Sveta+Matt: on the way to each other
On the New Year Eve “Komsomolskaya Pravda”-Smolensk told its readers the wonderful love story of the plain girl from Smolensk and the abstractionist painter from Dallas. Since our last meeting with Svetlana a lot of things changed.
Insane, nonsensical and absurd Paris Charles de Gaulle After the two days incarceration in the Sheremetyevo Airport in the morning on the 30th of December Svetlana flew away to Paris, she overcame with joy. But she did not have a slightest idea that the Paris airports are real mess, not a kind of Moscow mess but the real Parisian mess.
In Paris Svetlana was detained by the police. The French transport policemen must have noticed a terrorist inside the slim Russian lady and they decided not letting her into the country.The policemen demanded a return ticket from Svetlana, but unfortunately she had only a 1000 Russian roubles (at about 25 Euro). The difficulty was that Svetlana was flying back to Moscow from Amsterdam. Only Matt could save her then. Sveta asked the policemen letting her out to the arrival lounge to prove that she came to her Matt. Mathew was shocked when she saw Sveta surrounded by the policemen. Together they went to buy the ticket. But here came another disaster, when Matt gave his credit card to pay for the ticket it turned out that he is short of 20 Euro. The policemen did not let Sveta go and Matt went back to Paris to take another credit card.
I had to come back to Paris to take another credit card, - says Matt. - It takes about two hours to go from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris, than an hour in Paris and two hours back. So I’ve spent half a day to take the money. When I was back they said that Sveta is not with them and they don’t know anything about her.
Mathew was shocked – the policemen had lost his bride. He decided to ask for help from the airport staff. They helped him to give the announcement via the public address system. At the time Sveta was walking along the corridors because at one moment the policemen stopped paying extreme attention to her and let her go. She heard her name over the speaker but she did not quite understand it in French where she must have come. She asked the other policemen to help her but they just ignored her.
- Suddenly one fellow from the airport staff decided to help me, he took my passport and fled, - remembers Sveta. – At first I was afraid but then he came back, stamped my passport and helped me to pass the control stand, showed me the way to the luggage pick up area and translated the speaker’s message for her.
Despite all the hard times after that Sveta believed that there are good people on Earth.
Sveta came to the meeting place she heard over the speaker but Matt was not there, he left to look for her in the corridors of the airport. At first Svata wanted to go and look for Matt too but some inner feeling made her turn back and she saw Matt going down the stairs.
- I rushed to him, embraced his neck and the time stilled around us, remembers Sveta.
Why the Eifel tower did not light up?
On the New Years Eve the lovers were in Paris. They had a rent flat in Paris on Montmartre, the favourite area of the many famous artists. The twosome lived 7 days on Monmartre, and three more days at Matt’s cousin John, who keeps a bijou shop in Paris.
They decided to meet the New Year at the foot of the Eifel tower. Hundreds of thousands of tourists and citizens flood les Champs-Elysees in the New Year’s night, they consider it a big luck to meet the New Year not near the New Year tree but under the brightly decorated Eifel Tower. Usually it takes 20 minutes to go from the Montmartre to les Champs-Elysees but that evening Paris was so crowded that it took 2 hours for the lovers to reach the spot. There were so many people in front the tower that it was impossible to move, a lot of people were drunk.
It looked like Kiselyovka (on of the suburbs of Smolensk. – editor) on the New Year’s Eve, - sighs Svetlana. – But for the Eifel tower, one could not think it was Paris.
Sveta and Matt wanted to see the marvelous show, that usually take place in the French capital, but at midnight the tower blinked several times and nothing faery happened.
- There were a lot of cops in the futuristic uniforms around, as if the came from the “Star Wars” movie, - says Matt. – It turned out that on that day Osama bin Laden threatened a terror act in Paris, that’s why most of the shows were cancelled.
Having had blinis for a snack the lovers walked thru the Paris night. They went home on foot because the subway was closed earlier than usual for the security reasons.
After the New Year the lovers were in Paris enjoying the time with each other and the wonderful city. The walked to the museums, visited Matt’s cousin, spent time in the famous Paris cafes, that differ from the Russian by the service level. Matt and Sveta breathed in the atmosphere of the city. Both of them are sure that this city has its own unique atmosphere. According to Mathew Paris is created just for eating and admiring the works of art. Matt and Sveta visited many museums, Sveta was specially impressed by the Pompidou Centre in the Beaubourg area, which helps the guest to admire the different modern works of art. All the time in Paris Sveta wore high heels and the Frenchmen were admired, how it could be. Somebody told that she must have been born on high heels.
A boathotel in Amsterdam
After romantic Paris Matt and Sveta went to Amsterdam. During the 3 hours ride in the comfortable train they saw several countries passing by. In Amsterdam Mathew booked a studio in the boathotel for them. Holland capital is cut by the canals very much like Venice. But the enterprising citizens use even the canals for tourism purposes. The river Amstel practically never freezes, so it’s very easy to find a boathotel here.
There are a lot of such ships all over Amsterdam. Usually the half of the ship is for the owner and the second half is for tourists. In spite of the fact that this boathotels are not “starred”, they are very popular and rather cheap. Usually there is a fire-place, kitchen and a bedroom with a small round window thru which you can see the ducks floating in the canal.
The lovers spend a lot of time in this ship because it was raining hard practically all the time they spend in Amsterdam. They were drinking wine, sitting by the fire-place… a real romance in other words.
The most of the museums there were closed for Christmas holidays however that did not stop Mat from visiting the Van Gogh Museum, an art museum in Amsterdam featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh and his contemporaries. They walked around the city a lot, but the rain prevented them from riding the bikes thru the city. So the walked again and sat in the famous Dutch coffee-shops and certainly bought a lot of souvenirs. In Smolensk in her rent flat Sveta walked in the unusual slippers or better say boots, which look like traditional peasant boots called clogs, simply stated wood carved boots with pointed toe and wide flat heels. Modern variants are sold as presents; they are colored and as usual have traditional Dutch drawings of flowers and village landscapes on them. Everything good very often ends very soon, it was time to fly home. Matt flew away at 1.00 p.m. and Sveta’s flight was at only at 8 p. m. Before the New Year paralyzed flights situation did not repeat. On the 14th of January Sveta flew back to Moscow and then went to Smolensk. The elevator was out of service as usual. Sveta dragged her suitcase to the 6th floor as usual. Welcome to Russia!
Matt remembered later that it was very hard to let her go again and again when you’re sure to live a lifetime together. But the fate had even more hard times for the lovers in stock.