I'm on a bus, heading to Simferopol. It's travelling very slowly, and I wonder how long it will take us to get to Yevpatoria, where I'll switch busses, or maybe take a taxi instead. I can share a taxi with a few other people for not much more than a bus ticket, and the ride is considerably faster. (Only sometimes the taxi drivers are scary drivers.)
This bus is probably the oldest bus I've been on in Ukraine, which is saying something. I always breathe a sigh of relief when a bus here starts; it seems a chancy thing. On this particular bus I'm happy with both halves of the door slide closed--partially--as we move on after a stop. There's about a a 50-50 possibility that one side will stay stuck open. The passenger in the seat by the door pushes the open side closed (mostly) when it doesn't shut automatically. Only now that passenger has moved, so I wonder what will happen after the next stop? Not that I blame him for being nervous. This is not a smooth ride. I wouldn't want to be near a partially open door either, no matter how slow we're moving.
The landscape out the window has changed considerably since I last wrote to you from a bus. There are leaves on the trees lining the road, and green fields. To the left, until the road branches away, is an endless seeming field of bright yellow flowers. Too thick and even on the ground to be anything other than a sown field. What are they? The only yellow crop I know is mustard flowers, but I don't know enough to tell if that is what is growing there. I wish I had my camera. It is astonishingly beautiful.
The last time I took this road most fields were plowed a rich brown; now most are growing plants of various shades of green. Every field we pass I wonder what is growing there. What green thing is growing, and when will it show up in the bazaar for me to buy? Every day now I make myself a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, and green onions. It is so good to have something other than potatoes. Each week now brings some new vegetable into season; soon I expect the fruit to begin appearing. Part of me wishes I could be here this summer to see everything as it ripens. But most of me is glad I will be gone, travelling, for a good part of June, July, and August.
I am going to Simferopol today, a 3.5 hour trip each way, to buy a train ticket. I might be able to buy one in Yevpatoria--I'm not sure, and it seems unlikely--but I'll be travelling with a friend and we want seats together. In Ukraine you can't buy a train ticket without showing your passport, so both of us must be there to buy the tickets. And we need to buy them early, because we've been told that the trains too and from Crimea fill up early in the summer. So we're buying out tickets a month ahead.
Where am I going? To Odessa by train, and from there by bus to Bolgrad. Bolgrad is a little town south of Odessa, near the Moldova border. (We can't go to Moldova. It's impossible for Americans to get visas.) A friend of mine lives in Bolgrad, and I'm going to work in the summer camp she's having. We Volunteers can't just travel where we like during the summer, even though there's no school. We actually have to take vacation days--we get 24 of them a year--if we want to go frolicking about. ("Frolicking" is such a good word!) Working at summer camps is a way to do a little bit of travelling throughout Ukraine without using our vacation days--which are best spent on international travel, if you ask me! I'm going to work in two or three camps this summer. (Two for sure; I'm waiting to hear if the third has room for me.) Next summer I'd like to have my own camp, once I've figured out exactly what a summer camp is. So this summer is research.
I've been fantasizing about summer travel in all my recent daydreams. I have lists of all the places I want to go:
- June: Odessa, Bolgrad, and Cherkasy in Ukraine.
- July: L'viv and Crakow. (Poland! Crakow's supposed to be a great city.)
- August: Romania? Remote possibility of Georgia and Armenia.
- Fall break: Egypt, if affordable and we can find a few guys to go with us.
- Christmas break: St Petersburg. Or maybe Turkey? Nepal? (Supposed to be beautiful in early January.) Somewhere!
- Spring Break: Turkey? Russia--Trans-Siberian Railway?
- Next summer: Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania? Must be around for people to visit me! (And if I travel with them, I won't have money to go anywhere else.)
More places or dreams than I have the time or money for--and I could add another 6 countries to list easily. But one must prioritize, even daydreams. They're more fun when they're somewhat realistic! I definitely want to take the Trans-Siberian Railway, if I can find someone else to go with. Not something I want to do on my own--too much time on a train, and there's no way I could bring enough books to keep myself occupied! (Anyone interested? Say next March or early summer? I'll speak Russian really well by then....) I want lots and lots of stamps in my passport by the time I leave Peace Corps.
And going to Simferopol to buy a train ticket is the beginning of it all. At least, that's how it feels today, on this bus, with the green fields rolling past. It's a beautiful day!
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