Ukraine (26 Viewers)

[baarbogast]

 

[SamAndreas]

I don’t understand this picture.

It's Lord of the Rings. And it doesn't make much sense to me. The US is the wizard Gandalf. The UK is Aragon the King. Lithuania is the elf Legolas. The guy on the right with the German flag appears to be Boromir. The Czech Republic is Gimil. Every other country shown on the bottom row including Poland and Ukraine, the two on the lower left, are the hobbits.

Why isn't France there if Germany is there? Why is Estonia there? Why is Latvia there?

I don't have the hobbits sorted out as to who's who. It's been too long since I've seen the movie.

 

[Consigliere]

I don’t understand this picture.

Frodo/Ukraine bears the burden, and perseveres against the odds.
Sam/Poland is faithful and is there from the beginning to the end.
Gandalf/US is the most powerful supporter, but often disappears because he also has other concerns.
Aragorn/UK is the best fighter with the best sword.
Boromir/Germany could have been the best fighter, but has mixed motives due to troubled past.
Gimli/Czech - his parents fought an orc invasion, and he's happy to help you fight them.
Legolas/Lithuania is lending some help from afar.
Merry/Estonia and Pippin/Latvia are away on their own and trying to not get captured.

 

[Saintman2884]

Man, I'm calling my superiors and saying "bring me the fork home... NOW!!!"

Honestly, Grand, I wouldn't be there or anywhere near Russia in the first place, much less accept a job working in a Russian city like Belgorod so close to the Ukrainian border, where so much vicious fighting, destruction, death and societal dislocation has taken place which caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since the end of WWII. I'm not going to criticize or call into question Kiwi Saint's reasons, purpose, or primary factors that led him to accept this job a couple of months ago or question his mind set or reasoning for even going there. I just know I wouldn't be 250 miles anywhere near to any city, town, or region that borders Russian Federation like 90-95% other Americans, Canadians, British, French, Germans, or other citizen of NATO OR EU member-nation right now. I read some of Kiwis posts a few months back and he said it was a good-paying, decent job before he traveled their. He has always struck me as a very intelligent, smart, savvy and careful person in reading most of his posts or threads. All I say is I trust he knows what he's doing, and hope he treads extremely carefully and cautiously for the remainder of his time there and keeps an extremely low-profile.

 

[Grumpy Old Manatee]

Do you have wife or kids?

Too soon man…too soon

 

[gboudx]

Frodo/Ukraine bears the burden, and perseveres against the odds.
Sam/Poland is faithful and is there from the beginning to the end.
Gandalf/US is the most powerful supporter, but often disappears because he also has other concerns.
Aragorn/UK is the most badass fighter.
Boromir/Germany could be the most badass fighter, but has mixed motives due to troubled past.
Gimli/Czech is tough and dependable.
Legolas/Lithuania is lending some help from afar.
Merry/Estonia and Pippin/Latvia are off on their own and trying to not get captured.

Pretty good. I just saw it as the Fellowship of the Ring on first glance.

 

[KiwiSaint]

I’m still here…alive and kicking. Lots of military activity here in Belgorod with it being a staging area for troops into and out of the front lines.

As you can tell from the fact that I’m here working, I have a bit of an adventurous personality. Last week it just about got me deported or at worse, thrown in a Russian prison! I was traveling with three Russian colleagues to visit a problematic production site near Rylsk. If you look at the map, there are two ways to go from Belgorod to Rylsk. One way is to go North on the M-2 (main highway to Moscow) towards Kursk and then head west to Rylsk. The other way is to skirt the Ukrainian border via Sudhza. Of course, we picked the latter. I was tracking our journey to the farm and noticed that we passed very close to the border just outside Sudhza…and that there was a village road from the highway to the border.

So on the way home, I had our driver hang a right off the highway at the village of Sverdlikovo. If you look at Google maps, you can see the village road looping around the village with a branch leading to the border. I guided the car through the small village and we got to the end of the road. You could see a barricade had been placed across the road and about 200 meters in the distance was the border fence. The road had been cut and barricaded back in 2014 when hostilities commenced over the annexation of Crimea. It was a lovely afternoon and the village was quite picturesque…

As we stood outside the car looking at the border (and of course I was taking photos with my phone), out of nowhere appeared two Russian soldiers with assault rifles pointed right at us! They wanted to know what we were doing in the Exclusion Zone. There is no entry to this 5 km zone along the border without a pass issued from the local security services and foreign nationals are expressly forbidden! Their lieutenant appeared and he was not impressed with our trespassing and especially became quite irritated when he saw my US passport.

He insisted that he had to call his superiors to find out what to do with us…at that point I figured his options were to let us go or shoot us as spies. So there we waited under guard and after a few minutes, the two soldiers seemed to relax as soon as they moved us out of sight of the border fence. The reason…snipers had been shooting at them for the last few days from the other side of the fence and a few random artillery rounds had fallen in the area. So here we were…three soldiers including one officer and four idiots right out in the open along with a very white car. Perfect targets for snipers or an artillery spotter!

About an hour later, off in the distance from the village, I see an army vehicle approaching. It got to our location and four soldiers got out led by a Colonel. They inspected the car and looked at our passports. Some questioning about what we were doing there and didn’t we know it was an exclusion zone. Then came the moment of anxiety. The Colonel instructed one of his soldiers to ride in the car with my three Russian colleagues and I was placed in the army vehicle at gunpoint.

Off we went to Sudhza to the army HQ and FSB (new KGB) office. About halfway there, the Colonel turned to me and said, “Andrew..you in big trouble”. So here I was separated from colleagues, in a Russian military vehicle with a Colonel, under guard at gunpoint, heading to a freakin’ FSB office. Needless to say, I was beginning to regret my curious nature.

We arrived at the army base…passed through a few secure gates and then led into the FSB headquarters. They let my translator come with me and the other two were segregated into another interrogation room.

I’ll finish the rest of the story tomorrow…

Now the rest of the story…

Sasha and I were placed in an office where there were two desks and an adjoining office that I couldn’t see into very well. Two FSB agents occupied the two desks…one younger and in his early 30’s and a second one about my age I’d guess…mid 50’s. The older agent began the questioning with name, visa status, family, etc. Then the questions became a bit more pointed…how long had I been in the country, was I recruited by Miratorg or did I pursue the job. Where were we that day, why did we turn off the highway, why were we at the border, etc. After explaining everything, he just shook his head and said, “this makes no sense”!!! Why would you go to the border just to see it? Why risk the danger just to say you’ve seen the border. You had to have other motives. In fairness, his incredulity was warranted. Then he asked me if I had taken pictures…and of course, I had! When he wanted to see what I had taken, my heart sank a bit. In the midst of photos of stork nests and bucolic countryside was a zoomed in photo of the border area including defensive barricades and communications infrastructure. I hadn’t seen the latter when I took the photo but it was fairly clear when I looked at it on my phone. That was the final piece of evidence and this agent was convinced I was a bad guy documenting the Russian defensive positions. So with my phone as well as Sasha’s, away he went into the adjoining office.

Taking his place was Boris…another young FSB agent. He began asking me innocent questions about New Zealand, America, etc. He was playing Good Cop and I could see from the corner of my eye that other agents were in the adjoining office listening to my answers. A few minutes of this and another agent came out with my phone and asked me if I had any Ukrainian numbers in the phone or if I new anyone from Ukraine. Thank god, there weren’t any! I made a comment to Boris that I was lucky I didn’t have a Ukrainian girlfriend and he joked, “if you did, we’d all be jealous because they are most beautiful”.

After about 30 minutes, another agent (bad cop) came out and the grilling commenced in earnest. My translator was getting paler and paler as it went on. Review of how many times I had been in Russia, what I did on these visits, who I knew, work history, countries visited, marriages, children, parents, who I voted for, friends in the military, did I know anyone in the CIA, etc.

This went on for at least an hour…there would be a few breaks and the agent would go into the adjoining office and then return with more questions and clarifications. Every time he went away, Sasha kept saying, “this is not good…I think we are going to prison”. The whole time this was going on Boris was in the room. During one break he asked why I wasn’t nervous and I said it’s probably because I’m too old to be nervous. I said I was only worried that they were going to blindfold me, take me behind the building, and shoot me. He was actually shocked and said, “is that what Americans think Russians are like!!!”. I had to reassure him that it was only a light-hearted remark to try and break the tension.

They returned with the phone about 30 min later and asked me to delete the photos of the border…which I happily did. At this point another agent came in and asked me if he could practice his English because he was supposed to be the official translator but he never had a chance to practice. Whether this was a trick or not, he asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, population, weather, economy, etc. I think to try and gauge whether my story about living there was true or not.

Finally, after three hours they returned my phone as well as Sasha’s and the mood suddenly lightened. They said that I was their most interesting and entertaining “detainee” in years. They only had one other American in there over the last 12 months and they said he was so scared and speaking so fast they couldn’t understand him! All the agents came into the office and even asked if I wanted to ask them any questions!!! It was a bizarre turnaround…I apologized for causing such a problem and wasting their time. We got up, shook hands all around, wished each other the best, and they reunited us with our other two colleagues…Nikolai and Evgeny. One agent walked us out, said please stay away from the border so we don’t have to do this again!

Honestly…these guys, including the soldiers are no different than us. I think they’re caught up in this sheet, don’t want to be there, and wish things went back to relative normality. They said when they went to the border exclusion zone, they were scared themselves. I wish I had some photos of the adventure to share, but all I’ve got is a stork nest…

PS…I’ve got some photos of Belgorod, if there is interest, I’ll post them in another thread so as to not take away from this thread’s focus.

 

[Thunderchild]

Now the rest of the story…

Sasha and I were placed in an office where there were two desks and an adjoining office that I couldn’t see into very well. Two FSB agents occupied the two desks…one younger and in his early 30’s and a second one about my age I’d guess…mid 50’s. The older agent began the questioning with name, visa status, family, etc. Then the questions became a bit more pointed…how long had I been in the country, was I recruited by Miratorg or did I pursue the job. Where were we that day, why did we turn off the highway, why were we at the border, etc. After explaining everything, he just shook his head and said, “this makes no sense”!!! Why would you go to the border just to see it? Why risk the danger just to say you’ve seen the border. You had to have other motives. In fairness, his incredulity was warranted. Then he asked me if I had taken pictures…and of course, I had! When he wanted to see what I had taken, my heart sank a bit. In the midst of photos of stork nests and bucolic countryside was a zoomed in photo of the border area including defensive barricades and communications infrastructure. I hadn’t seen the latter when I took the photo but it was fairly clear when I looked at it on my phone. That was the final piece of evidence and this agent was convinced I was a bad guy documenting the Russian defensive positions. So with my phone as well as Sasha’s, away he went into the adjoining office.

Taking his place was Boris…another young FSB agent. He began asking me innocent questions about New Zealand, America, etc. He was playing Good Cop and I could see from the corner of my eye that other agents were in the adjoining office listening to my answers. A few minutes of this and another agent came out with my phone and asked me if I had any Ukrainian numbers in the phone or if I new anyone from Ukraine. Thank god, there weren’t any! I made a comment to Boris that I was lucky I didn’t have a Ukrainian girlfriend and he joked, “if you did, we’d all be jealous because they are most beautiful”.

After about 30 minutes, another agent (bad cop) came out and the grilling commenced in earnest. My translator was getting paler and paler as it went on. Review of how many times I had been in Russia, what I did on these visits, who I knew, work history, countries visited, marriages, children, parents, who I voted for, friends in the military, did I know anyone in the CIA, etc.

This went on for at least an hour…there would be a few breaks and the agent would go into the adjoining office and then return with more questions and clarifications. Every time he went away, Sasha kept saying, “this is not good…I think we are going to prison”. The whole time this was going on Boris was in the room. During one break he asked why I wasn’t nervous and I said it’s probably because I’m too old to be nervous. I said I was only worried that they were going to blindfold me, take me behind the building, and shoot me. He was actually shocked and said, “is that what Americans think Russians are like!!!”. I had to reassure him that it was only a light-hearted remark to try and break the tension.

They returned with the phone about 30 min later and asked me to delete the photos of the border…which I happily did. At this point another agent came in and asked me if he could practice his English because he was supposed to be the official translator but he never had a chance to practice. Whether this was a trick or not, he asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, population, weather, economy, etc. I think to try and gauge whether my story about living there was true or not.

Finally, after three hours they returned my phone as well as Sasha’s and the mood suddenly lightened. They said that I was their most interesting and entertaining “detainee” in years. They only had one other American in there over the last 12 months and they said he was so scared and speaking so fast they couldn’t understand him! All the agents came into the office and even asked if I wanted to ask them any questions!!! It was a bizarre turnaround…I apologized for causing such a problem and wasting their time. We got up, shook hands all around, wished each other the best, and they reunited us with our other two colleagues…Nikolai and Evgeny. One agent walked us out, said please stay away from the border so we don’t have to do this again!

Honestly…these guys, including the soldiers are no different than us. I think they’re caught up in this sheet, don’t want to be there, and wish things went back to relative normality. They said when they went to the border exclusion zone, they were scared themselves. I wish I had some photos of the adventure to share, but all I’ve got is a stork nest…

PS…I’ve got some photos of Belgorod, if there is interest, I’ll post them in another thread so as to not take away from this thread’s focus.

Great story! Thanks for sharing. Kind of brings things home a little more.

 

[bonnjer]

Now the rest of the story…

Sasha and I were placed in an office where there were two desks and an adjoining office that I couldn’t see into very well. Two FSB agents occupied the two desks…one younger and in his early 30’s and a second one about my age I’d guess…mid 50’s. The older agent began the questioning with name, visa status, family, etc. Then the questions became a bit more pointed…how long had I been in the country, was I recruited by Miratorg or did I pursue the job. Where were we that day, why did we turn off the highway, why were we at the border, etc. After explaining everything, he just shook his head and said, “this makes no sense”!!! Why would you go to the border just to see it? Why risk the danger just to say you’ve seen the border. You had to have other motives. In fairness, his incredulity was warranted. Then he asked me if I had taken pictures…and of course, I had! When he wanted to see what I had taken, my heart sank a bit. In the midst of photos of stork nests and bucolic countryside was a zoomed in photo of the border area including defensive barricades and communications infrastructure. I hadn’t seen the latter when I took the photo but it was fairly clear when I looked at it on my phone. That was the final piece of evidence and this agent was convinced I was a bad guy documenting the Russian defensive positions. So with my phone as well as Sasha’s, away he went into the adjoining office.

Taking his place was Boris…another young FSB agent. He began asking me innocent questions about New Zealand, America, etc. He was playing Good Cop and I could see from the corner of my eye that other agents were in the adjoining office listening to my answers. A few minutes of this and another agent came out with my phone and asked me if I had any Ukrainian numbers in the phone or if I new anyone from Ukraine. Thank god, there weren’t any! I made a comment to Boris that I was lucky I didn’t have a Ukrainian girlfriend and he joked, “if you did, we’d all be jealous because they are most beautiful”.

After about 30 minutes, another agent (bad cop) came out and the grilling commenced in earnest. My translator was getting paler and paler as it went on. Review of how many times I had been in Russia, what I did on these visits, who I knew, work history, countries visited, marriages, children, parents, who I voted for, friends in the military, did I know anyone in the CIA, etc.

This went on for at least an hour…there would be a few breaks and the agent would go into the adjoining office and then return with more questions and clarifications. Every time he went away, Sasha kept saying, “this is not good…I think we are going to prison”. The whole time this was going on Boris was in the room. During one break he asked why I wasn’t nervous and I said it’s probably because I’m too old to be nervous. I said I was only worried that they were going to blindfold me, take me behind the building, and shoot me. He was actually shocked and said, “is that what Americans think Russians are like!!!”. I had to reassure him that it was only a light-hearted remark to try and break the tension.

They returned with the phone about 30 min later and asked me to delete the photos of the border…which I happily did. At this point another agent came in and asked me if he could practice his English because he was supposed to be the official translator but he never had a chance to practice. Whether this was a trick or not, he asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, population, weather, economy, etc. I think to try and gauge whether my story about living there was true or not.

Finally, after three hours they returned my phone as well as Sasha’s and the mood suddenly lightened. They said that I was their most interesting and entertaining “detainee” in years. They only had one other American in there over the last 12 months and they said he was so scared and speaking so fast they couldn’t understand him! All the agents came into the office and even asked if I wanted to ask them any questions!!! It was a bizarre turnaround…I apologized for causing such a problem and wasting their time. We got up, shook hands all around, wished each other the best, and they reunited us with our other two colleagues…Nikolai and Evgeny. One agent walked us out, said please stay away from the border so we don’t have to do this again!

Honestly…these guys, including the soldiers are no different than us. I think they’re caught up in this sheet, don’t want to be there, and wish things went back to relative normality. They said when they went to the border exclusion zone, they were scared themselves. I wish I had some photos of the adventure to share, but all I’ve got is a stork nest…

PS…I’ve got some photos of Belgorod, if there is interest, I’ll post them in another thread so as to not take away from this thread’s focus.

Wow. That is just all kinds of crazy. Again, glad you're fine and able to share the story.

 

[rail]

Glad you're okay, Kiwi.

Maybe diverting to a contested border during an intense bloody war on a lark wasn't the best idea?

 

[KiwiSaint]

Great story! Thanks for sharing. Kind of brings things home a little more.

I thought about asking them all to pose for a selfie but thought that might be pushing the friendliness thing a bit too far…

 

[boutte]

Glad it worked out for you and your companions. That was a close call.

 

[DaveXA]

Now the rest of the story…

Sasha and I were placed in an office where there were two desks and an adjoining office that I couldn’t see into very well. Two FSB agents occupied the two desks…one younger and in his early 30’s and a second one about my age I’d guess…mid 50’s. The older agent began the questioning with name, visa status, family, etc. Then the questions became a bit more pointed…how long had I been in the country, was I recruited by Miratorg or did I pursue the job. Where were we that day, why did we turn off the highway, why were we at the border, etc. After explaining everything, he just shook his head and said, “this makes no sense”!!! Why would you go to the border just to see it? Why risk the danger just to say you’ve seen the border. You had to have other motives. In fairness, his incredulity was warranted. Then he asked me if I had taken pictures…and of course, I had! When he wanted to see what I had taken, my heart sank a bit. In the midst of photos of stork nests and bucolic countryside was a zoomed in photo of the border area including defensive barricades and communications infrastructure. I hadn’t seen the latter when I took the photo but it was fairly clear when I looked at it on my phone. That was the final piece of evidence and this agent was convinced I was a bad guy documenting the Russian defensive positions. So with my phone as well as Sasha’s, away he went into the adjoining office.

Taking his place was Boris…another young FSB agent. He began asking me innocent questions about New Zealand, America, etc. He was playing Good Cop and I could see from the corner of my eye that other agents were in the adjoining office listening to my answers. A few minutes of this and another agent came out with my phone and asked me if I had any Ukrainian numbers in the phone or if I new anyone from Ukraine. Thank god, there weren’t any! I made a comment to Boris that I was lucky I didn’t have a Ukrainian girlfriend and he joked, “if you did, we’d all be jealous because they are most beautiful”.

After about 30 minutes, another agent (bad cop) came out and the grilling commenced in earnest. My translator was getting paler and paler as it went on. Review of how many times I had been in Russia, what I did on these visits, who I knew, work history, countries visited, marriages, children, parents, who I voted for, friends in the military, did I know anyone in the CIA, etc.

This went on for at least an hour…there would be a few breaks and the agent would go into the adjoining office and then return with more questions and clarifications. Every time he went away, Sasha kept saying, “this is not good…I think we are going to prison”. The whole time this was going on Boris was in the room. During one break he asked why I wasn’t nervous and I said it’s probably because I’m too old to be nervous. I said I was only worried that they were going to blindfold me, take me behind the building, and shoot me. He was actually shocked and said, “is that what Americans think Russians are like!!!”. I had to reassure him that it was only a light-hearted remark to try and break the tension.

They returned with the phone about 30 min later and asked me to delete the photos of the border…which I happily did. At this point another agent came in and asked me if he could practice his English because he was supposed to be the official translator but he never had a chance to practice. Whether this was a trick or not, he asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, population, weather, economy, etc. I think to try and gauge whether my story about living there was true or not.

Finally, after three hours they returned my phone as well as Sasha’s and the mood suddenly lightened. They said that I was their most interesting and entertaining “detainee” in years. They only had one other American in there over the last 12 months and they said he was so scared and speaking so fast they couldn’t understand him! All the agents came into the office and even asked if I wanted to ask them any questions!!! It was a bizarre turnaround…I apologized for causing such a problem and wasting their time. We got up, shook hands all around, wished each other the best, and they reunited us with our other two colleagues…Nikolai and Evgeny. One agent walked us out, said please stay away from the border so we don’t have to do this again!

Honestly…these guys, including the soldiers are no different than us. I think they’re caught up in this sheet, don’t want to be there, and wish things went back to relative normality. They said when they went to the border exclusion zone, they were scared themselves. I wish I had some photos of the adventure to share, but all I’ve got is a stork nest…

PS…I’ve got some photos of Belgorod, if there is interest, I’ll post them in another thread so as to not take away from this thread’s focus.

Great story you'll be able to tell your family for years to come! Glad it all worked out. Also, feel free to post whatever pics you like. I'm curious to see what Belgorod looks like.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Now the rest of the story…

Sasha and I were placed in an office where there were two desks and an adjoining office that I couldn’t see into very well. Two FSB agents occupied the two desks…one younger and in his early 30’s and a second one about my age I’d guess…mid 50’s. The older agent began the questioning with name, visa status, family, etc. Then the questions became a bit more pointed…how long had I been in the country, was I recruited by Miratorg or did I pursue the job. Where were we that day, why did we turn off the highway, why were we at the border, etc. After explaining everything, he just shook his head and said, “this makes no sense”!!! Why would you go to the border just to see it? Why risk the danger just to say you’ve seen the border. You had to have other motives. In fairness, his incredulity was warranted. Then he asked me if I had taken pictures…and of course, I had! When he wanted to see what I had taken, my heart sank a bit. In the midst of photos of stork nests and bucolic countryside was a zoomed in photo of the border area including defensive barricades and communications infrastructure. I hadn’t seen the latter when I took the photo but it was fairly clear when I looked at it on my phone. That was the final piece of evidence and this agent was convinced I was a bad guy documenting the Russian defensive positions. So with my phone as well as Sasha’s, away he went into the adjoining office.

Taking his place was Boris…another young FSB agent. He began asking me innocent questions about New Zealand, America, etc. He was playing Good Cop and I could see from the corner of my eye that other agents were in the adjoining office listening to my answers. A few minutes of this and another agent came out with my phone and asked me if I had any Ukrainian numbers in the phone or if I new anyone from Ukraine. Thank god, there weren’t any! I made a comment to Boris that I was lucky I didn’t have a Ukrainian girlfriend and he joked, “if you did, we’d all be jealous because they are most beautiful”.

After about 30 minutes, another agent (bad cop) came out and the grilling commenced in earnest. My translator was getting paler and paler as it went on. Review of how many times I had been in Russia, what I did on these visits, who I knew, work history, countries visited, marriages, children, parents, who I voted for, friends in the military, did I know anyone in the CIA, etc.

This went on for at least an hour…there would be a few breaks and the agent would go into the adjoining office and then return with more questions and clarifications. Every time he went away, Sasha kept saying, “this is not good…I think we are going to prison”. The whole time this was going on Boris was in the room. During one break he asked why I wasn’t nervous and I said it’s probably because I’m too old to be nervous. I said I was only worried that they were going to blindfold me, take me behind the building, and shoot me. He was actually shocked and said, “is that what Americans think Russians are like!!!”. I had to reassure him that it was only a light-hearted remark to try and break the tension.

They returned with the phone about 30 min later and asked me to delete the photos of the border…which I happily did. At this point another agent came in and asked me if he could practice his English because he was supposed to be the official translator but he never had a chance to practice. Whether this was a trick or not, he asked a lot of questions about New Zealand, population, weather, economy, etc. I think to try and gauge whether my story about living there was true or not.

Finally, after three hours they returned my phone as well as Sasha’s and the mood suddenly lightened. They said that I was their most interesting and entertaining “detainee” in years. They only had one other American in there over the last 12 months and they said he was so scared and speaking so fast they couldn’t understand him! All the agents came into the office and even asked if I wanted to ask them any questions!!! It was a bizarre turnaround…I apologized for causing such a problem and wasting their time. We got up, shook hands all around, wished each other the best, and they reunited us with our other two colleagues…Nikolai and Evgeny. One agent walked us out, said please stay away from the border so we don’t have to do this again!

Honestly…these guys, including the soldiers are no different than us. I think they’re caught up in this sheet, don’t want to be there, and wish things went back to relative normality. They said when they went to the border exclusion zone, they were scared themselves. I wish I had some photos of the adventure to share, but all I’ve got is a stork nest…

PS…I’ve got some photos of Belgorod, if there is interest, I’ll post them in another thread so as to not take away from this thread’s focus.

Good story. You're an idiot for putting yourself in that predicament. Now go your arse home before I find the Mrs and tell her what you did.

 

[gboudx]

I’ll echo that it’s a great, yet terrifying story. Btw, those deleted pics may not be completely deleted. Unless you also deleted them from the Deleted folder.