This n' that

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 Saturday 29^th

Altho’ I didn’t attend the Russian language lessons that were provided on board ship, I have been interested in some of the signs I’ve seen.  I can’t spell them here for you cuz I don’t have a Syrillic alphabet on my computer.  Most everywhere there is a traffic light the word CTO upside down U is found.  I’m guessing that means caution, 

  I could sometimes figure out what ta shop is advertisings even without the English words.  I saw a Citibank sign and I’ll describe the letters.  C backwards N T backwards N BAHK.  A KFC sign was followed with KAACCNK--and then another KFC sign with POCTNKS.  TGIFriday (restaurant) had this on the sign  O with a line through it P A N I C.   Now you see why Just looking a the sign with the unusual alphabet a person can’t really figure out what is being sold without looking at the picture on the sign or the merchandise.

Everywhere I look young Russians are smoking.  The sailors on the ship, young folks on the street, mostly the people I see smoking are young.  Wonder if no one has told them how bad that is for their health.  I haven’t seen that many mature folks out on the street, so I’m not sure if this is a generational habit, or something that all Russians enjoy. 

I seem to always wear the wrong footwear.  When I wear my warm boots, we are walking on cobblestones and I slip and clomp (should’a worn the Sketchers)    When  it is wet, I wear the tennis and my feet get wet.   This afternoon, I noticed that my boots caught on one of the many stairs on the ship.  I looked at the soles and found both had cracked all the way across.  Do I take them home to get repaired, or trash them here?  They weren’t the most expensive mail order boots, but they’re comfy and look good.  So I guess I’ll haul them home and see if they can be repaired, -- now I’m down to one pair.  But we really only have one day of touring left and I planned to wear the tennies on the plane anyway

Lena

Our waitresses Lena and Lillya have been really special, very friendly and efficient.  They can really hustle when they need to.  Some days supper takes 2 hours, but tonite we were finished in 45 minutes because some of the passengers were leaving at 7 for a program. 

 I guess I’m drawn to these 2 because of their sweet smiles and their names.  My dad used to call me Lena and my sweet 3 yr old is named Lillian. 

The food has been an adventure.  Every meal includes salad, soup, entrée and dessert.  The salads have been very artistic, but unusual and not especially stubtantial.  Almost all the soups have been tasty- with one exception.  The entrees have included mostly pork, with some chicken,  and ground beef and a little fish.  I think I expected more fish, but am not disappointed that we haven’t had much.    Lots of rice and potatoes.  And an enormous amount of cucumbers and tomatoes.  The desserts have been absolutely exceptional. 

Now let me describe our beds.  Think a couch with about a 3 inch cushion covered with a mattress pad in a sheet sack.  Not the softest bed, but adequate.   There is no sheet, but a duvet type thingy filled with a kind of army blanket.  The bottom pad moves around as I sleep and wads up.  I’ll really be glad to get back to my queen sized mattress.   I’m spoiled.  Imagine the crew sleeping on this type of bed (or worse) for 6 months straight.

We tried to download this today at an internet café and had NO LUCK probably because of our elderly computer that we brought..  We kept getting an error message, so you won’t see this until we are home.  Remember, pictures will be added the week following the trip.  

I was able to get online with my phone and got to read communications for a little while, so I was in contact with the outside world, kinda.