Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hyydrology
Q ..
Well, those kind of things have been taken over by the Communist Government.
A
We heard all of that story. But the main thing I remember is when I made my travel
plans, there wasn't time to go to Moscow. But after we got there, they shortened
the meeting, and they planned an excursion where we traveled by bus from
Leningrad to Moscow and stopped at one of their hydrologic laboratories out in the
field. It was about half way between Leningrad and Moscow.
So a week or two before, I went to the travel agent to change my, Mrs. Snyder was
with me, to change our trip to include, instead of flying from Leningrad back to the
West, to go to Moscow first and fly from there. So about a week later I went back
and they said, sorry, they couldn't do anything about it. I'd have to wait until I got
to Moscow.
So as soon as I got to Moscow, why, I went to the Aeroflot office and told them
what I wanted to do. We had a friend, he was the commercial attache in Bonn that
we wanted to visit. So in reorganizing the trip, I eliminated one trip across the
continent so I shortened our travel a whole lot. When I went back to get my tickets,
they changed everything the way I wanted it and then they told me how much I had
to pay. I said, well, I felt that since I eliminated a thousand miles or so of flying
that there hadn't ought to be any charge. I said, "What happens if I don't pay?"
She said, "Well, you won't leave Moscow.
It was an interesting thing though when we landed in Vienna, we just sort of had a
feeling of lightness or a feeling of relief or something. When we were in Russia,
there it wasn't quite as bad as it was a little earlier. I remember hearing one man
give a talk where on a trip he made, everywhere they went, there was a, what do
they call, the secret service people they have.
Q ..
The KGB.
A
Well, anyhow, they had a government man with them. In one place, the man said
they were looking at a dam or bridge and he started taking a picture and the guide
said, "You're not allowed to do that." He asked her, "What if I do?" She said, "I
don't care. All I'm supposed to do is tell you you're not supposed to do it." He
also said that one morning when they got up, or the night before they went to bed,
they said, "We're going to give you a real American breakfast in the morning. So
they had hot dogs and Coca Cola.
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