Rostov-on-Don, Russia

“Home is where the heart is, and my heart is wherever I am at the moment.”

Lily Leung

When I was four years old, my family immigrated to the United States from Russia. I grew up in a Russian household where we spoke the language to one another, and my mom taught me how to read and write. I don’t recall being too happy about having to do the additional studies after school each day, but I am so thankful for it today.

I do not have Russian citizenship however, and need to get a visa to visit the country. My previous visa was valid for three years, so I figured since I was in Nepal, and Russia seemed geographically close (it’s not), I should go visit my family there.

Rostov-on-Don is a port city in southwestern Russia that sits along the banks of the Don River, and also happens to be my birth town. The entirety of my mom’s side of the family lives there, including my grandmother, aunt, and cousin whom I am closest with, as well as a large extended family. We keep in touch using Instagram mostly, which is quite popular there.

During my three weeks in Nepal, I stuck to a primarily vegetarian diet, worrying about meat possibly not being fresh or well stored. But on my last day in Kathmandu, I really craved some chicken at a nice restaurant, so I treated myself. The next day, I continued with this streak and had more meat in the business lounge at the airport.

Now I don’t know which of these meals did it for me, but when I arrived in Rostov after roughly 20 hours of travel, I was feeling pretty sick.

I’ve been told that I spend too much time discussing the positive aspects of travel on my blog, rather than the hardships I’ve faced. So I will attempt to be more honest, especially because in Russia is when sickness took over my body. I will spare the specific details, but in the beginning I had a fever, and kept running to the toilet every couple of hours.

I would like to preface this by saying that Russia is a beautiful and interesting country to visit, but it just happened to be the next stop on my travels where I got sick.

Indigestion happens to me pretty frequently, even back at home. I wasn’t terribly concerned as a result, because I figured it would pass in a day. It ended up lasting over two weeks. But there were a few other environmental factors that were negatively affecting my health in addition to stomach pains.

For one, let me tell you, it is incredibly hot in Russia in the summer. Maybe not in the far north in Siberia for instance, but generally, the country gets all four seasons. Rostov gets even hotter though because it’s in the south and near a river so there’s humidity. I’m talking like 90 degrees (32°C), and even over 100 degrees (38°C) in the middle of summer. Many buildings are not equipped with the luxuries of air conditioners.

Additionally, there are so many stray animals, both cats and dogs. I recall a story from the 14′ Winter Olympics in Sochi where the American hockey team was so taken back by all the stray dogs everywhere, that they adopted a bunch to take home back to the States! Many cities, perhaps with the exception of Moscow and St. Petersburg, are full of stray dogs like this. So you can imagine, they like to howl. All night.. as loud as they can.

So I’ve got stomach pains waking me up at night to run to the bathroom. Then there’s the heat from being on the top floor in my family’s condo. And finally, dogs howling much of the night to express their displeasure at their living conditions. I couldn’t sleep, and as each night wore on, I slept less and less. The insomnia from the couple hours of sleep per night was really getting to me. I felt like a walking zombie each day.

I also did a poor job of healing my stomach. After a day of following a rice/toast/banana diet, I’d see temporary improvement, so I’d starting eating normal foods again at family dinners, and then the pains would all start over again. I felt like my body was just punishing me for traveling so far and so long. I was pretty miserable.

I tried some simple medication, like the equivalent of Tums and activated charcoal but it didn’t help. And I didn’t want to take any more serious medications because I didn’t know what my stomach problems were.

I had some pretty strong antibiotics prescribed to me by a doctor in Australia in case of emergency to take if I got sick in Nepal, but I got all worried about them being wrong for me. In general, I’ve been raised to believe all medication is bad. In retrospect, perhaps if I took the antibiotics when the symptoms began, it would have healed me and I would have been fine. But I waited too long and became paranoid.

I feel like I’m painting a pretty bad picture of what Russia is like, so let me talk about that. First off, the howling stray dogs is not necessarily a problem everywhere. My aunt and grandma with whom I was living, just happen to be in a condo near a large field where many animals have made their home. If you stay in accommodation more in the city center, you will likely not experience this problem.

Additionally, one night when I felt really out of it, I checked into a hotel to see if I could sleep better. This hotel had air conditioning, and all of the comforts I was looking for. So you can definitely find accommodation to suit your needs, just do some research! Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep there either because at this point my insomnia had a strong hold and it was less of a physical and environmental problem, and more mental at this point. 

I felt bad for my poor aunt who wasn’t sure how to ease my maladies. She was such a lovely host and took time off work to hang out with me, and while I didn’t do too much sight seeing, I spent all my evenings hanging out with her and my cousin and her husband.

They have an adorable toddler, who gets bigger and bigger every time I visit. After traveling for so long, I really had missed the comforts of family, and even though I wasn’t physically well, my heart felt revived by the love I received from everyone.

My extended family lives in the city of Rostov or in the countryside surrounding the city. Rostov was one of the locations of the FIFA World Cup in 2018, which means the city had some significant infrastructure upgrades in the past couple years, making it better equipped for tourists. There are nice parks, restaurants, statues, and other sights to see downtown. I’m including the pictures I took when I was there this year, as well as a few from my previous trip to Russia a couple years ago.

I was so bummed that I couldn’t really enjoy Russian food while I visited, as it is usually pretty dairy-fat-carb-heavy, and this isn’t ideal for indigestion issues. The seafood in particular is yummy in Rostov, as that is what they are known for.

Over the weekend, we went on a trip several hours north to visit our other relatives in the countryside. I really enjoyed breathing in the fresh air, and chatting with my family in the evenings at our grand Russian dinners. Drinking and eating is a big part of Russian culture. We prepare large feasts, and sit at the table late into the night taking and eating.

Since I grew up with only my immediate family in the US, it felt nice to be part of such a large group of people who were all related to me, either by blood or marriage. I really wished I could eat everything that was constantly being offered to me though. In a stereotypical Russian fashion, I was also presented with hard liquor as a way to fix my indigestion, which I politely declined. 

The stereotype is that Russians are constantly drinking vodka, but in reality, you cannot always trust that it is not watered down when you buy it in the store. So moonshine is a popular alternative, since it is made by locals, and it’s cheaper. Wine and beer are also very popular drinks in Russia.

I was amused listening to family gossip, playing with everyone’s cats (Russians looove cats as pets!), and watching everyone eat and be merry. I really wished I could be more a part of it, but most food was making me sick unfortunately. 

My stories from my trip to my hometown of Rostov are not super exciting, as it mostly just consisted of talking and hanging out with my family. There are lots of beautiful parks and landmarks to explore in Rostov that I didn’t have a chance to see on this trip. I hope to return again soon when my health is at 100% so I can demolish it with copious amounts of Russian food and alcohol!

-Anastasia