Memories of Ice Cold Coke

End of Day Nine

Vitals:  Bill took Paul to visit Ruslan today and I stayed "home" to do school with the other three.  In the afternoon, we went downtown to a notary to get some paper work started so they can legally separate Ruslan and his sister.  I got a little lost on the way.  That transfer station is SO packed.  If you get in the wrong river of humanity, there is NO TURNING BACK.  I knew we were in the wrong stream, but there was no way out.  We ended up exiting the Teatralna exit rather than the Zoloti Vorota, which is where I wanted to be.  I just kept walking with the crowd until we hit the open air and called Nadya, our translator, to figure out how to get to St. Sophia's (where we were meeting)  from where we were.

Not So Vital: The notary's office was behind the Hyatt (or maybe the Hilton--anyway, big, fancy, American hotel).  I recognized it from the last time I was here in 1988.  We visited five cities-but Moscow twice- and stayed around a week in each city.  There was no cold anything; no cold water, no ice and definitely no a/c.  By the time we got to Kyiv, I hadn't had a cold drink in about a month.  To make matters worse, there was no plain water.  All they had to drink was orange Fanta and/or seltzer water.  There was no cold, plain water anywhere.  It was deep summer and I was dying.  I remember the Hyatt because it is a glass building, well maintained and as soon as I saw it, I knew American's would be there.  We got some free time and I made a bee-line for their bar and bought a diet coke with ice.  It cost me $2.50, which was a lot at the time, although I had $5 with me, just in case.  I still remember that drink.

As soon as we passed by it today, I was right back there, sitting at the bar, cooling my hands on my glass and savoring every swallow.  Looking back, I wonder why I didn't get an ice water, but I don't think they had clear, bubble free, bottled water here back then.  I don't remember drinking it even once.  At any rate, I remember that coke.  If you remember in Gone With the Wind, Scarlett begged Ashley for "Just one kiss.  I swear I'll live on it the rest of my life!!"  ...It was sort of like that.  I lived on that drink for the rest of the summer.

Anyway, they have coke here now, and ice, and I'm grateful. The papers are signed...and we wait....