I know I know, you folks have been waiting anxiously since my return for my trip report.
I took brief notes on my trip because I knew I might be reporting back to the forum here.
Although I am capable of writing long, juicy, prose-like text I will limit my report to the dry notes that I took.
Little did I know that just days before my arrival in Perm, this otherwise "unknown" city would become headline news throughout the entire world! As we all know it wasn't good news though.
Dec 8:
I arrive 5:35 am overnight flight from Mos.
Get to sleep by 7:00 am
Sleep until about 5 pm
I take taxi and meet with sweetheart for dinner at 7 pm at Gyenutz Valia Restaurant. (Georgian)
Nice dinner with live music (singer/keyboard)
Very nice first impressions
We are both happy.
I go to sleep around 12:00 am
Dec 9:
During the night I feel my throat getting sore.
Didn't know if it was the dry air in the room or a cold starting.
In the morning it was obvious it was a cold (I was partially responsible for bringing it on)
I have breakfast (cereal, buy fruit and milk from the hotel restaurant)
Sweetheart comes to meet me at 1 pm at the hotel.
I don't tell her I'm sick.
We go to the 'Butterfly Museum' for an hour or so.
Very hot and humid in the butterfly room.
Then we go for lunch at a Russian-style restaurant.
We have same salads, I have borsht, she has mixed meat dish.
End it with a green tea.
Very filling lunch
We take a brief walk around the Ballet Theatre and return to the same restaurant to wait for her daughter (25, teacher and fitness instructor, married).
We have another green tea and then head to the Ballet for 7 pm
Ballet goes from 7 - 9 pm with intermission
Daughter's husband picks us up outside the theatre and takes me to my hotel.
On the way we stop for fruit and milk for my breakfast.
I kiss her goodnight and she'll call me tomorrow around noon.
Dec 10:
Throat feeling a little better today
Sweetheart came to hotel at 1:00 pm by taxi
We went to art gallery for a couple of hours
Then on to a restaurant for a light lunch (salads and tea)
Then she dropped me off at my hotel by taxi and continued on back home
At 8 pm she called for our evening at friend's night club, but we had to cancel it.
The night club was being inspected because of the fire in the infamous Perm club where 150+ died.
So we didn't meet in the evening.
She also told me she wasn't feeling well (headache).
Dec 11:
She will call around 3 pm
Preparing borscht for me at her place.
I will meet her other daughter too, maybe she will play the piano for me?
I took taxi to Sweetheart's apartment.
She had borscht and two salads prepared for me.
Also some wine that her Mom had made, tasty.
She showed me her apartment, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom
She showed me her family pics
Sauna in the evening with her friends (husband and wife) followed by tea.
Dropped off back at hotel after midnight.
Dec 12:
Horseback riding, friend's daughter, Sweetheart and me.
Dinner with friends, their daughter, Sweetheart and me at Ukrainian rest. poor service.
I ordered seafood salad and pilmeni. Two poor choices. Sweetheart ordered nice steak and a good salad.
I was dropped off back at hotel at 8:30 pm.
Dec 13:
Visited Brother + wife for pilmeni and dinner, saw pics of the whole family
He's an electrician she works as estimator for electrical work.
I learned how to make pilmeni (folded the meat in the dough).
Concert
Quartet from St. Pete.
Night club
Fantastic foods prepared just for us, salads, fruit salads, wine, vodka, bread,..fish, meat in a private room.
(Her friend owns the night club and also the fitness club where she works)
The night club was really a strip club, personal striptease for me, two girls nonetheless!
We had a good talk finally. And smooched too.
Dec 14:
Dinner at the Turkistan/Ukrainian Restaurant
Modern Ballet with daughter, husband chauffered again, in -31C weather.
Said goodbye at the hotel at around 9:30 pm
Temps plummeted the next week to the mid minus 30's!
Airplane home at 4:30 am the next day !!!
