Driver's Ed Anyone???

The car drive to and back from the orphanage was awful. I don't know how else to say it. The first day I was nauseated the whole time I was at the orphanage. I originally thought it was just due to nerves, lack of sleep, the odd smell of the orphanage, etc. By the end of day #2 I recognized it as severe car sickness. Our orphanage is within the city limits. Originally I was excited that we wouldn't be in a car for very long, but now I'm wondering if being out on the open highway might be the better way to go. Of course, you still have to navigate the traffic to get out of the city... By day #3 I was determined to have a good day at the orphanage, so I tried out my new bottle of Motion Ease herbal remedy. I avoided the Dramamine because I didn't want to be sleepy. I've never used Motion Ease before and never will again. You put a few drops behind your ears 5 minutes before travel and it's supposed to illeviate motion sickness. It does not work. Furthermore, the smell is hideous. I smelled like "hint of skunk", so combined with my nauseated state, the medicinal Flower Child odor emitting from behind my ears only added to my grief.

The street are overcrowded; the cars use the honk, floor it, and slam on your brake methods of driving. Cars are so close together going down the road it's like they could kiss one another. There are no real lanes of traffic. It's supposed to be one lane of traffic getting on the major highway, but it all reality there will be 3 cars lined up side by side trying to get on the road from the side street. Cars are parked in a somewhat parallel fashion along side the road and then all of a sudden there will be one car parked like its driver was in too big of a hurry to parallel park and left it sitting there sideways with the bumper sticking out into the road.

Automobiles have steering wheels on the left or the right side on them. That adds a whole new dimension to being able to see around the car in front of you. I've decided that the philosophy is "the bully car gets its way." You literally just point the car in the direction you want to go and people stop and let you go on your way. On our second day we were nearly to our hotel and I look up and see 5-6 cars attempting to do a U-Turn into the coming line of traffic. This is not a U-Turn like in the USA where one car at a time navigates the turn. No, in Russia they start out in a line and then pull abreast each other and circumnavigate this 6 car wide turn. Naturally, the oncoming traffic stops and lets them do this. I'm thinking in my nauseated state, "Thank goodness we're going to go to the corner and turn down the block." Silly me for thinking that. Within a minute we're part of the this phenomena.

Our translator said that if a wreck happens, it usually takes 6-8 hours for the police to respond. And then, it will usually take 24 hours for the car to be moved. Unbelievable! We were serenaded by Elvis (Elvis is very big in Russia we were told), KC and the Sunshine Band, and Rod Stewart--all in English--and our drivers did not speak English. I will ask our translator next time if they tune into the English stations for our benefit or is that all they have? I did notice that in the restaurants the music that was always playing was some kind of jazzy techno beat.
Here are a few pictures of the infamous U-Turns: