Late Summer Vacation II

August 25, 2006 - 7:23 AM by Allison

In this last week of August, the country feels like a sand timer that someone turned upside down. In the beginning of the month, much of the northern population had come down south. Now the tables are turned — a veritable flood of tourists from the center and southern parts of the country have headed north for vacation — some were preplanned, some are postponed, and some are spontaneous decisions to show support.

Imshin’s vacation was all set up ahead of time, and she was really happy to be able to travel as planned:

No photos of the rubber boat trip down the Snir River. We got soaked as it was, mainly from bumping into the other boats and kayaks. It was great fun. We took the ‘adventure’ route, being such sporty folks (not!). The girls were a bit disappointed that we didn’t capsize in the rather quiet summer rapids (although we did jump in quite a few times along the way, it was sooooo hot).

War? What war? Oh yeah, now you mention it, there were a few lonely looking journalists and photographers hanging round the hotel, looking left out as they tapped away on their laptops (busy doctoring photos?) while all the families rushed excitedly passed them on their way to the pool, the river, the other river, etc.

Actually, I think we probably left just on time. The hotel was quietish on Tuesday when we arrived, although not at all empty. On Wednesday it seemed to fill up considerably as the weekend grew nearer. Today, Thursday, as we made our way home, the holiday traffic on the other side of the road, leading up north, was very heavy.

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