What You Used To Be A River

Aboard the Alexander Pushkin, a soviet motor ship was where we found a Volga cruise brochure which made us want to visit the place even more. With mostly Americans on board the Volga ship, it was like getting an opportunity to find something new. Ships carrying passengers from other socialists countries, European tour groups and soviet workers on vacation frequently see these waters.

Smooth sailing and elegant is the Alexander Pushkin a 360 foot ship created near Vienna and able to seat 220 passengers. Our cabins would become party places as out foldable bunks left us with a big space. Don would be our route as we started sail early in the morning for 10 days and 1,135 miles.

Our 24 day Volga cruise began when we took a flight to Helsinki, rode a ferry ocean to Tallinn, a night train to Riga, another flight to Odessa then Krasnodar the ultimately a bus to Rostov on Don. We flew to Moscow and Leningrad when the cruise was over. Due to the desire for soviet travel agencies to lease ships to American tourists, the local travel agencies do not offer Volga cruises to Americans. However, with the Volga fleet expanded to 10 sleek vessels like the Alexander Pushkin the Soviets say it is possible for individuals to book passage on sailings that are not yet full.

For the next year around two or three more cruises will be staged by a New York based company that would spend about $1,900. The Volga cruise would usually cost $700 to $800 which allows you to see the shores and make friends with soviet locals. The night time is when the boat moves around to places while the day is spend for visitors to see what the place has to offer.

Their humorous ideas on the foreign and domestic soviet policies provide are with entertainment. Instead of a roundtable discussion it turns into speeches and opinionated lectures. What helps a lot is that Russians are also on the ship. We become aware of the fact that these people take pleasure in the little things. Alcohol keeps these people from going on all through the night.

Every morning we can hear the current of the river in our rooms. But the Volga, longest waterway in Europe, is no longer the meandering river of medieval legend because massive Soviet hydroelectric power developments have transformed the river into a series of vast lakes. Today, the villages are now smoky factories, and buildings that take up the space around the river. Now, life bustles in the rebuilt Volgograd.

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