over the river and through the woods

to Marina's dacha we go! Except make that on the 2 hour commuter train, across several train tracks, crawl under a train, scramble down an embankment, through two neighborhoods, past the senator's house, past the well, over two wooden plank bridges, and through half a mile of deep, thick mud. But we made it eventually, to her dacha. It wasn't enormous but it had some space to it. Most of the space, however, was taken up by random crap, as she explained that "anything that doesn't fit in the Moscow apartment goes here." This means 20 years worth of books, furniture, plastic containers, linens, paintings, bottles, old Mcdonalds bags, you name it. It was crowded but not unpleasant, kind of how I always imagined the "Weasley's" house to look. There was no running water but there was electricity, but no heating. So it was FREEZING. The inside temperature, when we first arrived, came in at about 2 or 3 degrees celsius. She gave me a blanket, started up the fire and got some vodka into me and then I felt a bit warmer. We had lunch and then put on our big socks and toddled our way through the mud to the well, where we collected water. Coming back to the dacha, she went outside to toil in the garden and instructed me to sit on the couch with the dog (who, wasted away as he is, was huddled next to me for warmth). I fell asleep for a bit and woke as she came back in with a bunch of potatoes. We had some more vodka (it was slightly home made... she collected berries, crushed them and added sugar, then poured some vodka in. Blackberry vodka, hmmm...) and then some dinner. I was starting to feel a bit ill, I was coughing and my head hurt. I related this to her, remarking that this would be the first time since I've been in Moscow that I've fallen ill. She gave me one of her looks and said "Emma- you're not falling ill. We can fight this." Then she made me drink red wine (box wine) mixed with hot water. Yep. It was not the nicest thing I've ever tasted but it WAS warm, which was really all that mattered to me at that point. Then she shooed me off to bed, where she had put warm bricks at my feet. This was a new experience and very 18th century, but still I did not sleep comfortably. It became increasingly difficult to breathe when I laid down, whether from illness or allergies I don't know. I slept fitfully and woke up really needing to go to the bathroom (which was outside... in the garden. If the neighbors would have been home they certainly would have seen me squatting in all my glory by the fence, but I don't think or at last I sincerely hope they weren't home). We woke late and she stuffed me full of breakfast then ordered me again to sit on the couch and watch a Pushkin movie. She even found a heating pad and placed it on my lap. I felt really pathetic and asked if I could help her in the garden but she insisted I just sit nicely and watch the movie. I did so, and afterwords she came back inside and said if I felt like it we could take a walk through the woods after tea. She seemed doubtful but I assured her I was of normal strength and could handle it. So we walked through the woods a bit, and then she left me and told me to walk around a little. I took pictures of the woods and of a few houses and then headed back to our dacha. Now we lunched and then rushed to pack up to head back into Moscow. The trip back was grueling, carrying five pounds of celery in the freezing rain with no raincoat for a mile and a half, then sitting on a commuter train, then the metro ride back during rush hour holding the dog as people yelled at me about how much space I was taking up. 

So generally, a good trip. I felt like I was more of a burden then anything else but it was nice of  her to invite me to share the joys of the dacha with me.