Hi Gang,
Well after the incredibly surprising breakup from my former fiancee in Tver, I decided to get back on the horse and ride again, no pun intended. This is the initial post of a trip report from my experience in Togliatti, Russia using the services of A Volga Girl, operated by Dave Knabel in KY. Unfortunately this is my lunch break and I don't have much time, so I'm just gonna hit the highlights. If I get a chance I will fill in the details later on...
First, Dave has a great agency overall. Helen and Lana who run the office do a great job and Dave himself fields all calls from the West. He's pretty good about getting back to you when you call him too. The only peculiar thing I found was that he doesn't give out the agency office's telephone number. Most agencies, even those operated/owned by Westerners, have the office number on their website, so I thought that was a bit strange. I asked Dave about it and the long story short version was that he had some guys call the office a lot and "heckle" Helen, so they quit giving out the number. Hmmmm...ok. Anyway.....
Delta from Austin to Moscow, uneventful. Aeroflot (and thank GOD I wasn't going to Perm!) from Moscow to Samara was a pain in the ass, 'cause they always try to charge me for "overweight" baggage. I know their 20 kg rule and was under that, but they still try to get some cash out of you and then put it into their personal stash. I wasn't happy about it, but whatever. So I get into Samara ok and Lana was waiting for me along with a woman I'd been corresponding with. I. is her name, nice, just like her photos, so things are good. It's about an hour taxi ride into Togliatti, so the overall journey is considerable and the visa hassles getting into Russia are a pain in general. But at last I'm here. The agency's flat is quite nice, probably the nicest flat I've stayed in while in the FSU in general. The A/C works and so does the washing machine in the kitchen; quite convenient. I. decides that she wants to go home, eh, whatever. I'm beyond getting uptight over these things. So I settle in and watch a movie. They have a working DVD player, but I have my notebook and just use that.
I'm up early on Sunday morning, body is still in Austin. Head out for a run, the town is just waking up. Few cars, but their numbers are growing as I take the ol' jalopy out for a spin. I cut it off after only about 5 miles because I have a meeting with O. later this morning. Very nice gal, enjoyed her company. Don't know if we're compatible, but she's good troop I'd say. At 2 pm I meet with E. E. is also nice, but not quite physically my type. Still I spend time with her and enjoy her company. Then I. comes back at around 6 pm. I'm kinda tired but ok, she sees that and decides to go home again. Strange. Ok whatever, we're pretty much done at this point. After she leaves I call and invite E. to meet me for dinner at the restaurant Telega. Great place, good food, English menu. Nice ice cream with fruit desert. E. was and is pleasant to be around, despite the potential lack of chemistry. We say good night and I head back to the flat to try to help sync my body with the local time a bit via some sleep. Can't sleep, watch a movie instead.
Monday comes and at 6 pm I meet N. N. is great, chemistry is out the wazoo. We hit it off and things seem "crazy good". Later I would wonder about the word "crazy", but I digress. So I decide that I would end all of my other communication with the women I'd met and focus on N. Then the agency calls and tells me that a woman I had corresponded with very little (because she wouldn't reply to my letters) knows I am in town and wants to meet with me. I say "sure" because there isn't anything else to do when N. is at work, but that it's "just lunch". She agrees. So we meet, things are fine, her name is E., and she's pleasant and sincere. I tell her that I'd have been more interested if she had maintained correspondence when she asks why I didn't meet with her when I first arrived (it's now Wednesday). She begins to talk about her two jobs, etc. Then she sets a personal record for me: she offered to split the check! In all of my 18+ trips I have never had a RW do that! I of course refuse but thank her for her kindness. And then that's it.
N. and I live like a couple for the rest of my time in Togliatti. She says that we're serious so she wants me to meet her family. On Friday night I meet mom and dad over dinner at Telega. Things are great. I meet her brother and his family on Saturday. Things are even better. I leave early Sunday morning to return to Austin. I leave her $$$ to begin English lessons. (I can speak some Russian so we were able to communicate) She rides with me to the airport despite the early departure. Things seem so good, I am happy. (can you SEE it coming?)
Ok.....so to cut to the chase. One week after I'm back, she misunderstands a letter I had written in Russian (still not so good at writing in Cyrillic) and says that she wants to end our relations. WHAT?!?!! So I get her on the phone with my interpreter and have a three-way for TWO HOURS hashing things out. So things seem better. I feel as though I'm trying harder than she is, but whatever. Two days later she says that she's "thought it through" and wants to end our relations. And so I let her do it, no fight this time.
What a croc. Who knows...I explained to her that she'd need to be patient and understanding with our cultural/language gap and she said she understood this before I left. Funny how RW can go cold! What can you do? Life.......
Anyway, Volga Girl and Togliatti still get a thumbs up from me. Dave removed N.'s profile after her behavior, so kudos to Dave for maintaining the integrity of his agency. Such poor behavior by the women should not be tolerated. The girls in the office were great. Only downside to Togliatti is that there's virtually NOTHING to do or see. That's ok for me though, 'cause I like the downtime and catching up on my sleep...
So it's back to the drawing board. Going to Volgograd soon. Will post on that later.
Y'all take care.
Jerry
