16/6/2006 23rd b day

it was one of the best birth days that i have ever had, even thought the most important people could not be there. (two of them suprised me big time. one called me and the other one organized a suprise delivery of his present.) it was great because i was able to spend it with my friends. it's something that i haven't been able to do for a very long time. mostly because i've either been on the road the day of my b day or i have been studying for an exam the next day. two of my birthdays stand out in my memories. the first one i spent somewhere between lodz, poland and yalta, ukraine. yalta was a popular holiday resort with many sanatorias where the solviet elite spent their holidays. only a handfull of these were open to foreigners. after the collapse of the solviet union in 1991 yalta has lost a lot of it's popularity. anyway we decided to follow in the footsteps of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov, and we bought a two week vacation in one of the resorts. little did we know about what awaited us. the malfortune started from the very beginning. we were suppose to be flown straight to the town. instead we were put on a train and told that we were just being transported to the airport. on our way to yalta we never did arrive to an airport. instead we spent the next two days on trains and buses. at one point, in brest, belarus our guide abandoned us we were a group of about 30 polish stuck without any help. we finnally got hold of the agency that was in charge of the trip and we were given a hotel for the night. the hotel was dirty and creepy, we had insects everywhere in the room. the next day we moved on towards yalta. the rest of the trip was no less exciting from the beggining but that's a story for another day. the second one was on my 19th b day. that was the day i left france for good. i finished packing, drove with david lf to paris, and found myself in poland.