"An international conglomerate"

The train ride from Omsk to Irkutsk turned out to be a really funny one. Different nationalities were represented; among a couple others there were Russians, a Norwegian, Swedish, Australian and Italian. This train ride was about two and a half day, so I had lots of time to get to know all kinds of people in the train. The only ones I did not get to know were the Soviet Army Soldiers who stayed in my train car. They did not speak any English, and were way too busy looking at their wrist watches (with the red star in the center, of course), and keeping straight faces.

There were some open beds around me, but right next to me there were a couple cool Russians. One of them was a young woman who spoke some English. Her name is Violeta, and she was going to Novosibirsk. She was very interesting to talk to, and we had many great conversations. She offered me some different Russian food, and told me about it. I will post a food chapter to my blog soon, so I will tell you all about the Lavash then, but for now it is enough to say that it is some kind of bread. One of the Lavashes I brought from Omsk was from Abkhazia. This made me interested in hearing the Russian point of view on the conflict with Georgia. Violeta had been there, and she had relatives there, so she seemed to be a good person to ask. She told me that: 'The people in Abkhazia want to be part of Russia, and that Georgia wants the land in Abkhazia, but not the people. So Georgia attacks the Abkhazian and to control the land. Russia is only helping Abkhazia staying independent, and does not try to grab it ( she motioned a claw grabbing in the air).'

Abkhazia considers itself an independent republic, and only a couple areas in similar situations, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru has recognized the independence of Abkhazia. (This recognition happened after the war in South Ossetia in 2008) This situation is very difficult because the rest of the world considers Abkhazia to be part of Georgia. Luckily there has not been very much fighting since the war of 1992-1993, but diplomatic efforts has not been leading this conflict towards an end. As I understand it from Violetas view, life of people in Abkhazia is not easy, for instance, their passports are refused in almost all countries. Russia, with both political, economical and military involvement in the separatist rule of Abkhazia, are now issuing Russian passports to the people who need it for traveling. I asked if she thought that Abkhazia would become part of The Russian Federation within the next 10 years. Violeta believed that it would become part of Russia, but not within 10 years. Maybe 15, she said.

The other traveler next to me was a man in his late 30's. His name is Vladimir. And like every other Vladimir I have met, he pointed to himself and said "Vladimir, not Putin". They all think this joke is very funny and laugh, and of course, so did this one. Vladimir does not speak English, but he knew some French, and for as long as Violeta was there, she was translating. After Novosibirsk we communicated with different methods, a lot of pointing, making sounds, and nodding. I had several maps, and explained about Norway. It turned out that this fire fighter who lived about one hour from Irkutsk had great knowledge of Geography, and also history. We were both drinking a lot of tea, and eating cashew nuts. On the train I easily drink 15 cups of tea in a day. The hot water is free, and the cups I can borrow on the train are very nice. They consist of two pieces; one glass and one metal 'under-piece' with a handle. (They are in some picture I have posted, I believe). I paid the women working in the train to take the cups home. So when I get to china I will ship them by boat to Norway. Great souvenirs!

In the afternoon on the second day Vladimir started playing music on his cell phone. He had a fancy Samsung cell phone, with a touch screen and everything. When it comes to phones there is one thing I never have understood. Why do they all, by default, have the annoying sound on every time you hit a button? It is very irritating, and everyone in Norway turns this off right a way. Vladimir did not. So when he was playing, typing or exploring on his phone (which had surprisingly loud speakers), everyone could hear it. The first song he played was "Just like a pill" by Pink. The song was not very good, but my friend 'Vlad' seemed to like it. He was partially dancing in his seat. He played some different songs, among others, a remix of "Take on me" by AHA. The only good song he played was "Don't cry" by Guns 'N' Roses.

I was in car 17, and in the next one down, number 16, there were three Swedish guys, two Australians and two hilarious Italians. The Swedes were all as old as me, and they were planning on going to Vladivostok. They did later change their tickets to come with the Australians and me to Mongolia. The Australians are on the way home to Perth to celebrate their mom's 60th birthday. Pete, the younger of the two had been working in Moscow as an English teacher for six months, so he knew some Russian. This helped us out a lot! The Italians really would deserve a chapter for themselves, but here is a short summary: They did not bring the warmest clothes, they had normal suitcases (like I would use for a weekend in London), they did not speak much English, and they had really no idea of what they were doing, ever! The Swedes had helped them some with getting around, but at times it just became too much stupidity from the 'i-Tards', as we ended up calling them. They did not understand this nickname, and liked it...

At one train station all of us went outside to try throwing boiling water up in the air, to see what happened. It turned out, as we hoped, that a lot of it had already frozen before it hit the ground! The temperature was -40 (Both C and F... This is a coincidence, but I think it is really cool! For sure very cold!) There is a picture of one of the Swedish guys throwing it up in the air.

We had a lot of fun in the restaurant wagon that last night on the train. The restaurant was closed, and the light was turned off when we came in there, but the Australian convinced the girl and the boy who worked there (and when we came in, slept there) to let us stay. So we paid them a little money (this is what you do to get what you want in Russia), and we could enjoy ourselves as much as we wanted. We played card games, and joked around with the Italians. An old Russian guy who did not speak any English came in to join us, and he was buying food and Vodka for everyone. We had fun for a while, but I called it an early night. The next day was going to be interesting, and I needed to rest.