It was summer, 1973. I was in Leningrad (now, St. Petersburg). While I was touring, I recognized that no car had windshield wipers. I was wondering what would they do if it rained. Then, it started raining. Lo-and-behold! Every car in sight stopped and the driver opened his (there was no her) trunk, pulled out the windshield wipers and put them on. It didn’t take me long to understand the situation. The wipers were precious commodities and easily stolen. So, you have to hide them.
I stayed in Gastinitsa Astoria, supposedly one of the best hotels. But the toilette tank had a broken cover. The TV gave no picture, just sound. The room was so small and smelly. On the other hand, in Moscow, I stayed in a large hotel near the Red Square. My room was very big with chandeliers and a grand piano. I just couldn’t believe why so much difference in rooms you could get for the same $50/day. Well, what do you expect in Soviet. You didn’t select the hotel or room; the Inturist did. In order to get a visa to Soviet you had to prepay the Inturist at $50/day, which included a room and breakfast, a translator-guide and a chauffeured car. As far as currency exchange is concerned, I illegally exchanged all of my greenbacks on the street. (Quite a risky deal.) The official rate was two bucks for a ruble, but on the street, a buck got a ruble. By the way, in Switzerland, one buck was worth 16 rubles in the open market. Anyway I was loaded with rubles. So, at a restaurant I ordered two bottles of wines, half dozens of imported beers, caviar and whatever. The waiter asked me how many people were going to be at my table. I said, “odin.” He was very surprised at this little fellow, going to eat and drink all this. What a heroic deed! No, I couldn’t eat and drink them all. I just wanted to make sure that I go hungry for the night because the waiter won’t show up for another hour. Remember: you are in Soviet Union. There was a bar, where imported lacquers were offered and only the hard currency was accepted. You would pay greenbacks; the bartender would give you change in assortment of Deutsche mark, Swedish crona, Japanese Yen, or whatever he happened to have in a tray. Of course he would skip math; his objective is just keep a customer from complaining, “Hey, where is my change?” In fact I got more in change than I paid. Next day I had a big hangover. While I was eating breakfast, I noticed a young oriental fellow with two sexy Russian girls at the corner. He invited me to join them. So, I gladly obliged. He said, “I am from Tashkent. I would like to introduce you to beautiful Russian prostitutes.” I thought he was joking and asked, “Aren’t they supposed to work at night? I have never heard of Lady of Morning.” He wasn’t joking and tried to solicit business from me. I said, “Very interesting but I don’t have time. My train leaves for Warsaw in about two hours.” He replied, “Oh, you can enjoy a good, intensified, short sex.”
I left Moscow on an express train. (No, I didn’t have a quickie.) I had a first class sleeping cabin with two beds. Two cabins shared a shower. While you use the shower, the door from the neighboring cabin automatically closes. It was a very comfortable cabin. In the dining car I met a German couple with a young daughter, about 13 years old. We talked about many things (I speak German), especially about Dresden where I was to deliver a speech at International Conference of Medical and Biological Engineering. He turned out to be a chemical engineer and his organization was going to build a plant in Poland. At night this German fellow came to my cabin and asked my favor to let his daughter sleep in my cabin. I could hardly believe: he totally trusted me, or he was very brave or he was nuts? Or, all of the above? She was apparently very tired and couldn’t sleep while sitting in the regular seat. So, I let her be my roommate for a night.
Next day, the train crossed the border from Russia to Poland. The train went into a large building and stopped there for about two hours. Then suddenly the train started floating. That’s what I felt. Actually the cars were getting jacked up to change the wheels underneath. Poland and Russia are using different gages of railways. After the wheel change a border control officer came, followed by a customs officer. The latter started negotiating with me to exchange my greenbacks with Polish currency at black market rate. This was the first and last time I had ever been solicited for illegal transaction from a governmental officer. (I have traveled 57 countries.) He gave me a good rate. I had a tremendous introduction to Poland!
Since then I haven’t been in Russia or Poland although I went to Ukraine four times. I suppose things have changed so much since.
