Donhollio's FSU Pursuit !

[Donhollio]

  Thank you Dudefella! 

 I try to take in some history from every trip. For me the two world wars peeks my interest, and my only reason to head to Volgograd/Stalingrad was to take in this history, and I wasn't disappointed. The museum could be better, having English available would of made it more informative. There also comes a form of bragging rights when you tell people back home you've been to Stalingrad, as those who know its history will have eyes wide open.
 In my earlier trips I took in the Great War (WW1) historical sites, Tyne Cot cemetery, Vimy Ridge National Park to name a couple. Those photo's are found in the first few pages of this trip report. Had World WarTwo/Great Patriotic War not happened, and Europe had managed to not implode, has always left me wondering just how different history would of been.
 Would the CCCP have taken the path it did? Would both the east and west been better neighbours? And of course if the CCCP didn't dissolve, would any of us be here and involved with wanting a FSU girl?
 It's something you guys can think about. For me not paying respect to those who fought to keep our countries free by taking time out to visit sites like this never entered my mind, it had to be done. Had the British Commonwealth and the Red army stood by, this forum wouldn't exist. Our grandparents would of been eliminated, and it would be a very different world indeed.

 Good luck in your search Dudefella, again thanks for reading it, and that it didn't bore you at all. I made the decision to post photos as I feel it helps to give the reader a better connection to the people involved (who ever said comic books are a waste of literature don't know what they are talking about)

[Anteros]

Don.. don't know if you want comments on this.. But if you still wondering where you made mistake and if she made mistake judging you too strictly. I think it was your mistake still.
I'll try to explain: As I understood you communicated and liked each other, it was serious step to visit her, she waited for you, there was some level of lcloseness between you two which means care of each other.
I understand you could consider her behavious as cold, but as you tell she had sick mother. And.. you know if I visited a man and if he had sick mother I'd try to help him and wouldn't require and expect him to spend all the  time with me. And in case if I offered help but it would appear that it couldn't be accepted then only in this case I'd think how to spend time somewhere alone and maybe have fun.

On your place I'd ask her if you can somehow help her, maybe accompany her to hospital. I don't mean financial support btw. But maybe go with her, help with buying food - as here people usually take food when go to those who are in hospital.
If she worked this all was not easy for her at all. And if she used minibus but not taxi it was even more difficult - therefore she had to restrict herself in spending, had to carry maybe heavy things in hands. Do you at least know what exactly was sickness of her mother?

I have to agree with Alenika 100%.  I think Russian women like to test men and if you fail these tests then there is no future with that particular one...

[Anteros]

  Thank you Dudefella! 

 I try to take in some history from every trip. For me the two world wars peeks my interest, and my only reason to head to Volgograd/Stalingrad was to take in this history, and I wasn't disappointed. The museum could be better, having English available would of made it more informative. There also comes a form of bragging rights when you tell people back home you've been to Stalingrad, as those who know its history will have eyes wide open.
 In my earlier trips I took in the Great War (WW1) historical sites, Tyne Cot cemetery, Vimy Ridge National Park to name a couple. Those photo's are found in the first few pages of this trip report. Had World WarTwo/Great Patriotic War not happened, and Europe had managed to not implode, has always left me wondering just how different history would of been.
 Would the CCCP have taken the path it did? Would both the east and west been better neighbours? And of course if the CCCP didn't dissolve, would any of us be here and involved with wanting a FSU girl?
 It's something you guys can think about. For me not paying respect to those who fought to keep our countries free by taking time out to visit sites like this never entered my mind, it had to be done. Had the British Commonwealth and the Red army stood by, this forum wouldn't exist. Our grandparents would of been eliminated, and it would be a very different world indeed.

 Good luck in your search Dudefella, again thanks for reading it, and that it didn't bore you at all. I made the decision to post photos as I feel it helps to give the reader a better connection to the people involved (who ever said comic books are a waste of literature don't know what they are talking about)

Fascinating questions to ask, and most people never even bother to think about such things.  I am in particular a believer in alternate Universes.  In an alternate Universe the USA did not get involved in WWI, and consequently because of a fair settlement to the conflict for all involved parties there was no WWII.  Because of that Stalin in particular would not have lasted as long as he did, and the FSU would probably be a much better place because of it.  Hitler would have been a washed up wanna be painter in an insane asylum where he belonged.  40 to 50 million people would not have perished.  You could still meet your future woman in the FSU but it would probably be a lot more difficult as there would not be the shortage of Russian men which was primarily caused by WWII.  Also the economy of FSU would probably be much better...so why would any lady want to leave??

[Donhollio]

  Also the economy of FSU would probably be much better...so why would any lady want to leave??

 It's fairly simple I think. People fall in love and they want to be where the partner is. I know a Canadian person that lives in Melbourne AU, his wife is a AU citizen, and they met and lived here in Canada. She's a lawyer by profession, and he has no trained skills I'm aware of, yet she would rather live in Canada, and he wants Australlia. Last autumn she moved back to AU with the hubby and two kids. He loves his job as a delivery driver, and shes back as an attorney.
 Now some would say why would she leave Melbourne for the cold of Winnipeg, well some people like change.
 If the FSU had a good economy, more westerners may move there to be with their partners, but its fairly rare to find any westerner on this forum who wants to call the FSU their new homeland. (Baltic Commonwealth states are exempt.)

[calmissile]

Donhollio,
I think you are correct however, if the US continues into the toilet and is headed to becoming a 3rd world country I could think of worse places to live than Ukraine.  I love the people (in rural areas so far) and don't mind showering under a bucket of warm water.  What I would really miss is my hobbies and ability to find work/business venture that would pay the bills!

[MBS01]

Doug:
If things pick up in the FSU who knows your skills might one day be in demand even in Ukraine.  Most Soviet Rockets were built in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine which in the Soviet days was a "closed city" because of this and did not even appear on maps of the day and was off limits to foreigners or even visiters from other parts of the CCCP!  Even one of its former Presidents was a "Political Member" there in the old days.

So since the USA no longer has a world class space programme and shuttles you might have some skills in demand in the FSU.   Something to consider perhaps?

[Gonzo859]

Wow!    What a read!  Don't mean to  but quite the educational and, if I may say, inspirational TR Don!  Thank you! 

As I head to UA for the first time in, OMG, less than two weeks I found it to be most helpful with some of the do's and don'ts.      Does you friend still run the ESL school there?   Did you ever make it to Nikolayev?   Can you suggest any non-agency sites for the Odessa area?  Would like to set my plan B with non-agency ladies to try to minimize my  .   One lady has already mentioned "go for the sushi"    Will make that a future meal after I take her to and she survives McD's,    it is about a block from my apartment.   

I too am interested in military history so I hope to find some good places to see in the area.

 

[Larry]

Gonzo,
there is a sushi restaurant not more than one block away from McDonald's that is very reasonably priced.  It's on Deribasovskaya (same street as McDonalds) in a mall, on the right as you're walking from McD to the sea.
Enjoy your trip.  And have plenty of backups.
Make sure to make it to the beach.  The scenery is excellent.

[Donhollio]

Wow!    What a read!  Don't mean to  but quite the educational and, if I may say, inspirational TR Don!  Thank you! 

   Thanks Gonzo, glad you enjoyed reading it. Some nights I find myself reading some of the past trips and even I wonder how I kept at it. Not too sure I could ever go through it all again, especially those train rides with only a few minutes to spare to make the next connection, it just seems quite crazy to me these days.

 Larry was recently in Odessa, you may want to PM him as he knows more of the city centre's streets than I do. One war related site just outside Odessa is the catacombs. A WW2 or The Great Patriotic War as its known in the FSU. They do have some war memorials within the city down by Shevchenko Park (me thinks) Tomb of the unknown sailor is one that I have photographed somewhere in this TR I believe. Ask your apartment manager for some areas where you can find WW2 related memorials.

 My friend Guy does in fact still run his school. English for Everybody is the name of the school. He recently moved to a location just by Hotel Centralnye just off of Deribasakova. Odessa's main street in the centre. I only went to Nikolayev that one day taking the mini bus, so there's not much I can offer there.
 I used two agency's in Odessa (one on each trip)  The better of the two is no longer in business, and hasn't been for years. The second one was a western European based run one by a 'inventive' manager who would sell each contact info separate, or for $20 she sells you the entire data base of as many girls as you picked. From the 20 or so I picked I wound up meeting one, but that was the end of it. Many were outdated, though I did manage a few contacts from that list, including the sushi queen and her friends.
 Don't get sushi'd on a blind date Gonzo. I think that website was called 'All for Love' don't hold me to it though.
 Hire Eduard from here to find you some contacts. It's very short notice but he can work wonders. You have a huge advantage over the casual keypad correspondent, you'll be there, that alone will garner extra attention for a first date. Be sure to tell any girl you write that you will be in Odessa, give the dates and you will get a much better response. In the mean time get on some free sites like Free Personals.ru, and try your luck.

 Have fun while your there, and be sure to tell us how it went even if it doesn't go as you hoped, sometimes it just feel therapeutic typing it all out.
 BTW , by September 5 ish the city slows right down, all the tourist have left. So it'll be a much quieter city than what Larry had witnessed. Nevertheless its still a great FSU city.

[MBS01]

Gonzo:
Do check out the "FREE SITES" as you can search by country and city there too.  Thus you can see which ladies are resident near where you will be.  It is now already 9 years since I met my wife this way.  We used freepersonals.ru so do check them out before you go and later while in country if need be.  Remember this is totally FREE!  No need to throw  away.  Now go and enjoy as others have.  Good Luck.

[tagor]

Epic was the right word for this - one of the best reads I've had on the web. Thanks Donhollio

[russiansofantalya]

  Getting to Uzbekistan ( UZ ) is not for everyone. For starters the country has a smothering level of bureaucracy, ripe with inefficientcy and needless paperwork. Alina had first applied to get a 'letter of invitation' ( LOI ) back in Late December, she was told it would be ready in 30 days,and she was to return to the office then.  The 30 days pass, and shes told its not ready, but maybe later that week. After a few weeks of this she gets a rejection,and is told to have her mom apply. Mom applies and the 30 day countdown is back on. Of course it wasn't ready and the following month it wasn't ready, nor the month after that. In fact it took about 5 months to get the LOI. Now I had wanted to travel and see her again back in April, I didn't really want to catch the summer season, even though she had the summer off. I knew it made the most sense to go in summer, so getting annoyed by the extra 'processing' months was still a good idea.

thanks god i have Turkish passport, no need for visa, uzbekistan , russia, azerbaycan , kazakistan...

[russiansofantalya]

Don,

you could meet with her with no visa hassle at all in Turkey, there are are flights almost everyday Taskent-

İstanbul or Taskent-Antalya,  and these flights cheaper than 700 usa dollars...

you didnt need to wait 5 months, plus Turkey is way better than Ukraina, Russia and Uzbekistan,

if you ever come here one day you will see it yourself.....

Citizens of Ukraina-Russia-Belarus-Russia-uzbekistan-Kazakhistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaycan  dont need

to apply for a visa to be able to Enter in Turkey...

[2tallbill]

Epic was the right word for this - one of the best reads I've had on the web. Thanks Donhollio

It's the Odyssey of Don

                                                                   

[Donhollio]

 russiansofantalya, that Turkish passport allows you much more freedom of movement over a Uzbek one. As for Turkey being better than Uzbekistan, given the choice I'd take Thailand.

Epic was the right word for this - one of the best reads I've had on the web. Thanks Donhollio

     Thank you, really glad you enjoyed it.

Epic was the right word for this - one of the best reads I've had on the web. Thanks Donhollio

It's the Odyssey of Don

                                                                   

  It sure seems that way!   

[waylan]

Thank You. What a wonderful story of your epic adventures. I was riveted to your story and hope that you have many happy years with the lucky lady.

[Vinnvinny]

Thank You. What a wonderful story of your epic adventures. I was riveted to your story and hope that you have many happy years with the lucky lady.

Welcome back Don's Mum (again). 

[GATOR]

Thank You. What a wonderful story of your epic adventures. I was riveted to your story and hope that you have many happy years with the lucky lady.

Welcome back Don's Mum (again). 

[GATOR]

thank you for wonderful adventure . I do look forward to go to Ukraine as i love to travel and have been to many country's already.

thank you DON.

[AvHdB]

Gator,

Welcome to RUA

There is an introduction section where you can learn more and others will also      :party0011:for/to you.

Ask questions and hear different answers.

AvHdB

[Donhollio]

Thank You. What a wonderful story of your epic adventures. I was riveted to your story and hope that you have many happy years with the lucky lady.

thank you for wonderful adventure . I do look forward to go to Ukraine as I love to travel and have been to many country's already.

thank you DON.

 Thank you both for enjoying my Story of getting a smokinghotkova by my side.   Always nice to see some first time posters commenting on my story.

   


I was away for some weeks vacationing with the, little human heater^TM  I found a good one in her and I hope all of you who are still in the search continue to look and find special someone.
 

   My sponsorship has entered into it's 13th month, there is a flicker of embers in the not too distant tunnel that gives me some hope that she will arrive before the end of the world later this year.
CIC (Canadian Immigration & Citizenship) has been working on things and I have been keeping tabs on the progress.  With Canada finally electing a majority government recently, changes to the CIC have been implemented with further changes as the year continues.
 Current posted wait times on their website are so far from the reality, that there is no use in looking at them to see where the file is. I know of one guy who already had his Russian wife in Canada for 2 months and the website said that they were still processing. 

  CIC also put a freeze on sponsorship of parents and grandparents of sponsored spouses for 2 years while they clear up a backlog of cases.  This year they will be introuducing the 'super visa'  (I don't know why I think of Captain Canuck when I read that)
  Anyway this is basically a multi entry visa that is valid for 10 years, and allows the parent/grandparent entry into Canada for periods up to 24 months. They will have to purchase their own medical insurance before they are allowed entry. 
  The current wait times for parents is hovering around 7 years. Why this takes so long who knows, though I do find it interesting that the CDN government flew plane loads of Haitian orphans to Canada giving them their PR visa in a matter of days, when they had never applied at all.
So once again its lovely to know Canada takes care of others before those who drive the economy and pay their taxes, thank you Ottawa.

  So even though I married her early on our relationship, it was my plan all along to do so as we both loved each other from the first meeting, and I knew that CIC was a lengthy process. Had I taken the 3-5 visits as the benchmark seems to be here for many, I would still be at the 4th visit, and about to get legally commited to her. We would still have the CIC sponsorship to go through, and that will add about 18 months to the master plan. I base this on two cases of guys sponsoring their wives out of the Embassy in Moscow.
   
  Flying to Uzbekistan, or even going there has no appeal for me, I'm basically FSU'd out. Been there, done that.  The long wait hasn't been easy, but at the same time I'm happy to say our love for each other remains stronger as the weeks tick on by. I'm very lucky to be in this situation where I don't have her expecting me every couple of months as it would be impossible. Yet when we meet its like I have only been out with the boys for a weekend.  So far it's working for us and I try to keep positive that she soon will be in Canada and all will be well.

[curiogeo7]

Don, wrote it before, but had to write it again, great story.
 Wishing you and your "human heater" the very best in this new year.

[BCKev]

Hi Don

Glad to hear you got in a visit recently. All this waiting is nuts, sounds like you're both handling the wait okay.

You're right about the posted wait times, can't rely on them that much. The CIC says they're working on applications of the sponsorship of parents/grandparents received Sept 11, 2007. That date hasn't changed for over a year. Guess they must have received a boat load of applications that day.       Still waiting on the MIL's PR. We've had the paperwork in for two years now, and the wait time then was 4.5 years. Now, after two years, only four years and one month more according to current wait times. Wonder when we will start to see evidence of this promise to reduce the backlog. 

 

[vendelo]

Don,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your TR.

I traveled this past January 2012 through eastern Europe: St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Krakow and L'viv. And am smitten by eastern European women. So naturally, I've been spending a lot of time checking out MOB web sites and luckily, came across this message board and your EPIC thread.

I appreciate your openness is revealing your emotions, thoughts, and mistakes. I've learned quite a bit from your experiences. And boy, do you have some experiences, my friend!!

Alina sounds like one in a million and I sincerely wish only the best for you, Alina, and her daughter.

~dan

[kenny2112]

Hey Don!

Are you going to update this thread or are there other threads with updates on what's up with you and Alina?