➡ransvestia

set off for the hotel and ran across the City Museum on the way so I paid my 10 kopecks admission (about 40-cents) and went in to find a lot of interesting things. Particularly interesting was a large display of objects and figures made from bits of driftwood, twigs and other things that were just mounted on bases but not otherwise altered from their natural appearance. They were pretty and clever.

We have all heard of the "Red Eye Special" flights across our coun- try but they sure aren't limited to the U.S. Aeroflot seems to specialize in weird departure and arrival times. Part of this is due to the fact that many flights originate in Moscow and travel great distances. Thus they arrive in the middle of the night and depart still later. Un- der these circumstances we picked up a flight from Irkutsk to Khab- arovsk which got us in at 2 a.m. and by the time we got to the hotel, got room assignments and baggage delivered, we were really bushed. As a result we slept until noon before getting up for a tour around the city. We were supposed to have a boat ride on the famous Amur river but it was a very cold windy day and the trip was therefore can- celled. It was over some disputed islands in this river that the Chinese and Soviets have fought on several occasions in recent years. The border is not far from the city and we could see mountains in Chinese territory from several viewpoints.

That evening we went to the railroad station to board the famous Trans Siberian Express for a trip to the port of Nahodka. Like railroad stations used to be in this country when I was young, the platform and the station was crowded with people. Naturally our tour had been planned for us so we didn't have much confusion after our baggage was deposited on the platform. We were handed tags giving the car number and the roomette we were to occupy. These consisted of a full-length (crosswise of the car) berth with a let-down berth above. Across from it was a small seat with a table with a lamp on it in be- tween. There was a washroom between two adjacent roomettes but the toilets were at the end of the car. There was space for baggage in racks over the bathroom part. If you didn't get your bags up there and out of the way you didn't have much space in the room. I, of course, could handle my own bags and I also heaved up the bags of several other elderly ladies. They made admiring comments about my strength, etc., which added to my "mystique." I call it that because I was obviously a pretty unusual woman because of my strength, ad- venturousness, outspokenness, curiosity and general question asking of the guides. There were a couple of sisters on the tour that didn't particularly like me for these various reasons, but I put them in an

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