My Visit to Sveta Part 1

For the holiday week of Christmas and New Years I took a trip to Russia to spend the holidays with Sveta. Because of weather and travel delays, we missed spending Christmas together. However, we had a wonderful time spending the rest of the Holiday week together.






One of the first things we did was have Sveta open her Christmas gifts. She had a stocking full of small gifts and several other gifts. I also enjoyed spoiling her and buying her a few gifts while I was visiting.





Sveta's city is Volgograd. It is a very old city. It is 50 miles long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River and has a population of 1,011,417 people. We spent a lot of time walking around the city and seeing some of the sights.












The city was made famous for its resistance and extensive damage during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.We went to see a memorial site for the stand the city did during World War II. This place was amazing. There where lots of carvings, statues, memorials for the soldiers and Russian people. I really enjoyed our visit to the memorial.

My Visit to Sveta Part 2

We saw a lot of Christmas decorations. Sveta had a tree up in her appartment. The city had some decorations up as well. We even saw a kind of familiar figure on the street.












One evening we got the ingredients to make borsht. The ingredients included: beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, beets, tomatoes, spices, and a couple green herbs. I was looking forward to trying borsht for the first time. Borsht is one of Sveta's favoirte dishes. It was very good. I enjoyed it a whole lot.





We had so much fun together. We went walking around down to the river. We went out to eat. We tried to go to a World War II museum, but they were closing when we got there. We did get to see planes, military vehicles, and even a train that they had outside. There was also an old building that had been shot up during the war.





















We spent New Year's Eve and most of New Year's Day together. We made a nice chicken dinner with potatoes, salads, and carrots. That night we became engaged. I told Sveta that I loved her and wanted her in my life. I asked her to marry me. She said yes. Interestingly, in Russia they wear their wedding rings on the right hand. since then we have decided our date will be June 11th. (The date did not work because of the length of the visa process. Stay tune for an updated wedding date.)





Unfortunately it was time for me to come home. I left later afternoon on New Year's Day to fly to Moscow. I finished the trip home on the 2nd. We spent as much time as we could together before I left. She came to the airport and stayed until I had to go through security. We waited as long as we could before I had to leave. I had a good trip home. But I missed my sweetheart.