“In the fall, in 1864, I was appointed to manage the Adrianople consulate. The consul at that time in Adrianople was a young man, Mikhail Ignatievich Zolotarev. He was going to Russia for a long time on vacation and was waiting impatiently for me to replace him.On a rainy October morning, I boarded a steamer to sail through Silivria to Rodosto, where a crew was to be waiting for me. ... I can't stand the sea, I suffer from heaving and find a long voyage on a steamboat something unbearably boring and slavishly painful. Traveling on horseback, even if it is the most tiring, on the contrary, I love it very much ... "