I’ve had a shit sleep on this train as it races through the night like a maniac thing. The bed is quite hard and the train has definitely sped up to make time. While I couldn’t sleep I decided to learn a few Russian words from my rather antiquated phrasebook. It has the most ridiculous system of pronunciation:
Hello: zdrahz-tvooy-tyeh
Please: pa-zhal-sta
Thank you: spa-see-ba
Excuse me: eez-vee-nee-tyeh
Now I’m up and awake again and I’ve decided that the best thing to do is to interact with my fellow passengers as much as possible by hanging out in the aisle and keeping my cabin door open as they all seem to do.
I just had a nightmare form filling episode for the Russian customs. I have to be really careful to get both forms signed or I could get done on leaving Russia at Vladivostok (this according to my guidebook).
I’m looking at polish fields and there are actually roughly dressed people working out there among the furrows filling up carrier bags with root vegetables. I’m kinda pleased the scene fits my stereotypes of eastern Europe so well.
I’ve learned some more words from the customs form:
Exit: VIH-khut
Entrance: fkhawt
The number ‘two’: dvah
And here are some useful greetings(note that the capitalised parts represent stress – I told you the pronunciation system was weird!):
Good morning: DOH-broyeh-OOtro
Good afternoon: DOH-broyeh-DYEN
Do you speak English? Gava-REE-tyeh-lee-vy-pa-an-GLEE-skee?
No: nyet
Yes: da
Good: ha-ra-SHAW (sounds like ‘horror show’ so it’s easy to remember)
Bad: pla-HOY (I remember this one by thinking of ‘land ahoy’)
Cheap: de-SHO-vee
Expensive: da-ra-GOY
A middle-aged woman with a full top set of gold teeth just tried to sell me vodka, chicken or beer. She seemed convinced that I needed at least one of them. I’m now through border control at the Poland/Belarus border effectively beginning my entry into the Russian Federation. They’re changing the bogies to the wider Russian gauge and we’re inside what seems like a giant car-wash. The toilets are locked during this process as the men must work underneath the train. Naturally I’m suddenly bursting for the toilet and I’m eyeing up a water bottle that I might have to piss into in a moment.
From out of nowhere a man is suddenly holding up wooden vase at the window and grinning like a used-car salesman. They are hideous things but I can’t seem to look away.
I had a massive long chat with Dina (pretty Russian girl in the cabin next-door). It was obviously pretty difficult as there is a huge language barrier but somehow we managed to communicate and some pages in this notebook are now filled with sketches and diagrams as if we’d just played Pictionary. She is 25 and is studying architecture in a place called Nast outside Moscow. She also has a boyfriend (shit!) who is a student there too.
At first before speaking to her I was pretty nervous but I just thought ‘bugger it!’ and I went for it, tackling the poor girl on her way back from the toilet with a big smile and a dreadful Russian accent. She turned out to be a really friendly girl and extremely tactile which was nice but maybe that’s just the Russian way. The two of us ended up sitting in my cabin chatting, albeit rather stiltedly, for a couple for hours. I even managed to get a couple of photos of her. When I first suggested it she suddenly disappeared into her cabin and I thought I’d somehow offended her but she returned five minutes later looking stunning with her hair down and a little make-up on. She allowed me to take two pictures and vetted them for quality.
The restaurant car is closed now and all I’ve had to eat all day is water, apples, cereal bars and fruit juice.
I’m really starting to enjoy this experience and I can see how it might become addictive. I think I will be a lot more likely to push myself into new situations while I’m travelling – this could be really good for me!
It’s seven pm and I have just 2 bottles of water and 2 apples until we reach Moscow at nine am tomorrow. Outside the Belarus countryside is flying past with silver birch forests going on forever and occasional grey buildings hidden deep in the woods that appear to be military bases. Sometimes I can see real Hansel and Gretel type huts huddling together in the woods and there are people still out in the fields at 8pm with their carrier bags and headscarves as I’d seen them in Poland, plunging their hands into the cold earth for vegetables. Little wonder that Eastern Europeans are taking the opportunity to come to Britain if this is their lot at home.
Now I’m starving to death in my cabin, my stomach is grumbling and so is my mouth. I’m pretending to read but really I’m waiting to speak to Dina again who is standing nearby in the corridor with two other women. Now and then we exchange little smiles or a glance. She has the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
Hello: zdrahz-tvooy-tyeh
Please: pa-zhal-sta
Thank you: spa-see-ba
Excuse me: eez-vee-nee-tyeh
Now I’m up and awake again and I’ve decided that the best thing to do is to interact with my fellow passengers as much as possible by hanging out in the aisle and keeping my cabin door open as they all seem to do.
I just had a nightmare form filling episode for the Russian customs. I have to be really careful to get both forms signed or I could get done on leaving Russia at Vladivostok (this according to my guidebook).
I’m looking at polish fields and there are actually roughly dressed people working out there among the furrows filling up carrier bags with root vegetables. I’m kinda pleased the scene fits my stereotypes of eastern Europe so well.
I’ve learned some more words from the customs form:
Exit: VIH-khut
Entrance: fkhawt
The number ‘two’: dvah
And here are some useful greetings(note that the capitalised parts represent stress – I told you the pronunciation system was weird!):
Good morning: DOH-broyeh-OOtro
Good afternoon: DOH-broyeh-DYEN
Do you speak English? Gava-REE-tyeh-lee-vy-pa-an-GLEE-skee?
No: nyet
Yes: da
Good: ha-ra-SHAW (sounds like ‘horror show’ so it’s easy to remember)
Bad: pla-HOY (I remember this one by thinking of ‘land ahoy’)
Cheap: de-SHO-vee
Expensive: da-ra-GOY
A middle-aged woman with a full top set of gold teeth just tried to sell me vodka, chicken or beer. She seemed convinced that I needed at least one of them. I’m now through border control at the Poland/Belarus border effectively beginning my entry into the Russian Federation. They’re changing the bogies to the wider Russian gauge and we’re inside what seems like a giant car-wash. The toilets are locked during this process as the men must work underneath the train. Naturally I’m suddenly bursting for the toilet and I’m eyeing up a water bottle that I might have to piss into in a moment.
From out of nowhere a man is suddenly holding up wooden vase at the window and grinning like a used-car salesman. They are hideous things but I can’t seem to look away.
I had a massive long chat with Dina (pretty Russian girl in the cabin next-door). It was obviously pretty difficult as there is a huge language barrier but somehow we managed to communicate and some pages in this notebook are now filled with sketches and diagrams as if we’d just played Pictionary. She is 25 and is studying architecture in a place called Nast outside Moscow. She also has a boyfriend (shit!) who is a student there too.
At first before speaking to her I was pretty nervous but I just thought ‘bugger it!’ and I went for it, tackling the poor girl on her way back from the toilet with a big smile and a dreadful Russian accent. She turned out to be a really friendly girl and extremely tactile which was nice but maybe that’s just the Russian way. The two of us ended up sitting in my cabin chatting, albeit rather stiltedly, for a couple for hours. I even managed to get a couple of photos of her. When I first suggested it she suddenly disappeared into her cabin and I thought I’d somehow offended her but she returned five minutes later looking stunning with her hair down and a little make-up on. She allowed me to take two pictures and vetted them for quality.
The restaurant car is closed now and all I’ve had to eat all day is water, apples, cereal bars and fruit juice.
I’m really starting to enjoy this experience and I can see how it might become addictive. I think I will be a lot more likely to push myself into new situations while I’m travelling – this could be really good for me!
It’s seven pm and I have just 2 bottles of water and 2 apples until we reach Moscow at nine am tomorrow. Outside the Belarus countryside is flying past with silver birch forests going on forever and occasional grey buildings hidden deep in the woods that appear to be military bases. Sometimes I can see real Hansel and Gretel type huts huddling together in the woods and there are people still out in the fields at 8pm with their carrier bags and headscarves as I’d seen them in Poland, plunging their hands into the cold earth for vegetables. Little wonder that Eastern Europeans are taking the opportunity to come to Britain if this is their lot at home.
Now I’m starving to death in my cabin, my stomach is grumbling and so is my mouth. I’m pretending to read but really I’m waiting to speak to Dina again who is standing nearby in the corridor with two other women. Now and then we exchange little smiles or a glance. She has the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.
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