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Mike's RTW Trip 06/07
Spent 24 hours on the Siberian Express from Moscow to Ekaterinburg. The total distance is 1667 km. It took from 16:10 till 17:45 the next day. Thats 25.5 hours on th train. What made it worse was that I could not find any English speaking travellers. I shared a compartment with 3 Russians. The one couple climbed off in Kazan at 3am. They were really lovely. Strange how the girl made an effort to chat to me and not her husband. The other guy was going further to Irkursk. He was so kind and ended up feeding me and giving me coffee all the way. I never had to go to the restaurant car during the whole trip. I think I will do that next time tough, as I'm sure I'll find some English people drininking at the bar. I am going to be travelling twice the distance when I go to Irkursk in a few days time and not being able to converse with someone easily is going to be painful. There is only so much reading one can do.
When I first got onto the train I sat in compartment 7, but it turns out that I had to be in bunk 7 which was in compartment 2. The 2 Russian ladies seemed estatic when I left as that meant they would have the compartment to themselves. Fair enough. Anyway I discovered shortly after that I did not have my mobile phone and searching my bags, pockets, bags etc it did not turn up. I went back to teh previous compartment and the ladies had a look for me and it was not there. So I gathered that I had been pick pocketed at the train station. I was gutted as I have everyones number on there and its a bit of a lifeline when you get to a city and cannot find your hotel etc etc. So over the 25 hours I made peace with the fact that I would have to cancel the phone today and get that al sorted. Turns out as the ladies were getting off at the same station as me and presented me with my phone. They had found it. Its strange how something so small has become such a part of my life. I don't if that's agood thing or a bad thing. Probably both. A lot of people would say that I should not have it at all and that when you travel you should forego the blue blankie. But hey I'm travelling in the 21st century and we have mobile phones and the Internet.
I have noticed that Russia is definitley in a transition phase. There does not appear to be an established middle class yet. People are either poor or rich. Also the development of the cities shows this. You will have an expensive glass building next door to a really run down apartment block.
The one thing I have enjoyed is the history lessons provided by my your guides. I have read the book Imperium by Ryzard Kapochinski which explains a lot about why Russia is the way it is. This sometimes conflicts with what my guides tell me. I think that they don't want to paint / present what the old Russia really was like.
I've just had a 3 hour tour around the city by a lovely Russian girl called Netti. Got to see all the major sites. My impression is that all the Russian cities would be so much better if Stalin did not destroy all the cathedral, churches & cultural sites. But whay is left is interesting. Like building a cathedral in 3 years starting in 2003. It look like the old style but its not.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get my photos from my camera onto the Internet. I'm sure I will figure it out soon enough. Tomorrow I'm off to Siberia for a hike and raft experience. Should be interesting as I have not yet met an English speaking person. Apparently the only words I need to know on the trip are "row" and "bail".
The other strange thing was when I got to my hotel room, I flicked through the hotel folder that explains everything about the use of phones, laundry etc and the last page was a colour print of a naked woman and how do I put this politely, I could even see Bulowayo. And then an URL for the website. Strange concept of advertsing. Anyway I be going to the club tonight.....
Cheers
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