Poll: How Many Times To The FSU?

[GoodOlBoy]

Just curious what the average number is. 


GOB

[docetae]

16 times but I included business trips...

[Ade]

Does the number of times mean much really? Wouldn't how much time spent there be a little more meaningful?

[Voyageur]

Eleven times - Now married for four (4) years

[GregfromGa]

16 trips but I'm including Tallinn(1st trip July 2001) and Warsaw(interview). I've been married almost 6 years in 10 days. I'm really looking forward to our trip later this month. An old friend, a new niece, new friends that I met last September will be there, the dollar is doing good for now. The weather should be a great kick start for football season.

[Gator]

At least 20 in 2002-2007.  Mostly in Russia.  Three trips to Ukraine.

Plus a tourist visit to meet some Dutch embassy friends in 1987. 

It was radically different in 1987 vs. today.

[Faux Pas]

At least 20 in 2002-2007.  Mostly in Russia.  Three trips to Ukraine.

Plus a tourist visit to meet some Dutch embassy friends in 1987. 

It was radically different in 1987 vs. today.

Thats heavy duty. All to visit women? What are the radical differences that stand out to you from your last trip vs 1987?

[boaterguy]

Perhaps this poll should be how many trips to get to know the woman you married.

I went 4 times to be with my now wife and lived with her for 4+1/2 months in Russia before we married.

  We lived together a whooping 2 days in the states before we married.

[Gator]

Thats heavy duty. All to visit women?

Essentially the same woman.

What are the radical differences that stand out to you from your last trip vs 1987?

Here's a sample:

Official ruble exchange rate: $1.5/1 p (not 1$/30p of today).  Unofficial rate (black market) much better but dangerous.

Gum department store in Moscow:  outside TV shop large crowd staring at color TVs with that dreamy look.  Other stores had plastic shoes and some industrial-grade clodhoppers. 

Young people:  a few followed me as I walked around Moscow and wanted to practice their English.

Restaurants:  very few in Moscow.  One evening my friends and I celebrated at one where Hitler had engraved invitations to celebrate the surrender of Moscow.  Live music.  One particular song got EVERYONE to leave their seat and dance.  Can you name that tune?  Answer at the bottom.  Bright lights came on at 10:00 pm and everyone exited at the same time.  Police outside observing the departing customers. 

My friends’ flat:  My friend was the deputy agriculture attaché and had a nice flat. Every couple of months they would discover not so discrete evidence that “someone” had visited the flat while they were away. 

Parking I:  drove up to the Kremlin wall and parked free.  Plenty of spaces.

Parking II:  upon returning from the circus to my friends’ parked Mercedes, two families were posing for photos in front of MB “star.”

Stopped by police:  My friend’s wife was waved over by the police (speeding?).  She bluffed her way out of it without paying any bribes.

Passport Control I:  upon arrival, young man with eagle eyes poked needle through my passport photo.

Passport Control II:  when departing I was stopped because I did not stay in hotel (where I could have been watched).  Almost immediately three Soviet officials appeared: uniformed man with epaulets on his shoulders, suave and finely dressed gentleman with impeccable English,  and Krushchev-look alike alike in black leather jacket.   They interrogated me Soviet style for 15 minutes and let me pass upon talking with the Dutch embassy.

Anecdote to the passport exit.  Feeling some anxiety, and having almost an hour before the plane departed, I went to the cafe and sat down at the bar.   On my left was a Cuban pilot and to the right was a middle Eastern man in uniform (Libyan?).  Upon ordering my piva, all eyes in the room turned to the stunning beauty making her entry.  She walks towards the bar…… she is walking directly towards me …. this incredible beauty is looking into my eyes ….then she speaks:  “Mr. Gator you plane is waiting for you to board.  Please follow me to the gate.”  They knew what I looked like, the plane I was suppose to take, and my specific location in the terminal!


Answer:  Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley.  Not my tastes, yet Muscovites were purists and students of R&R.

[Vaughn]

Gator, I couldn't "get enough" of your last post...  all I have are the stories and a few rumors, as I was
forbidden by our government to visit the USSR for a minimum of 10 years when I was discharged from the
Air Force - thanks to a Top Secret security clearance. At the time I thought, "Hell - why would I ever
want to visit there?"  Little did I know.

One story that persisted throughout the latter part of the Cold War was about the man who roomed
alone in a Moscow Hotel. He scoured the room, searching for signs of "bugs" and the like, and in doing
so noticed a hard spot beneath a large rug covering the floor. After rolling back the rug, he found a
round metallic "device" holding fast to the wooden floor - and spent much time trying to pry it loose.
When he succeeded, a large crash was heard below - he loosened the fitting to a large chandelier in
the ballroom beneath his room....   fact - or fiction ??

[Gator]

When he succeeded, a large crash was heard below - he loosened the fitting to a large chandelier in
the ballroom beneath his room....   fact - or fiction ??

  Must be fact - who could make that up!?  Although I think the electrician would have attached the chandelier to a joist - unless.....

[Faux Pas]

Thanks for that Gator. Interesting comparisons. I'd love to hear more if you think of some. They'd make an interesting thread. Everywhere I go in Russia I feel ghosts. Not of a supernatural nature but more of the secrecy and misery projected on us Americans in the 60s, 70's and even the 80's. I think it's all ones perceptions but, it's there for me nonetheless.