Esfir Dener

This is me in Kishinev in the 1980s. A street photographer took this picture of me in the main street of the town, Lenin Street. After my heart surgery my doctors recommended me to have an apartment not higher than on the second floor and the construction department gave me another apartment in the same district. Every year I obtained a free stay at the cardiologic centers in Moldova, Palanga [Lithuania] and Kislovodsk. I loved traveling and the Crimea was my favorite place. I usually went there in the middle of September, the 'velvet' season, when it was warm, but not hot. A plane ticket from Kishinev to Simferopol cost 17 rubles. I took a trolley bus to Yalta. This was the longest trolley bus trail in the USSR [about 160 km]. In Yalta I rented a room, swam in the sea and went for walks in seashore parks. I also went on tours along the seashore: to the former czarist palace in Livadia, to Count Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, to Gursuf, which Pushkin had once visited. I remember a beautiful open air museum near Yalta - 'The Meadow of fairy tales?' And of course, I read in my free time. I had a small collection of Russian and foreign classical books. I like Somerset Maugham.