Dear Mother:
Well, I 'have booked passage on a ship to Europe, I would of had to sooner or later and I think it's best I go now. Just remember above all else that my values are very different from Robert's or your's. It is difficult to tell you how I feel, Just remember this is what I must do. I did not tell you about my plans because you could harly be expected to understand.
I did not see aunt Lilian while I was here. I will write again as soon as I land.
Lee 474

The Marion Lykes carried only four passengers.475 Oswald shared his cabin with Billy Joe Lord, a young man who had just graduated from high school and was going to France to continue his education. Lord testified that he and Oswald did not discuss politics but did have a few amicable religious arguments, in which Oswald defended atheism. Oswald was "standoffish," but told Lord generally about his background, mentioning that his mother worked in a drug-store in Fort Worth and that he was bitter about the low wages which she received. He told Lord that he intended to travel in Europe and possibly to attend school in Sweden or Switzerland if he had sufficient funds.476 The other two passengers were Lt. Col. and Mrs. George B. Church, Jr., who also found Oswald unfriendly and had little contact with him. Oswald told them that he had not liked the Marine Corps and that he planned to study in Switzerland; they observed some "bitterness" about his mother's difficulties, but did not discuss this with him. No one on board suspected that he intended to defect to Russia.477

Oswald disembarked at Le Havre on October 8. He left for England that same day, and arrived on October 9.478 He told English customs officials in Southampton that he had $700 and planned to remain in the United Kingdom for i week before proceeding to a school in Switzerland. But on the same day, he flew to Helsinki, Finland, where he registered at the Torni Hotel; on the following day, he moved to the Klaus Kurki Hotel.479
Oswald probably applied for a visa at the Russian consulate on October 12, his first business day in Helsinki.480 The visa was issued on October 14. It was valid until October 20 and permitted him to take one trip of not more than 6 days to the Soviet Union.481 He also purchased 10 Soviet "tourist vouchers" which cost $30 apiece.482 He left Helsinki by train on the following day, crossed the Finnish-Russian border at Vainikkala, and arrived in Moscow on October 16.483

He was met at the Moscow railroad station by a representative of "Intourist," the state tourist agency, and taken to the Hotel Berlin, where he registered as a student.484 On the same day he met the Intourist guide assigned to him during his stay in Russia, a young woman named Rima Shirokova. They went sightseeing the next day. Almost immediately he told her that he wanted to leave