Where are Ron and Ellen?
Summer 2002
Wednesday 9 October 2002
Back home - so long for now
Hello from Afton, Virginia
Sevastopol turned out to be one of my favorite cities in Ukraine, and I could have spent much longer there with no problem. The geography makes the city interesting. Several fingers of land pointing into the Black Sea creating an immense harbor with various bodies of water. I walked out on a different point when I visited the ancient Greek city of Chersonesus with a history going back to 422 and destroyed by Tatars in the 14th Century. Getting there I took the wrong bus and explored another point by mistake. There were some boats that ferried back and forth to the other side of the bay, and these allowed me to get a different perspective on the city from the water. I also took a small tourist boat and went up the bay with all the large military boats of the Black Sea Fleet which was divided between the Russians and the Ukrainians. Other interesting sites were the art museum, the dolphinarium (very quiet), aquarium, and the large painted panorama. At night the water's edge was alive with discos, restaurants and bars.
I met lots of interesting folks who made my visit more interesting, including a Russian naval policeman who was establishing a museum of military clothing, and wanted to know if I had anything to contribute. He ended each question to me with the phrase with "..., if the information is not confidential." Olga, the art student who drew my picture on my arrival, turned out to also manage a Computer Learning Center that her mother had started in the beginning of perestroika and she gave me an introductory tour of the city the next day. Also there was some interesting time spent with a brother and sister whose father was a captain of a Russian submarine.
From Sevastopol I started my trip back to Virginia which would take about 11 days, almost the amount of time most Americans use for their annual two week vacation. For the trip to Simferopol I bought two train tickets, (very inexpensive to me, but not to the Ukrainians) one for me and one for my bike which I folded up and placed under the little table along the window. This was not a first class train, and the compartment had no doors. There were three bunks on each side with walls behind, and across the aisle there were three more bunks parallel to the train. The lower bunk was two seats and a table during the day. So a kind of compartment for 9 with no doors with the aisle going through.
Simferopol was not a place I cared to spend another night, so on arrival I got into line to buy an overnight ticket to Odessa, only to be told, in Russian or Ukrainian of course, that there were no more tickets to Odessa. So I asked for tickets the next day. There was some discussion about "Lux" which I didn't understand, but then I could understand that somehow there were two tickets for Odessa today. Found out after I paid and got the receipt that they were $20 each on the Luxury car. Too late to just buy one. There was a student couple from Poland in front of me who were buying 3rd class tickets to Kiev. As I walked by them after I had bought my two Lux tickets, I noticed they were looking a little distraught, and they told me there were no more tickets for Kiev or Odessa. I explained I had two tickets, and if they wanted to buy another Lux ticket and were willing to help me with the bicycle, they could have my second ticket and we could go together. There were no more Lux tickets so when the train came we negotiated with the conductor, who said there was no problem with them sharing my cabin. Well...after the train was moving the "no problem" was another Lux ticket for $20 and another $10 for my bicycle to go into storage since bicycles and TVs were not allowed in the Lux cabins. We ended up buying another ticket and putting the bicycle up on top of a shelf in the compartment, and I gave the $10 to the couple instead. So everyone ended up happy. George and Dominika were an interesting couple I hope to stay in touch with. In Odessa after being sure they could buy tickets to Kiev, they went bicycling and I went to my hotel, where they joined me at the end of the day for a cold shower (first for a couple of days) before they took the overnight train to Kiev.
In the evening Alexey went with me to the train station to buy a ticket to Munich. The only ticket available was to Berlin and there was only one ticket left and the lady had closed the ticket sales for the day. The next morning I was in line at 7:30 to be the first to buy a ticket to Berlin, which would leave in the evening on September 25 and arrive in Berlin on the morning of the 27th. Now that would mean one night on the train for Simferopol, one night for Odessa, and two nights for Berlin. At least I had three nights in Odessa to finish my shopping, download my pictures, visit the Archaeology Museum (which was closed before), get my other bag from Tatyana's, and pack my bag and wrap up my bike for a train trip to Berlin and a fast train to Munich and the metro to Uta's.
Alexey & Marina and Tatyana & Nikolay were wonderful friends who made my visit in Odessa such a wonderful experience. I will miss them and hope to see them again in the future.
On the train to Berlin I met Mathilde (French) and Andreas (German) who invited me to spend a night in Berlin with them. With my bicycle still wrapped up for all the train trips (see photo of Ron in Berlin), I borrowed Mathilde's and went to experience East Berlin on a bicycle, which was an unexpected pleasure! Berlin appears to be very bicycle friendly. And in the evening we went to Andreas's parents and I experienced a second German home. After a very enjoyable visit, the next morning they dropped me off in their car at the train station on their way to France. The fast train took me to Munich where I got to experience Octoberfest, meet Sandra, Uta's friend, and walk around the small town of Heimstetten. The size of the beer tents at Octoberfest was quite a surprise, and the small town of Heimstetten was a little paradise, with narrow lanes leading to the homes, beautiful gardens, walking paths, and the cars parked in small rows of garages off from the houses.
Now I am back home with Ellen, who met me at Dulles. Four months was a long trip and I was ready to come home. But it was not long enough to visit all the places I wanted to visit and do all the things I wanted to do. I could easily have spent a couple more months along the way. But now back home, it is like a different reality. My grandson Leo has become quite verbal and my other grandson Simon has gained some personality. It has been wonderful to see my family and friends again. But there is a long list of tasks to do: broken mower, tractor, one car that won't start, couldn't find the truck key, where is this or that, even with the drought the weeds are more than waist high. Lady, our 19 year old cat, waited until I got home to say goodbye and died peacefully four days later from renal failure. Now I am working with a calendar to schedule meetings and retreats and to plan future trips to Winston-Salem, West Virginia, Baltimore, Williamsburg and Troy, New York. And of course there are the several hundred email messages to work through.
And of course where do I find the time to write my final travel report? Well, here it is. Thank you for coming along with me, and I look forward to returning to more personal communications. But I would love to read your travel reports, so just send them along. So long, until we travel again...
Back to Summer 2002 indexBack to the Main Index| cfw.com |
| Questions? Send email to Ellen, ebouton | 
|
| operamail.com |
| While we're traveling, reach us at bikepacker |
|
Last updated: 11 October 2002