On Wednesday, I lunched with the vendor we were meeting with. He was a heavily accented russian named Igor. I haven't met too many communist born fellows or guys named Igor so I inquired about his story.
Igor defected from Russia on a tour bus with 61 other people. He said that after graduating college all of his friends were either towing the party line, one which many of them did not agree with, or going to jail. Neither the farce or the bars held appeal so he researched and then spawned a plan to escape. It seems if you are able to lay hands on a travel visa in Russia, you can bolt from Russia on a tour bus with a bunch of like-minded individuals. He said that people started thinning out after the tour's first stop. But, Igor confessed that he had paid so much money in bribes and for the tour that he could not bring himself to disappear into the rustic european landscape before enjoying the majority of the guided campaign.
For this reason, Stuttgart, Germany which was the last stop on the trip became his home for many years. He said that when the bus finally set out to return to its homeland, only 4 of the original 65 tourist were on it.
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