, and put on a real light and figure to get up for the last full day. Shit, apply Ertaczo liberally, wash hands and face, dress, and go down to pay my bill and change singles into 10s and 5s for tips at 7:15AM. NO payments until EIGHT AM. To Panorama Bar to read New Yorker till 8AM. Breakfast till 8:47, when they announce "US and Canadians going to Lavra must be at the bus at 8:45; it is ready to leave!" WHAT??!! I dash to room, put on shoes, pee, gather film and papers and dash down to reception desk: 8:45 departure for CANADIANS only! WHAT THE FUCK! I shout out: "Good thing we're not filling out our evaluation forms NOW!" Back up to find Shelley reading outside the dining room (still speaking to me though I confided my thoughts that the US support of Israel is the most terrible thing we could do in the name of "world support," and she says, "You'd have to murder someone before I wouldn't speak to you," taking, as I requested, my "getting it off my chest" as therapy, based on our longtime friendship, and nothing personal). I ask inside for Irina, of Irina, and she says she'll be back in five minutes. The correct Irina comes up the stairs, I ask if she has a pocket, which of course she doesn't understand, and hand her a $5 and two singles in a wad, and she smiles and thanks me. I check I have a pristine $10 and ten good singles for Ellie and Natasha; and then I only have to pack. Down to pay my 153H bill with my Visa card, the cashier having it down very nicely, and check the ship's shop one last time to see if I've forgotten anything. Keep thinking of getting a map of Ukraine, but if I didn't get it first, there's no real reason to have it now. Sit and vent to Shelley and return to room at 9:10AM to type this until 9:24, ready for another pee and attempt to go downstairs to wait for the US bus to Lavra. They're cleaning next door as I leave at 9:28AM. At 9:32 I decide I needed umbrella (never used it, because I brought it, of course!). Back to bus 9:39 breathing hard already. All three buses go 9:47. Bus stops 10:02---no photos inside any buildings. #34 Lavra entry 10:05. #35 map 10:13. Photos through #37, of entry churches, by 10:11. Lavra = Large monastery. Roll 11. 69-acre area. #1 over-gate temple (inside gate) from 1108 at 10:14. $5 and $2 to Irina, ten singles to Natasha, $10 bill to Ellie at 10:18. #2 Holy Trinity Church 12C. 10:21. #3 57-star church at 10:24, in book. Olga was grandmother of Vladimir. #4 main cathedral 1073, 10:37, reconstructed with plastic in 2001, not done yet inside, maybe finished in three years, maybe not. #5 cathedral 10:37. #7 cathedral-side top 11:01. #8 bricks from ORIGINAL cathedral 11:02. To what looked like (but wasn't) entry to caves 11:04. Caves to underground cemetery 11-17th C. Caves 280 meters and 220 meters, the one for pilgrims bigger, and I think I encountered the exit from the pilgrim's route and went a bit back on it, [start file 4 10/7/07, 10:42AM in Vienna airport waiting for flight] but it wasn't that much different from what we saw. #9 bell tower 11:12. Fantastic Turkish museum-ceiling in the Refectory Church reminding me of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, this with a 20-meter span: how much is Hagia Sophia? #10-11 from top, over ACTIVE monastery 11:26, only 100 monks and nuns in training. Half the size of the Vatican? 50-kopek john 11:32. #13 "forbidden" sign (mistyped "sin" at first!) 11:35. #14 street outside 11:37. $1 for triptych! #15 cave entrance 11:43. Out at 12, seeing lots of caves, some inner chapels, monks invariably covered in green vestments, no heads showing, bodies supposedly all mummified, one and in one case TWO hands showing like dried dates strung together, and someone reported seeing a foot. I lingered to about last. Kept candle at end: Church of Erection of Holy Cross fabulous inside, shown in book. #16 Cathedral from below 12:03. Five-cross icon for 60 CENTS! #17 contrasts at 12:12. #18 bell tower/Coca-Cola 12:14. Bus goes 12:26. Back to boat 12:37. To room 12:41. To lunch 12:44-1:27, going with Larues to subway, on at 1:45. Hard to find way out! #19 Independence Square monument built in 2001 at 2:11. Buy 63H in stamps while they're at the Internet office and I see the term "Philatelia," and she starts with 2004 and specialized in souvenir sheets, which are usually worth more, I hope, getting rid of all but about 25H. #22 costumed guys 2:26. Out at 2:22, Lynn joining me while Terry Internets, then she goes back for camera, didn't bring video, and then battery runs out. #23-24 breast cancer march 2:31 to loud music. #26 Russia-Ukraine arch at end of road 2:37. Her guide shows the horseman's name as Bohdan Khmelnytsky, look THAT up in EB. #29-30 founding brothers (but there were two, with a sister, and here are three?). #31-32 St. Michael on arch 3:08. #33 St. Michael's 3:10. #34 wedding before fresco 3:18. #35 St. Andrew's wedding and open iconastasis 3:42. To boat 4:46 tired. Shower (quick decision) to 5:05. Shelley knocks while I'm naked and gets empty shampoo spritzer and her pear from my fridge. Dinner 5:15-5:48 and take Librium 5:50PM. Pack to 6:09, easy, get passport. To bus 6:13. "To opera?" to Natasha, who responds, "For you, we'll have opera." Natasha WON'T give me and Shelley seats together? My ticket is parterre, row 8, seat 20, get at 6:19. Bus goes at 6:21. To Opera 6:37, great golden arc of six levels, most very shallow, lots of extra chairs added behind aisle-row and on sides, Shelley in first row rightmost seat save for chair stuffed to her right. Act I 7:03-7:47, leaving out some market scenes, but with lots of chorus-extras. Act II 8:06-8:49, Act III 9:07-9:47, for total of 124 minutes, cutting mandolin scene, whores' dance, and, worst, Juliet's music running back with her poison. But it's short, the Larues decide to stay, everyone likes it, Juliet and Mercutio best dancers, Tybalt ferocious of face. To room 10:23, pack easily, LITTLE in shoulder bag (room for booze), and brush teeth without paste and get to bed 10;45, waked at 5AM!
SUNDAY, 10/7/07: Knocked at 4:34, OK, Librium at 4:55. Shelley knocks at 4:58, LINE at Panorama. Eat pear, have coffee and two rolls at 5:15, finish "breakfast," with pills, at 5:24, up at 5:29, "Your luggage on bus." On bus 5:30, close to last, totally dark. Bus goes at 5:34. Off bus at airport 6:09. Last luggage. On Austria check-in line 6:20. My water bottle vanished. Shelley handled 6:30. My bag is 11.5 kilograms. Two window seats assigned (she says) by 6:40. Through passport line 6:49. Flight announced at 7:25. Through security 7:37. Board 7:42, 19A WELL behind wing. Pink-edged clouds near BLUE sky at start. Move back 8:03. 1:45 flight, off 8:13, into clouds, above clouds. Tiny breakfast 8:38: tomato-and-cheese bun, yogurt, poor Merlot, good apple juice. ALL clouds. Then clear/hazy. #37 BIG town, just east of Vienna, with river and bridges. Past airfield 9:40. Roll 12! #1 Austrian church on hill 9:49 (8:49 local). Land 9:53 (1:40 flight). Change watch to 8:55AM. Show passports getting OFF plane. Onto bus 9:03. Shelley's wheelchair pilot WHIPS us through to gate A2 by 9:16. Pee. Find I have an aisle across from Shelley. Go on service line 9:22 and get 37A. 9:57 onto RIDICULOUSLY long all New York and Chicago flights line. Then a second check, and a total bag-empty check to 10:18. Start typing 10:25. To plane door with Shelley in chair 10:50 with screaming kids and LOTS of English papers to get. Board 11:11 WAY ahead of all. Roy, thankfully, is WAY up front. Type 11:17-11:41, blissfully caught up. Announce 8:20 flight. Guy sits patiently next to me as I type. Put this away on crowded floor area at 11:42AM. Back out 11:51 and off at 11:55AM. #2 Alps 12:09. #3 west of Baden. #4-6 Alps 12:14. #7 Frankfurt 12:44. Take Librium at 12:52PM. Chicken lunch 1:12. #8 COMPLEX city 1:13. Finish lunch 1:46. #9 west coast of Ireland, south of Cashel 2:19. Shit at 4PM, halfway there. Finish papers (and all their puzzles) and New Yorker by 4:37. 3:30 to go. Scan and throw out October National Geographic and September Scientific American by 5:05. Three hours to go. Take out New York Times puzzle book. TOTALLY cloudy. Awful snack at 6:48: chicken ON salad. Set watch from 7:12 to 1:12PM. Mostly clear over Neuebraunschwein (German for Newfoundland?), then cloudy over Massachusetts. Junk on TV from 1:41. Land 2:05PM (8:10 flight). AT gate (thank God) 2:20. Off plane 2:30, my bag "lost" to 3:04, though I can't figure WHY I didn't see it, unless it came down the chute just before the guy found it for me with my check-in slip. Pay Shelley her $50 loan back. Into cab at 3:22, poor girl wheeling Shelley's wheelchair not being able to get us to the front of the waiting line; few cabs seem to be available with long times between each loading. To Shelley's at 4:15 for $45, she asking me for $22, and I get to 20K at 4:29 and PEE. Record four phone messages (Carolyn: welcome home, got CD, and her birthday party on 28th; Rita: got CD, will call later; and two from Heart Healthy, will call back to schedule meals on Monday) to 4:40. Water plants, put sheets on bed, weigh bags to 5:05: black bag 26# and shoulder bag 14#, for a total of 40#, heavy. Get back with $37.22 in cash, meaning I spent $409 on the trip, but have to wait for mid-October HSBC and Visa bills for total expenditures. Made a tuna casserole and had dinner to 5:25. Start j/o 5:32 and finish at 6:15. TV to 7:10, but eyes are closing, I weigh myself at 195# and go to bed at 7:18PM, just dark enough out.
MONDAY, 10/8/07: Wake at 12:15AM, doze, wake at 1:43, take Ambien, shit, small mympths. Nap to 3:35AM, but don't sleep till past 4AM. Dream of being on Russian ship crew. Do a full Actualism. 5:35: "hear a knock on my door." 6:06-6:15 try vibrator on my limp cock: nothing. 6:20, start j/o, admit failure at 7:45. Read Sun and do puzzles to 9:15. Breakfast while scanning just-delivered 9/24 New York magazine. Look through most of rest of mail. Phone Schwab for cash and find out that it's Columbus Day, but the stock market is open (the bond market isn't) and get $12,000 cash by Thursday. Leave word with Marj at 3:36, Mildred at 3:38, talk to Charles 3:40-4:40, and then to Marj to 5:30. Play a little unrecorded Spider just to enjoy it, and watch TV; eyes are closing and get to bed 9:30PM.
TUESDAY, 10/9/07: Wake 2:35AM, pee. Type dream 4:07 to 4:13. Up 5:35, still tired. Make a list of things to do "today": 1. Did I fill datebook with Baltics trip? 2. Do index. 3. Phone HSBC for balance. 4. Gym. 5. Spartacus: Pick up Ken's tapes? (No.) 6. Check e-mail. 7. Unpack. 8. Finish Ukraine expenses. 9. AlphaSmart to WP. 10. Phone Tris: CD readable? 11. Call Carolyn. 12. Get generic Ambien. 13. Order KODAK slide film. 14. Pay OAT bill on 10/15. 15. Buy overcoat. By Saturday, I've done all but items 8, which has to wait for HSBC and Visa statements mid-October; 10, just haven't done yet; and 12-15, which were in fact added after Tuesday. Get 21 messages on e-mail. Fill in Baltics datebook and transfer AlphaSmart files to WordPerfect to 6:40AM. Breakfast. Read papers, do more puzzles, waste time, play Spider 6-7:35, losing ground. Start watching 49Up, but my eyes close and I go to bed at 9:30PM.
WEDNESDAY, 10/10/07: Pee at 3:48AM. Note dream at 4AM. Start j/o 4:37, cum by 5:40. Back to bed and up at 7:15AM to send index and start Spider 7:40-9:35, doing even worse. Finish 49Up, do more Spider 2-3, improving a good deal (and probably playing longer than the time I'd recorded on my card) and get so involved in catching up with the New York Times that I'm startled when the phone rings at 5:35PM and Sharon says, "I thought you were coming in." I dash in by 5:45 and finish at 6:15, signing more billing sheets for her. Write up the session and go back to Spider 6:40-8, losing even more ground. Manage to stay up until 10:10PM, still too tired to feel comfortable staying up any later.
THURSDAY, 10/11/07: Note dream at 4AM. Start j/o 5:50, get to play at maximum tension for two times, but then squeeze and THINK I just express pre-cum, but when I try to actually have an orgasm, it doesn't work, so I continue to work at it fruitlessly to 7:30 and decide that I came already and it's useless to continue. Actually finish unpacking, play Spider 3:40-4:30, improving score slightly, and get a call from Springer for an index! Call Marj in my delight. Watch the last hour of Inferno before (probably RE) watching the Mark Twain award to Steve Martin from 2005, actually managing to get through it, bed 11:09.
FRIDAY, 10/12/07: Type dream at 4:10AM, up at 6:51, Do Sun, do Spider 11-1:30. Get to gym, deposit $7500 at HSBC, get groceries, and pay $28 to Shelley for half taxi-fares to Carol Tanenbaum's "Mongolian Ice" show. Bed tired 10:30.
SATURDAY, 10/13/07: Up 6:18AM, type dream 6:25, and end proofing now at 1:53PM.
SUNDAY, 10/14/07: Now totally finished with Baltics trip, putting all slides away; typed Ukraine photo-list, waiting for slides; only summary page left.
MONDAY, 10/15/07: Hadn't HEADED this file, so finish THAT repaginating by 9:58AM.
UKRAINE SUMMARY PAGE
MON,9/24: Finish most items from my "do-list before Ukraine." Take Librium.
TUE,9/25: Fly Austrian Air JFK to Vienna 6:20PM-8:16AM, 7:54 flight, no sleep.
WED,9/26: Fly Ukraine Air Vienna to Odessa 11:40AM-1:12PM, 1:32 flight. Unpack in small room on MS Marshall Koshevoi. Choose Lynn and Terry as tablemates; start half-bottles of Shampagne for $6/bottle. Bed feeling good at 9:38PM.
THU,9/27: Try Panorama Bar for coffee, onto deck. Walk to Potemkin Steps, Opera House, Railway Station, War Memorial. Video problems. Gypsy Restaurant photo. Lunch on ship. Town walk: up funicular, Ethnographic Museum. Bandura concert in Sky Bar. Presentation of Captain and staff. Accident forces us back to Odessa!
FRI,9/28: First shower in bathroom. Language lecture and bridge tour. Sevastopol city tour: Russian-Turkish War Memorial, politicking for Sunday's election, monuments in Sevastopol Bay, Panorama building, Redeemer Hill and Lenin Statue, St. Vladimir Cathedral. Black Sea Fleet Concert and dance.
SAT,9/29: Crimean coast bus tour: Pilot's Memorial, Balaclava Valley, villages, Gorbachev's seaside palace, Second Resurrection Church, Varonsov Palace, Swallow's Nest view from below, Livadia Palace (Yalta Treaty) tour. Champagne tasting after dinner, where I drink all of Shelley's, too. Crew band plays.
SUN,9/30: Videocamera fuss. Bus to Nikitsky Botanical Gardens and Chekhov house tour. Yalta leaving delayed because of winds. Pirozhki party in Luna Bar. Sit on deck to look at coast until dark, then do puzzles and sudoku in cabin.
MON,10/1: Shower. Panorama Bar coffee. Ellie and Natasha talk about history and current election. To Kherson and transfer to ferry to Fisherman's Island for sales force and good lunch with lots of moonshine. To Panorama Bar for Skry Draw (screwdriver). Blinis with red caviar and champagne, then sit on deck a good long time after dark. Kakhovka Lock 9-9:50PM, bed tired at 10:03PM.
TUE,10/2: Lots of views out cabin window. Zaporizhzhya tour: Museum, Lenin Avenue, park, Cossack show with sexy shirtless guy. Nap. 6:30-7:30 deepest lock (36 meters) at Zaporizhzhya. Puzzles after dinner. Bed 10:40PM, eager to leave.
WED,10/3: Kremenchug lock (11 meters) 7-8AM. Can't describe scrambled eggs, so I make "eggs New Yorker." Natasha talks about Ukrainian traditions in Sky Bar. Proofread files. Write postcards and sit on deck. Kremenchug city tour: Children's Park, Revolution Monument, fall on knees outside local museum, Starvation Monument, Independence Square, Pushkin Monument. To store for Yalta Masandra Muscatel and two dark chocolate bars. Synagogue. Dinner and outside to watch ship behind lit up in dark night. Nothing much else to do.
THU,10/4: Shower. Sit on deck after breakfast. Kaniv for Shevchenko Monument up hill. Caretaker's house, walk back on road past abandoned motel. Barbecue lunch outside, entertained by local talent and drunk on too much vodka. Sit in Panorama Bar, then outside, then inside for sudoku. Dress for Captain's Gala Dinner, from caviar to chicken Kiev and cream puffs. "Entertainment" by Canadians and Americans: Terry does "Casey at the Bat." Other games; bed 10:30.
FRI,10/5: Dock in Kiev. Kiev bus tour: Independence Square, Kiev gate replica, St. Michael's Cathedral, Starvation Memorial, Foreign Relations Government Building, St. Andrew's, Icon Museum, souvenir shops, St. Sophia, State Opera House, constructions, Bessarabian Food Hall, Mother Ukraine statue and surrounding displays. Lunch and nap. Babiy Yar tour: Russian Memorial, Menorah, actual ravine, monument to children, synagogue. Gorlitsa Folk Group in Sky Bar.
SAT,10/6: Give out tips, pay ship bill with Visa. Bus to Lavra: Holy Trinity Church, Cathedral, Caves and monk mummies, bell tower, Refectory Church, cheap souvenirs. Church of Erection of Holy Cross. With Larues on subway to Independence Square, buy stamps, see breast cancer march, St. Michael's, weddings, St. Andrew's. Early dinner before Romeo and Juliet at State Opera House, lots of scenes and music cut, but it's not bad. Bed tired at 10:45PM.
SUN,10/7: Waked at 4:34AM. Librium. Fly Kiev to Vienna 8:13AM-9:53AM (1:40 flight). Change to window seat. Type last notes. Fly Vienna-JFK 11:55AM-2:05PM (8:10 flight). Repay Shelley $50. Taxi home 3:22-4:15. Dinner and bed 7:18PM.
MON,10/8: Wake 12:15AM, doze. Wake 1:43, take Ambien. Nap. Start catching up.