Homeward Bound

Despite all her preventative efforts, Linda came down with a virulent bug during the night. Quite possibly food poisoning. Probably should not have had the Halibut and Asparagus with Chernobyl lard sauce. Feeling deathly ill, the last thing she wanted to do was get on a plane for 11 hours the following morning. But Jerry packed her up, dragged her to the airport and got her onto the plane where she slept as much as possible during the flight home. You could say it was a very unforgettable last day.

"Are we there yet?"

We started planning this trip last Fall and – boom! – it’s now come and gone. What a whirlwind! Eight countries in 22 days. From Germany to Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea, to Russia (the highlight of our entire trip) then Eastern European countries of Belarus, Lithuania and Poland.

• Eight languages.
• Two visas: Russia, Belarus.
• Eight modes of transportation: bus, ferry, overnight cruise ship, canal boat, metro, high-speed bullet train, taxi, airplane.
• 5-star hotels and one 0-star Bates motel.
• Seven types of currency:  Euro, Krone, Krona, Ruble, Belarussian ruble, Litas, Zloty.
• Thousands of digital photos.
• Orthodox priests, scarved babushkas, Russian dancers, lounge singers, accordion players, border inspectors, KGB, WC coin collectors, one drag queen.
• Bounty brand toilet paper, squat-and-pee toilets, one outhouse, WCs, pay-toilets, BYOTP.
• Pig’s Knuckles, wurst, pickled herring, wiener schnitzel, Russian caviar, borscht, stroganoff, meat-stuffed potato dumplings, pierogi, fried lard spread, lots of seasonal asparagus, lots of potatoes.
• Beer, schnaps, wine, aquavit, lager, champagne, vodka, vodka, vodka - oh, yeah, and Pepsi.
• A gamut of history, castles, cathedrals, palaces, ships, museums, food, music, people and culture.

 Vodka-tasting

Babushkas

WC

Again, a once-in-a-lifetime trip packed with memories we’ll not soon forget. Glad you came along with us. Until next time, we're the ...

 Traveling Wodkatinis

Warsaw Day 2 - On Our Own

While the rest of our tour-mates hurried off to the airport to homes around the world, we stayed on in Warsaw for another day of touring on our own. After a late breakfast, we hoofed it from our hotel all the way to Old Town where we walked around and did some last minute shopping at a wonderful shop carrying handcrafted items. Linda and Diane sure heated up the plastic in that place. 

Linda and Diane jaywalking right next to the crosswalk. Americans, sheesh!

Old Town

Handcrafted Nesting Dolls

Last minute shoppers sightseers

Back at the hotel, after a short break, we had a Happy Hour to finish up the last of our chips and smuggled wine and to toast to our last day here. For dinner, the hotel concierge referred us to an interesting local restaurant with Lithuanian fare and music. Read more about it on our food page.

Lastly, we reluctantly began the unhappy task of organizing our luggage for tomorrow’s flight.

Warsaw Day 1

Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Polish composer Chopin’s birth.

Chopin Memorial

On our guided city tour we saw the Chopin Memorial in 17^th century Lazienki Park, St. John’s Cathedral and the memorial to the Warsaw uprising. 

Hitler’s enraged retribution against the underground insurgency was swift and brutal with orders to wipe Warsaw off the face of the map. Anything of cultural importance was blown up and whole districts were set on fire. When it was over, 90% of the city lay in total ruin, a pile of rubble. Warsaw was faithfully rebuilt after the devastation. 

Warsaw 1945

We walked in the reconstructed Old Town to the Market Square where we visited the Warsaw Historical Museum to view a moving film about the doomed rebellion against the Nazis and the subsequent rebuilding of the city. Although the Nazis flattened the Jewish Ghetto, we saw the area where it had once been. Today only a few bombed-out, bullet-riddled reminders are left.

Walled-in Jewish Ghetto

A remnant to remember

Speaking of the pianist Chopin, after his death his heart was removed and preserved in cognac to be returned to his homeland, as he’d requested in his last wishes. His sister later took the heart in an urn to Warsaw, where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church. Too bizarre.

Chopin 1810-1849

Heart Preservative

Heart entombed

This evening we attended a final group dinner at the hotel, where our Tour Director, Elena Tinton and our coach driver, Udo, thanked us for joining the tour and we thanked them for their services, and filled out a questionnaire about the tour, they gave us leather luggage tags and pins for being repeat customers with their tour company, photos of tour members were taken and email addresses were exchanged. This is the end of the organized portion of our tour. 

Elena and Udo

We four are on our own again for a couple more days.

Diane, Linda, Jerry, Ron

Goodbye, Vilnius - Hello, Warsaw

We woke to a beautiful morning and a spectacular view from our hotel window of hot air balloons floating over Old Town. Vilnius is such a quaint village in a green valley setting on the banks of a lazy-flowing river. More like Europe than Russia which it once was a part of. The people were friendly and courteous. They taught us the Lithuanian word for ‘Thank You’ – aciu – pronounced ‘achoo.’ We sounded like we were sneezing our heads off.

Today was primarily a travel day on our way to Warsaw. Crossing the border into Poland was a snap. We were able to exchange our Lithuanian litas for Polish zloty at the border 'kantor' (money exchange).

Jerry and Ron counting their cash

We passed through Suwalki and the lakeside Augustow on a scenic drive through Mazuria, a region with abundant lakes and vast forests. The area was pretty with small well-kept farms and the country folk were curious to see our big coach of foreign tourists traveling through.

Our driver spotted a huge stork’s nest ahead and stopped so we could take photos. There were at least two babies (birds, that is) in the nest with the watchful mother. They are well-protected here as it is against the law to interfere with a nesting stork. 

Couldn’t resist taking a photo of this woman getting a drink from a public faucet. Doesn’t she know there is lead in them thar pipes?

Arrived in Warsaw in the late afternoon, checked into our 5-star Hilton and had a nice dinner at the hotel. Warsaw is a big city - population 1.7 million - and we are set to explore it over the next two days.

Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius is the capital city of Lithuania. A bit of a drizzle this morning but we started our sightseeing at the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. You wouldn’t know it from the look of the exterior but the interior is like a spectacular basilica. The pure white walls are crowded with over two thousand baroque mouldings of biblical, historical, allegorical and mythological figures, ghoulish and demonic gargoyles, plague, flora and beasts. Walls are adorned with gilded icons, paintings and statues. A glittering chandelier, made from brass and crystal glass beads, in the shape of a ship hangs from the soaring domed ceiling. A delightful surprise.

We joined our guide Emelia for a walking tour of the Old Town. We saw the Jesuit University, the Gates of Dawn, the last of nine gates from medieval times, and the old market square with sellers hawking ‘suvenrais’ (souvenirs) and handmade crafts.

Jerry and Ron

We toured the Museum of Genocide Victims, a former Soviet KGB headquarters now a collection of historical memorabilia of grim and painful events during the Cold War. The holding cells for prisoners, interrogation and eavesdropping rooms, solitary confinement, soundproof padded cell with straitjacket, small exercise yard, torture chambers, execution chamber and the site of a mass grave in the basement. Chilling.

Holding cells

In the afternoon, we took a short drive out to the reconstructed 14^th century Trakai Castle situated on an island on Lake Galve. A wonderfully restored fortress complete with a drawbridge in a picturesque setting on a beautiful lake. Not far from the castle was a treasure trough of market stalls for shopping for amber and handmade gifts.

Trakai Castle

Jerry on the drawbridge

Arthur and Lancelot

In the evening, we enjoyed an authentic Lithuanian dinner of local specialities at a restaurant in a cellar of Old Town. Musicians and singers in traditional costumes entertained us and drink flowed freely.

Linda and Skaudvilas on the Squeezebox

 Linda and Diane on percussion

Travel Day to Lithuania

This morning we continued our Marc Chagall enrichment series with a visit to … you guessed it … another Marc Chagall Museum! The same non-English speaking guide and interpreter from yesterday took us around, showing us some of the 150 original art works housed at the museum and giving us their full interpretation in both Belarusian and English.

Dueling Guides

Ron & Diane, fascinated art critics

Afterward we hit the road for Lithuania.  Along the way, we learned more about Chernobyl. 

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

On April 26, 1986, just across the border from Belarus in Ukraine, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurred. 400 times more radioactive material was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima Japan.  Most of the fallout cloud drifted north over Belarus. The fallout was detected throughout Europe. Rivers, lakes, forests, wildlife, soil and ground water were contaminated.

 

Serious health effects of the contamination are still showing up in places as far away as Germany, Scandinavia and Turkey with patterns of increased thyroid cancer, Down’s Syndrome, birth deformities, chromosomal aberrations/mutations and brain/spine/nerve abnormalities.

There is a 17-mile exclusion zone around Chernobyl where officially no one is allowed to live. However, there are approx. 10,000 people, primarily elderly "resettlers" who lived in the region prior to the disaster, who have returned to the area.

Farming or any other type of industrial purpose would be dangerous for at least 200 years. As for the reactor where the meltdown occurred, it is estimated it will be 20,000 years before the land will be fully safe again. The defunct Chernobyl nuclear reactor is now enclosed in a large disintegrating concrete shelter and 200 tons of extremely hazardous, highly radioactive material is still contained within it.

 

As we travel through the area, we’re thinking, “Don’t touch anything. Don’t breathe in."

 

The countryside is beautiful and well-tended. There are miles of lush rolling farmland. Revenue from the crops goes directly to the government while the farmer who works the land gets a small wage. Everywhere we see old one-room houses with well-tended vegetable gardens, stacks of firewood for heating, chicken and goats in yards and laundry drying on lines.

 

War Memorial

 

For lunch, we stopped in historic Polostk, a once powerful regional city dating back to the 9^th century, situated on the Dvina River. A school celebration was going on in the central park. Excited children were dressed in their Sunday best, girls in frilly Slavic dresses and ribbons, boys in hand-me-down suits and ties, their families out to enjoy the musical festivities. It was like traveling in some kind of time warp. So Norman Rockwell.

 

Town Festival

 

The Local Fuzz

 

Festival Queen?

 

Belarus-Lithuania border crossing took 2 hours. Officials boarded the coach to match passports with faces. When queried if anybody carried stashes of contraband spirits or cigarettes, someone replied that none of us smoked. In shock, the officer replied, “No one?” Naturally, we couldn’t admit that about spirits. Linda’s two bottles of wine didn’t count, right?

 

Our break stop at a ‘rest area’ was a dilapidated outhouse with its warped door almost hanging off the hinge. Some of the macho he-men took a nature walk in the woods while the ladies used the clean and fresh onboard lav-y. Minutes later the guys came flying out, hopping around, slapping off swarms of voracious mosquitoes. Hope no one got any bites where it would really hurt.

 

Rest Area

 

By late afternoon, we arrived in Vilnius. Our modern high-rise hotel overlooked the pretty little town located on the Vilnia River. Especially after the Bates Motel in Vitebsk, we were ecstatic to have nice modern accommodations (with wifi!) and a pleasant dinner at the hotel.

Badenov's are movin' on out

Today we said ‘dasvidanya’ to Russia. Immigration and border crossing into Belarus took about half an hour. US & UK passport holders grumbled at having had to cough up $162 USD per person in cash for a Belarus visa when all others entering only had to pay $63. The Belarusian government, obviously, does not like us. 

Border Check

Belarus is a transit country. The only reason we come to Vitebsk is that it is the most direct route crossing to Lithuania. Vitebsk, a throwback to the Soviet era, is all gray block Soviet-style architecture, a suspicious attitude toward foreigners and Soviet-like restrictions:  No! Do not! Prohibited! Halt! Forbidden! Not allowed! Warning!  And NOTHING is up to Western standards. 

 

Soviet truck

Vitebsk’s only claim to fame is the painter Marc Chagall. This afternoon we toured Marc Chagall’s childhood home with a dour matron guide and her sidekick English interpreter. It was like watching tennis (guide-interpreter-guide-interpreter…) The local parks and squares are filled with either bronze monuments of Marc Chagall or war memorials. 25% of the population of Belarus was killed in WWII.

Marc Chagall sculpture

 

"That's not smoke coming out of my ears." (Marc Chagall)

For dinner we went to a restaurant where we were greeted by a young girl see-sawing (eeeee-eeee-eeeee-eeeee) on her violin and by waiters with trays of vodka and champagne. 

Throughout dinner we were entertained by a Belarusian lounge singer with his computerized instrumental accompaniment. He sang Christopher Cross, Sting, the Eagles, George Michael in addition to his own compositions in his native language.

 "Welcome to the Hotel California..."

Of course, after all that vodka and champagne, he began to sound passable. Linda, Diane and other imbibers had their arms in the air swaying side-to-side to the music and holding up imaginary lighters (thumbs). Unfortunately, this entertainer now believes he is ready for Vegas. We hope we charge him at least $162 for a visa to the U.S.

Now a subject all it’s own…the hotel. Rated #1 in this city, population 350,000, it is something out of a Stephen King movie. We decided it may have been an insane asylum in its previous life and a psycho patient chose the décor. The unlit hallways were like those in “The Shining” (“Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny”) On each floor, double doors separated each wing like hospital wards (weird/slightly crazy/seriously insane/total bonkers). 

Guest rooms, accessed by a single metal key on a keychain, were decorated in at minimum 7 shades of green:  forest green striped wallpaper, olive green bedspreads, army green carpet, multi-green floral sheets, lime green print draperies, emerald green scrub-brush bath towels.

Unplugged lamp on nightstand with no electrical outlet. Nonworking (no outlet?) mini-refrigerator with door ajar.  A glass-doored cupboard complete with dishware and glassware but no coffeemaker in the room. Two kid-low twin beds. Sheets as hard as canvas tarps. Dingy down pillows (smelled according to one guest) and no doubt crawling with dust mites and their droppings. Linda and Jerry wrapped their pillows in plastic bags and covered them with towels. Linda slept in full pjs, a hoodie, and socks. A security call button above one bed. One guest’s window fell off when opened. Plastic accordion dryer exhaust venting used on the toilet. Light switches operated the wrong lights. A plastic 50’s television set. Freaky.

“It’s only for one night, it’s only for one night, it’s only for one night…..”

Shrunken bed

"I've fallen and I can't get up...!"

On checkout the next morning, one guest was questioned on a missing towel. “Uh, you mean this lovely green scrubber pad?” Are you freaking serious? Unbelievable!

We wondered, did this Bates Motel have anything to do with the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986?  70% of the contamination from that accident landed in Belarus. Are we in the Twilight Zone?

 We're scared

? ? ?

This note left in our bathroom either says "This toilet was cleaned by Oxlana" or it's a 'phone home' message from outer space.