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Continued from last entry....
It was at that point that Valera came downstairs bearing a navy blue and red fluffy robe and proceeded to dress me in it. The robe actually had a hood and no way to tie it up. Valera pointed at himself and punched the air. Fighter?! I said Da! Said Valera excitedly, obviously pleased I'd gotten the drift so quick. He held up three fingers and made the sign for knock out, three knock outs, impressive. Champion, said Costa and pointed to Valera.
Wow, I thought to myself and smiled, I'm sitting in a kitchen in Russia, kissing a gorgeous, twenty three year old, Siberian prize fighter, while wearing his fight robe. I am doing well for myself. Costa still looked a bit annoyed, I wanted to say to him, if you want to pick up chicks, don't use someone this stunning, this impressive, this young and this fun as your wing man.
At one point Valera did go off to the shop to get cigarettes and left me with Costa, which made me slightly uncomfortable. It was while I was sitting at the table with him that I noticed he was wearing a wedding band. He saw me take notice of this and told me his wife's name was Natasha and made a sign like sleeping. I took that to mean, she was dead. What else could it have meant, she obviously wasn't here and asleep in the house. I actually felt a bit sorry for him at that point, although again, I wanted to point out, that if you want to pick up chicks, don't wear a wedding ring!
Valera came back, with another friend, a well-dressed young man, with an iphone, with google translate! I never found out what this guy's name was, but his phone did enable Valera to actually communicate with me. He handed me the phone, but for the life I of I couldn't think of anything I actually wanted to say to him. Valera's friend typed into the phone and the message translated as: They are nice guys, just maybe had too much to drink, you're in good hands. I wasn't worried anyway, I figured if they were going to kill me they would have gotten on with it already, I appreciated the sentiment though.
The new comer stayed for a few drinks before leaving, at which point Costa put on MTV and Valera and Iz went upstairs to have some alone time. Most of which included lots of kissing and mumbled Russian conversation attempts and giggling.
When we came downstairs, Costa's wife (very much alive) and daughter were just walking in the door with a load of shopping. Costa's daughter, Natalia immediately picked up the kitten and put him on her shoulder. That explains the kitten I thought. I was also very glad at this point that I had basically dumped Costa for Valera. Cheeky b*****, going out and trying to pick up girls and telling them his wife was dead!
I sat in the kitchen for about another hour, before Valera decided we should go for a walk. He gave me a jumper to wear and even set about trying to find me some long pants. I said it was fine, and off we went. I couldn't help noticing things about him, like the fact that he pulled out a chair for me to sit down so I could put my shoes back on, he opened the gate to the house and allowed me to walk through it. He held my hand as we walked, every so often stopping to kiss me passionately in the moon light. He looked me in the eyes at one point and actually said, I, love, you, he looked like he was really straining to remember the right words. I knew this was probably an attempt to say he really liked me, how could you love someone after only one day? I appreciated the sentiment though and looked into his amazing green eyes and said, I love you too. This was not what I had expected at all, I expected I was going to be taken back to Listvyanka now. We did get into a cab and go back to Listvyanka, we said hello to a few people Valera met along the way and I was introduced to everyone. We then got back into another cab, picked up some potatoes along the way and went back to Costa's place where Costa's wife had made dinner.
It was now getting a bit late and I was getting worried about being locked out of the chalet, Valera and Costa both said I was welcome to stay over and Valera even made up a bed for me in the lounge room. I would have loved to have stayed with him, but going through the walk of shame in front of my clients the next day was something I probably just couldn't deal with.
I managed to communicate that I needed to go back to the hotel, I did stay for dinner, I was starving after all and Natasha poured me a shot of vodka. Having the shot, I didn't think was optional. You do not refuse a shot of Vodka from a Russian woman in her own home. I had my shot and Natasha drove me back to the hotel, Valera came along for the ride and sat in the back with both arms around me and his head on my shoulder, well at least I thought he was only along for the ride. They knew the street I was staying on, and when I said, Nicholai, the name of the owner of the chalet I was met with a chorus of, Ahh Nicholai! I don't know why I was surprised at this, as if anyone in this small town wouldn't know our over excitable proprietor.
Natasha pulled up to the front of the chalet and I said, Speseba! PAHJAHLOOSTA! She said exclaimed in a way that said to me, thank god you know at least one word of Russian. I got out of the back of the silver four wheel drive and so did Valera, I kissed him what I thought was goodbye, but he pointed at the hotel and just said, Dah? Hmmmm…what the hell I thought, everyone's probably in bed. OK, I said, if you want, let's go. Valera motioned for Natasha to leave him and we walked up the stairs and through the front door of the wooden chalet together, with me motioning for him to be quiet.
I thought everyone would have been in bed, but unfortunately I ran straight into Colin who was sitting in the lounge room reading. Colin said that Andy and Paul had gone out looking for me because Nicholai was going to lock up soon. Unfortunately, my phone had decided not to work and I couldn't call them and tell them I was there. At this point Valera had seen that Colin was someone I knew and introduced himself. I shrugged my shoulders at Colin, smiled and went upstairs to my room with Valera.
I unlocked the door, again making the shhhhh sign and telling him to be quiet, I did have clients in the next room after all. He came inside and immediately laughed at either how messy my room was or how much stuff I had. Suddenly it hit me, I'm back at the hotel, I have WiFi! I can use google translate! I managed to get the website up on my iphone and typed in, I have been travelling from Australia, I have been away for almost seven months. I hit the Translate button and some Cyrillic words appeared. I showed the screen to Valera, whose eyes lit up and a look of understanding passed over his amazing face.
Valera now picked up my phone and motioned me to show him how to use it. I changed the settings to Russian to English and changed over the keyboard to Cyrillic and he typed something in for me. I hit the translate button, You are very beautiful, the message said. I looked into his beautiful green eyes and I was lost, I had no idea how to respond. I had to say something, so knowing my chances of seeing this amazing guy again were pretty much nil I typed in, You're one of the best looking guys I've ever seen, I can't stop looking at you. I think he may have been a little embarrassed by that as he just looked at his feet.
It was now about 1am and Valera motioned that he needed to get home, I put on some warm clothes and walked him out, unfortunately running into Paul on the way, who Valera also introduced himself to. I walked him down to the gate and he kissed me goodbye, he said something like Neyt pa Rooski, Moi Neyt pa Anglaise, which I took to mean something along the lines of You don't speak Russian and I can't speak English, it would never work out. He put his arms around me and held me for a long time before he simply said, Goodbye, one of the only English words he had managed to utter the entire day. Ironically, a word I would have known, the most beautiful phrase in the Russian language, Das Vi Danya, gorgeous, I said as he walked away. He just looked back and smiled.
- comments
Mum How could you get into a cab with two strange guys, you must be mad and don't tell me "I have a black belt remember?" He was a very fit athlete. I'm amazed, I only did this once to get home after all the transport stopped and nearly lived to regret it, (if you know what I mean). I was very lucky - please be careful.