Journal Updates of Winston's 6 Month Adventurein Russia and Latvia 2003
By Winston Wu
Relevant Links
To view photos of the females and places described in these journal updates, see my Photojournals, Photo Collage and Slide Shows at:
To order the video footage of my Russia/Eastern Europe Adventures/Misadventures:
To read the story of my other trips to Russia, download these journal updates:
To view a synopsis of my Russia trips:
To get my Guide Traveling and Dating in Russia or other ebooks:
To meet Russian/Ukrainian women or other Foreign women:
Introduction
These are the excitingdramatic journal updates I wrote to my mailing lists during my 6 month adventurein Russia and Latvia in 2003 from February 16 to July 20. To accompany these journal updates, I also have an online Photojournal of this trip as well as for the other ones, which will allow you to put faces and scenes with what you read here. You can see it at:
If you feel enriched or benefited from my experiences and discoveries, you may help contribute to my site and movement by buying my ebooks, Russia Videos or joining one of my dating sites at these links:
Anyway, please enjoy my adventures in the land that most Americans know nothing about and have the totally wrong impression of.
Feedback can be sent to me at my email or contact form:
Best Regards,
Winston
Preliminary Pre-Trip Outline Plan
As I did before my first trip, I had a preliminary outline plan before this trip. If you read the story of my first trip, you may remember it. If you haven't though, I suggest that you do, if you have the time and interest. Or at least glance through my online photo journal of it to get the synopsis of it. Here was the situation I faced. After my 1st trip, I became totally infatuated with my experiences there, which went down as a classic in my memory bank. They were meaningful, exciting, dramatic, and I felt very enriched. Everyday I thought of returning to Russia. I worked hard for almost 6 months since the end of the first trip, to save up some money for my return trip. During that time, I felt alienated from my little town in America. No one could relate to me or understand me, what I had discovered, and how it changed my life. I had little social life too. My life was filled with loneliness, isolation, boredom, lack of stimulation, etc. The only thing that kept me going was the fond memories of my exciting experiences in Russia, which changed my life and view of the world, giving me hope and meaning as well.
If you're familiar with the characters from my 1st trip, here was what happened with them during this time. I kept in touch with Natasha E regularly through the phone. She was unable to try to use email, and even more oddly, she didn't respond to a very long thoughtful letter I sent to her regarding my thoughts and feelings about us. Her only excuse was that she didn't have time, which was odd since she didn't work or go to school (her sausage stand was suspended due to lack of business). And she was sometimes grumpy when I called her. But she did appreciate the nice black dress I bought her for her birthday though. And she was looking forward to seeing me again upon my return. Therefore, I had mixed feelings about her, since she gave me mixed signals. I would give her a chance, I thought, since she deserved it for how she treated me last time, but in no way was I putting all my chips or hopes on her, which some suggested I do. It was simply unwarranted. I would visit other girls and explore other options as well. But since she was the top candidate, someone I knew in person, and we had a romance which was cut short last time with the most romantic parting I ever experienced, she would definitely be the one I see first. And whether I visited other ladies after that would depend on how that went first.
With Evgeniya of Dnepropetrovsk though, the other girl who seemed to like me, something odd happened. When I called her, she said something quick and then hung up on me. This happened twice. I figured she changed her mind about me or lost interest for some reason, but I couldn't figure out why since she seemed to like me last time, her body language was positive, and she said so in my video camera she held as well when she filmed me riding the horse. Before I met her though, she occassionally did that as well when I called from overseas, so I wondered if it was nothing personal. Anyway, her sister Yulia did write to me and apologize for Evgeniya's hanging up on me though, saying that she was "moody and changeable". But it didn't matter much anyway, since she was too young and child-like for me, and I wasn't planning on going to Ukraine anyway. The hassle of getting a second visa for that country wasn't worth it, and there was no one special to me there. Besides, I didn't feel the soulful connection toward Ukraine that I had for Russia either. Therefore, with Evgeniya out of the picture, my best hope still remained with Natasha E.
In regards to some of the other women I visited during my 1st trip, Olga and Natalia of St. Petersburg, and Irina of Simferopol, they proved to be total flakes and good-for-nothing, so there was no point of seeing them again. However, I still kept in touch with Elena of Mariupol though. She turned out to be the true friend she promised to be, so she was worth keeping in touch with, even though I had no plans to return to Ukraine.
Now with Julia of Cherepovets though (whom no one who knows anything about my 1st trip could ever forget), things were tricky. In my first trip, she had proven herself to be a floosy gold digger. Almost everyone recommended I not see her again. I knew they were right, but she was fun and interesting at least, and never boring for sure. And I was still heavily infatuated with her friend Katya, the mega bombshell whom I had a long makeout kiss with last time, and expressed some interest in going to America with me. So if there was even a chance ...... Anyhow, Julia and her friends were never boring at least, and so controversial and a-moral that any experience with them would make a good story. It seemed that no trip to Russia would be complete without them. Besides, I had spoken with Julia by phone a few times since then, and she was interested in seeing me again, so she invited me to visit her again. Therefore, with my 30th birthday coming up, I planned to drop in for a visit and celebrate my birthday with them. They would probably be fun to celebrate with, and whatever happened, I knew it would not be boring at least.
Also, I had kept a close online friendship with Masha from Izhevsk, whom I met on the bus in Ukraine during the first trip. She had been a real sweetheart to me, cheering me up a lot while I was depressed back home, and being there for me constantly. I wasn't sure if a relationship with her was possible or not, but she treated me so well that I felt she was worth a visit at least.
In addition to the characters from my 1st trip, I had been corresponding with some new people as well. Some I met through marriage agencies, while others I just met through online personals. I planned to visit them too, and I was fortunate that they lived close to each other. The cities they were in were near Masha's city of Izhevsk, which were Kazan, Yoshkar-Ola, and Cheboksary. A few others were in Izhevsk and Moscow as well. I would have to dedicate a whole phase of my trip to visiting them in those ring of cities.
This time, instead of a quick 6 week trip, I planned to stay at least 3 months, so I got a 3 month business visa. I was told that if I wanted to stay longer, I could leave Russia to a nearby country like Latvia to get another visa, and extend my return flight for a fee as well. It would all depend on how things went. It was difficult to organize all these visits into a set schedule, but here is what I eventually came up with. Here was the preliminary week-by-week plan for the beginning phase of the trip.
1st week: Arrive in Riga, Latvia first in early February to visit my friend and long-time pen pal Vika, since I didn't get to last time. I figured that since Latvia is right next to Russia, I could stop there first and then take a bus or train to Russia afterward.
2nd week: Take a bus or train from Riga to Moscow. Meet up with Natasha E in Moscow to continue whatever we had last time, to see if there really is anything between us, or if it was all just an infatuation last time. Spend a few days touring Moscow with her. See what happens. After that, I would be at a crossroads. With my birthday coming up on March 10, I could either go with Natasha E to her home city of Tula (assuming things went well with her) which was only 3 hours south of Moscow. Or I could go up to Cherepovets to visit Julia and Katya again, to celebrate my birthday with them. I was strongly leaning toward the second option though.
(Even before the trip, I was strongly leaning toward the Cherepovets option, because I knew that Julia and Katya, despite their greediness and looseness, were much more fun to have a birthday with, and could throw a much better party for me, since they were more wild than Natasha was. And since this would be my 30th birthday, it was a special milestone and I wanted it to be as interesting and fun as possible. Julia had invited me to visit her again anyway. In addition, I was still infatuated with Julia's friend Katya and the incredible kiss she gave me last time, and I badly wanted to see her again, especially since she said she might be interested in going to America and having an American boyfriend. I was hoping to be a candidate. And besides, whatever happened, these people were never boring at least, and no trip seemed complete without them.)
3rd and 4th week: With my birthday on the 4th week, this time would most likely be spent in Cherepovets for the reasons mentioned above.
5th week: After Cherepovets, I would go back to Moscow and then I could either go to Tula to see Natasha E again (depending on how our time went in Moscow) or I could implement the next phase of my plan and head east to the other areas I wanted to go to, which were Izhevsk, Kazan, Yoshkar-Ola, and Cheboksary. All four of those cities were in close proximity to each other, so it was convenient to circle around them as needed.
In Izhevsk, I would see my friend Masha whom I met on a bus in Ukraine during my first trip, and had been corresponding extensively with since then. Also, there was also another girl in that city to see, Oksana, whom I had met online. In Kazan, there were two ladies to visit as well, Gulechka, whom I met online, and the other Alena, introduced to me by someone else. Then in Yoshkar-Ola, there was one lady to visit, Marina (whom I met after a scam happened where another agency had an impostor writing to me under her identity <long story>) and the famous reputable Virginia agency ( which I heard a lot of good things about. If things didn't work out with Marina, I could always get some on-the-spot introductions through them. In Cheboksary, there was another lady to see named Natalia, whom I met online through an affiliate agency of Virginia.
Now, with all these cities and people to visit during this phase, the time frame of it all was obviously highly uncertain. It would all depend on how things went in each city and with each person, and whether the situations and events there warranted staying longer or cutting the visit short. It was anybody's guess as to what would happen and how that would affect the time schedule. Therefore, the tour through these four cities would have to be played by ear, arranging things as they come along. As a result, I could only give the people I was to visit there, approximations of when I would arrive, knowing that they could be subject to change. Hopefully though, none of the women will ask me if I was visiting other women in other cities (that would be a tough one to explain away obviously!) The only thing I did know was that on the map, Izhevsk was the furthest east of the four cities. Therefore, it made sense geographically to go there first, and then tour the other three cities along the way back toward Moscow.
I also figured that this phase of touring those four cities would last at least a month. Therefore, after that, there would be one more month left before my visa expired. At that point, what I would do with that last month would depend of course, on the events of the first two months, how things had gone with the women I visited, and who was the best match for me, etc. By then, I would hopefully have narrowed it down to one or two people that proved to be most promising for a long term relationship. And if needed, I could leave the country and go back to Latvia to go to the Russian embassy to extend my visa, and reschedule my return flight as well (for a fee of course).
Therefore, that was the basic plan and schedule I had. It was the best I could do, given the circumstances. With that in mind, let the curtains open so you can see what actually took place ...
The Journal Entries I Wrote During the Trip
Update from Winston in Latvia! (I'm lucky to be alive!)
Hi folks, Well it's me, Winston, writing you all from halfway around the world
in Latvia. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's in Eastern Europe
and used to be part of the former USSR. Anyway, I'm lucky to even be alive to
write this. Already, during the flight here a series of unexpected events have
already happened. Let's see, where should I begin?
Ok well I left for the airport early Sunday morning at 6am. My parents drove me
there. During the 3 hour flight to Chicago, I started having mixed feelings
about this trip since my goals and strategies were not very well defined, not
knowing what fate would deliver this time. My stomach started churning. I also
felt so surreal since I had been waiting for this trip for 6 months and couldn't
believe it was finally happening now. After the three hour flight to Chicago, I
felt better as I walked through the big airport on the way to the gate for my
next flight. When I got there though, I saw on the screen that the flight was
delayed 2 hours. So rather than it being at 4:05pm, it would depart at 6pm. I
went to the check in counter and asked if the delay would affect my connecting
flight in Frankfurt, Germany, which was at 9:55am. They said that I would
probably be able to make it. I sat in the waiting area to wait.
When it was 6pm, me and 350 people lined up to get in, but they said there was a
delay because there were technical problems with the jumbo jet. As I mingled
with the other passengers, word came around to me that the emergency lights were
not working on the plane, so they had to be fixed first. I also found out that
the reason the flight was delayed two hours earlier was because on the way to
the USA, a woman onboard had a heart attack, so they had to stop in Montreal,
Canada for emergency treatment. Now though, the emergency aisle lights needed to
be fixed by repairing the wiring or replacing the battery. At first, they said
the repairs would only delay the flight by 20 to 30 minutes. Then after an hour,
they said the same thing. This went on for several hours. At one point, they
even passed around magazines and served sodas and pretzels to us to occupy our
time. When a Lufthansa staff said "Anyone want some magazines?" I yelled back
"No, we want to get on board!" I was getting anxious now, because I knew that I
would probably miss my connecting flight in Frankfurt. Everyone else around me
were mumbling with frustration because most of them knew they would miss their
connecting flights in Frankfurt as well. Many of them couldn't afford to have
their plans delayed because they had people picking them up that they could not
contact. To pass the time, we all huddled in groups and told each other about
ourselves and where we were going. When I knew I had already missed my
connecting flight, I went up to the counter to see how else I would get to Riga.
They said they could put me on a flight a few hours later after my original
flight that would take me to Copenhagen, Denmark, and then to Riga, Latvia from
there. I would arrived there at 5:25pm instead of 1:15pm. They also gave me a 10