Well, here we are in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel. Went out for the first time in the daylight after a super breakfast: huge fruit bowl, four kinds of crusty bread, sausages, yogurt, cheeses. Amazing cup of tea. they raise lots of tea here. :) All through this trip each hotel has provided a scumptuous breakfast. I thought "Continental Breakfast was borrowed from here). Most of the streets are one lane with no indication of which direction you are supposed to go. Happy for everybody I will not be driving anywhere ever.Noone has any compunction about driving on the sidewalks; no pedestrian seems to take notice. Do not want to get into a habit I can't break.

The streets are paved with dark grey bricks laid in ornamental patterns. The sidewalks are mosaics of black and white stones, no bigger than 3 by 4 inches each. Each street seems to have its own particular patterns. Red tile and grey slate roofs, wrought iron balconies. People bustle everywhere, grannies, mothers with babies, everone very friendly and helpful, delighted when I try to speak Portuguese. I guess in Sao Miguel there was a very large number of Dutch seamen who jumped ship and stayed here. People on the mainland say the Acores people speak their own language, but here it is done with a heavy Dutch accent. So much for Rosetta stone. It would be like a Chinese person who learned Oxford English ending up in the Ozarks with Lem and Cletus. Back to square one.

In a couple of hours they will come for me to go to the horse farm. I am so hoping I will be able to afford to stay around here. Had a ray of sunlight this morning: went to a local market and bought apples, a bag of peanuts, tooth paste, shampoo and conditioner(big bottles) and a small bottle of olive oil all for about $7 US(using Euro's). Keeping my fingers crossed. Walked down to the harbor. Huge ships in a curved bay, mountains rising out of the water on the far side. Love to all of you. Thanks for coming with me. Write when you can. My Facebook got demolished in China, I will need help getting it back. Love from the Acores ( Ah- SO-res).

Well, all of you who feared this would happen can wag your beards and say"I knew she would come to no good!" On the train from China, my train family tried to warn me that I needed a Belloruss(White Russia) Visa. "Bosh, !"I said. surely my travel agent has everything under control. Larry, who stayed at the same hotel as I and was on the same Kremlin tour, tried very hard to find me a Bellorus visa, to no avail. All the Russians we talked to said "Nyet, Nyet! No being ridiculous, is all same country!" Well, "Da Da, damn it."

Getting ready to cross the border into Poland, the Belloruss Gestapo demanded my Belloruss visa "Vere are your papers???" When I did my very best little old lady, I know nothing shtick, they simply started hauling my luggage off the train. I went back to get the rest of my things, the train started up, and away we went, bye bye keyboard and riding helment. Then the train stopped about a mile farther and the boys in blue boarded the train to round me up. We had to walk back to the headquarters in pitch black, stumbling along. I kept a careful eye out for cattle cars but did not see any. Got back to office and went through the red doors that said " Official business only, Do not enter" Yoiks! I was interrogated for about three hours by various officials, non of who could speak English, as it was the middle of the night and the English speakers got the day shift.

I held fast to my "Ya ni znayou nichevo" (know nothing, I aint coppin' to nothing) routine, making them laugh and loosening them up a little. They could not understand why I was traveling with a piano(key board). They were pretty sure I purchased it in Moscow. "why would I buy a Russian piano, I countered. I don't speak Russian very well at all. I could not understand a Russian piano. "They figured out I was either a smart alexei or really dumb. Hahaha, little did they suspect I was BOTH! (sending this much so far, just in case)

Any how, about 2:00 in the morning they escorted me to a hotel straight out of a Humphrey Bogart movie. Crystal chandeliers, marble steps worn down by years of feet. Persian carpets, statues, no elevator. I do believe it has not been remodled since Humphreys time. Only cost me about 900,000 Belloruss money( about35$). The next day an ordeal of no one knew where I was supposed to go. I found the Belloruss Embassy, but the door Troll groweled at my and sent me on yet another wild goose chase. By now it is 12:00 noon and the train for Paris is at 2:00 pm. I went back to the Door Troll, who after growling at me even more fiercely finally took pity and escorted me in. There was a citizen there, not hired who volunteered to help me. She was angry that this happens to people and wanted to show a different face of Belloruss. She found a college student who spoke English and after an hour of being redirected, found the place, got my Visa, whisked me back to the train station and put me on the train to Koln Germany as there was actually no train directly to Paris that day. Of course my train ticket was no longer any good and I had to buy a new ticket. Now I am sitting in a Starbucks at this huge mall in the train station. It's the only place with WIFI. God bless Starbucks and God bless Lydia and Ekaterina. I wish them the greatest good fortune and long happy life(Live long and prosper). Got here at 5:30 this morning and leave for Paris at 8:30. Have missed my two days in Paris, but will go back there in January when I go see Maria Chris and Ty in England. The Eiffel tower will keep no doubt. I am out the cost of my ticket from Belloruss to Paris, two nights at a very expensive hotel ( three stars, Good Lord what did a Five star cost?) and personal transport to the hotel and back to the airport. As I get to Paris at about midnight and my plane leaves at 8: in the morning, I will cut my losses and go straight to the airport after debarking the train. Don't care, do not care, I AM OUT OF BELLORUSS!!!!!. Actually it was very beautiful, flowers still in bloom. We passed through a huge indoor outdoor open market, full of flowers, sausages, all sizes of fish, living and dead. Huge halves of pork that Sylverster Stallone was chopping up on a huge old tree stump, old ladies knitting socks, young women walking around in the mandatory spiked thigh highboots and mini skirts. We passed an ancient Villa surrounded by a 15 foot high wrought iron fence. In the beautiful grounds there was a tree that had died and was carved into a four foot high elephant, painted Walt Disney Blue. Catch you guys at the Airport in Paris. Thank God and Grey hound I'm gone from Belloruss1Next time I will be ready for them. Love you all.gracie

My apologies to all who are just getting connected here. Had some difficulty with face book and finally gave up but to those who are just joining us, welcome!!!

First full day in Moscow. The hotel (Peter the Great: google him he was truly an amazing man. He brought Russia out of the stone age, kicking and screaming, single handedly and made her a world power.) offers a free breakfast every morning to die for: 6 or 7 different cheeses, a dozen or so thinly sliced meats of every kind. bowels and bowels of dried fruits in sauces as well as many fresh fruits. There are warming trays of every kind of bacon, sausage and fish you could think of, a tower of little cubbies with nuts, seeds, mixtures and crunchy unknown objects that were yummy none the less..

At ten the guide showed up. Myself and Larry(who was on the cruise I was supposed to be onbefore they smashed the car window in Vancouver and stole my passport, computer,$$, Ipod, etc.) (who showed up on the trans-siberian rail road in our carand had booked the same hotel and tour) were the only people she had so it was very personable and enjoyable. Everybody else we saw looked like a bunch of school kids on a field trip, following some body with a tall flag who was yelling at them the whole time. I'd have had to punch them square in the babushka and made a break for it.

Saw the Kremlin, Many Cathedrals then walked up and down a very old boulevard which is now pedestrian only,full of shops cafes and a OOO-andy's(Wendy's) Bought some nesting Babushka doll from a man who looked like a Russian Santa.

People are very high fashion here. I truly felt like a Russian peasant in my sturdy walkin shoes, my head scarf ( freakin cold, it was) and my 18 layers of coats, vest, and black rain coat. All the other women were in Yves-St. Laurent tailored suits, black tights, tall sexy boots and Gucci hand bags. I was truly the Ugly American, but the last laugh was on those Russian Barbie Dolls: they thought I was a Russian Matrushka. Ihad lots of old ladies around dressed just like me!!! Ha ha ha.!!

Hello all. Here in Moscow after 5 days on the train. Great ride, wonderful international community on our car: a French bicyclist/ Nuclear contamination scientist, an Italian lady and her husband(Swiss) and their year old baby girl, the steward was Chinese and an American man from Hood River, Oregon. The sleeper cars are Chinese. The dining car changed at each border crossing. The dining car from Mongolia looked like a temple inside. Will try to attach pictures. Siberia is everything you've ever heard: cold dismal, featureless -a great place to send someone you really do not like. Mongolia is amazing, looks a lot like the American plains with herds of cows and bands of horses dotting the landscape. Lots of gurr's (yurts) everywhere. In many of the towns and villages, people live in houses, but still have their yurts set up in the back yard, smoke coming from the chimney.

At the Chinese/Mongolian border, all the cars had to be hoisted in the air to switch to the narrower gage Russian wheels to fit their narrower tracks. The Russians, fearing a land invasion from China, made their tracks smaller so as to be useless to any invading Chinese troop trains.

At about three in the morning, Mongolian officials boarded the train to check our passports and search our cabins(looking for Chinese stow-aways?) They were about 10 young soldiers in full military dress, led by(I kid you not) a young woman in a skin tight decorated military jacket and matching ultra mini skirt (all black) with black silk stockings and thigh high skin tight black boots. Kept watching for James Bond to appear and sweep her away.

The ride across Russia was beautiful, thousands of miles of talls birch forests, rolling hay and grain fields, incredible little villages.

Will write you each a little tomorrow, very tired now. Will try for photos. Love , Gracie

Hello everyone! Last night in Bejing, I was just starting to get the hang of things. Spent the day wandering around,checking out the local grocery stores,little bakeries and restaurants. Everyone was friendly and funny. I can only remember three words without help: hello, thank you and beautiful. It seems to be enough. Tomorrow when I get on the train, dont know if I will have internet until Moscow, about five days from now. If things go the way I hope, I should get abducted by a Mongolian war lord who looks remarkably like Jet Li. Love to you all. Thanks for keeping company with me. See you in Moscow.

Today I climbed around on theGreat Wall. The driver came for me at 0 dark thirty and handed me a cup of delicious juice and a great little sandwich. As soon as it got light enough, I looked at the bag. Yep! Mcdonalds.
When we got to the Wall, this amazing group of little ladies glommed on , one for each of us,whether we wanted them or not. "We fahrmahrs.(farmers)  Come here ever day walk onna wall with nice tourist es. They were fun, showed us stuff told us"This side great wall China, that side Mongolia". Well, there is only so much behaving this girl can do, so I jumped up on the parapet, shook my fist at the Mongolian side of the world and launched into my best ever South Park "Stupid Mongolians" shtick. Sooo... it turns out our little personal escorts were actually Mongolians! Think of the irony... Dynasties of Chinese spent hundreds of years,countless lives and major fortunes building this wall so that years later hordes of Mongolians could swarm over the walls and fleece unsuspecting tourist. Yep, I payed my gal about 25$ for a ten dollar all color book about Great Wall. Our tour guide, who disappeared when then Mongolians attacked, saw me carrying the book and burst out laughing. When I told her what I payed for it she peed her pants.  She kept saying " Oh Garasuh(Grace) You sooo generous to poor little Mongolian farmers! Yuk yuk yuk. Then to ice the cake, when we had our lunch, she made me try a boiled chicken foot "Very popular Chineee food. Foreigners never try" It wasnt bad. Tasted like chicken.
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