A reunion and celebration

When my head hit the pillow last night, I was gone. We were so tired but this morning we woke again woke up early again. Kaliningrad is one hour behind Moscow and Moscow is 7 hours before Argentina. At this stage my built in clock is going haywire and not working properly. I guess I need to give it some time.Patience is the key.

We were invited for lunch at my mother-in-law`s house. I had no idea what time lunch was in Russia and Andrey told me at 2pm. Andrey`s mom turned 80 in April and we bought her an electronic photo frame in Moscow. We still needed to load photos for her. We quickly went through all the photos and set it up for her. Some time ago I wrote about Nostalgia and posted a collage of old photos on my blog. We decided to load these photos for her.

Kaliningrad has changed so much since we have last been here. Glass buildings are everywhere and it looks so different.  It took us some time to orientate ourselves but we eventually found the bus and were on our way. We got stuck in traffic – an accident and arrived 30 minutes late. Mom was anxiously waiting for us.

As we walked down the street to her house we got so excited! I immediately noticed that her house was painted. We just opened the gate when she came around the corner. What a wonderful sight to see Mom and son reunite after 4 years. I got tears in my eyes as I saw them embrace and kiss. Then it was my turn and she hugged and kissed me like I was her own child. It felt so good and I was so happy to see her!

She hasn`t aged much. Yes she is older but her face still looks the same. The body is moving a lot slower and she recently broke her arm. She has difficulty moving it. My mother in law grows and sells Tulips and her garden is always filled with these gorgeous flowers. She told us that spring came too early this year and she couldn`t sell anything. Now she has to wait for the next batch. I felt sorry for her. This supplements her small pension. I am looking forward to help her sell the tulips.

She prepared a feast for us. By the looks of it, she must have cooked all night! We had smoked meat, peroshkee with cream cheese,potatoes,meat,tomatoes,cucumber and lastly a very fine bottle of French wine. Then tea with biscuits and chocolate. You really have to restrain yourself not to eat too much! Luckily we do a lot of walking so I hope to burn all those calories!

She loved her photo frame and we had to explain that she doesn`t have to do anything. Plug it in and leave it. I believe that photos help people remember the good times and for older people it brings back nice memories. She often commented on some of the photos and I could see that she liked it.

After lunch she took us through her house and she explained to Andrey what she needs to get done. Her house is very old and in places it is falling apart. Andrey was looking to find a small job in Russia but she told him to rather work for her. By the looks of it, Andrey will have his hands full. We are happy to help.

Andrey`s mom wanted to go away for 10 days to the Baltic sea with a Veteran club that she belongs to but didn`t want to leave her house, plants and cat for so long. We offered to stay in the house and she was so excited. I believe she is going to make arrangements for the trip within the next couple of days.

It was time to leave and to head back to our own apartment. The idea was to go back, change and then go for a walk. But Murphy was up to his normal tricks and we accidently took the wrong bus, ended up in the wrong place and couldn`t find our apartment. I must add that all apartment buildings in Russia look all the same! We also couldn`t find any street names! After walking in circles we finally headed back to the apartment of Andrey`s sister and sheepishly asked for directions! They laughed a lot and Misha walked us back to the other apartment! I hope we won`t get lost again!

Tomorrow we will be going back to Mom`s house and in the evening we are invited for dinner at his sister`s apartment.

Where: Kaliningrad,Russia.

When: 23 May 2012