Welcome to Soviet-era Living
Our first night was spent in our apartment...what a dump. Words cannot describe how disheartened we felt when we walked into the tenement style building late at night. As we laid in bed (the bed that would fall to the floor as I got out of it the next morning!), John and I agreed that regardless of cost, we would move to a hotel for the remainder of our trip, or until a suitable apartment became available. Apparently, there are a number of families from our agency here at the same time, so we got the only apartment that was available (did I mention it was a DUMP?!).
The Old Windmill
Thankfully, we found a nice "boutique" hotel, The Old Windmill, in the center of town, near shopping and internet cafes. It was very quaint and rustic inside. Our room was comfortable and the hotel staff very accomodating. The only downsides were: 1.the bar/restaurant was below our room and the hotel hosted holiday parties almost every evening where karaoke was played late into the night and 2. our bed was simply a box spring-no mattress on top. In comparison to our first home, these minor inconveniences were just a "pain in our neck" - no pun intended!
Home Sweat Home
New Year's Eve day found us packing our month's worth of belongings once again. Alas, we would be missing the festivities from the biggest party of the year at our hotel, but thankfully, we'd be moving into a nicer apartment where we could spread out a bit and cook meals. Our "home away from home" is a small, one bedroom, with a living room, bathroom, and tiny kitchen. It is a little bit farther from the heart of town. By the looks of it, one would never guess this neighborhood is where the "professional" people live and supposedly very safe. Ironically, when our Coordinator dropped us off for the evening she said, "Don't open the door for anyone. If we need you, we'll call you first." (So much for that "Pleasantville" feeling I briefly had about our new abode.) The place is always hot (hence my subtitle, Home Sweat Home (and you thought it was a typo!)). Who knew we could have simply brought the same clothes from our Florida trip a few weeks' ago, on this trip? And not only is the apartment hot, but the water is scalding! As we've found out numerous times (from hearing the other yell absurdities from the kitchen sink), just a tiny move of the dial on the faucet and you go from arctic cold to boiling water. The water is well water and smells like sulfur (thank goodness for those scented candles that Keri gave us!).
