Safe in Siberia
Have you ever sat on a train for almost three days? It's really bizzarre - that idea of stillness and motion.
I'm not sure what I expected Siberia to look like, but it resembles Northern MN - parts of Kansas - parts of Nebraska - lots of trees, fields and miles and miles of nothing. I can't imagine taking a three day trip in Northern MN, just driving around in circles, but it was really peaceful. It really was. I loved it.
What the Lonely Planet guidebook told us about the train ride:
Don't bring books, you'll spend way too much time playing cards, meeting friends, drinking vodka. It's like a regular party.
I'm not sure what kinds of parties the Lonely Planet writers attend, but I wouldn't describe it as a party.
We made enemies with the train ticket lady (she's kind of the host of our carriage for three days).
The lady in the bar car spoke food English "beef" "soup" "milk" but we couldn't communicate much else.
We did meet a young Russian couple who told us they spoke English - but they didn't understand most of what I said. I played cards with them for several hours - or tried to - they couldn't communicate the logic of the game.
We did meet a lot of people who wanted to communicate with us - 8 year old hyperactive girls who thought Ben was a big teddy bear - drunk Russian guys sit down at our table and speak Russian to us - for hours. I think they think we somehow picked up the language throughout the conversation, but that's just not the case.
Our language dictionaries have come in very very handy.
There were no other English-speaking travelers on the train.
I wrote a lot.
But we arrived in Novosobirsk late on July 1. We had no hotel accomodations set up. We had no real plans besides the fact that we wanted to go to Tomsk. After much deliberation and negotiations over prices at different hotels, we ended up taking a taxi to Tomsk (3 1/2 hour drive). Since we didn't have hotel reservations there either - and our cabby spoke zero English. Amanda demonstrated the universal sleep position - hands folded down, head resting lightly, eyes shut. It was 4:30 am and we need to get some sleep. Well, he took us to a pay by the hour hotel that (i'm sure you never would have seen this coming) a hooker on the street recommended. No one at the "hotel" spoke English, our cabby didn't speak English, the three of us, exhausted now, tried to dig through the dictionary in order to communicate. "Sputnick" I kept repeating - the name of a hotel listed in Lonely Planet.
Eventually, (hours later) the cabby dropped us off at Sputnick, they had three single rooms available, and after a much needed shower (remember, I hadn't showered since St. Petersburg) I finally cralwed in bed for a couple of hours.
Amanda and I forced ourselves to get up at noon. We walked the streets. Tomsk is known as a college town. I was thinking Ames, Mankato, somewhere with a lot of culture, bars, fun young people. It is possible that these things exist here, but they certainly don't exist in English. Amanda and I are quite a tag team. We've managed pointing at the cyrillic spelling of the word chicken - and hoping they bring us something delicious. I've created my own phonetic vocabulary, and I'm able to recognize certain words now - ignoring how they're pronounced (or vice versa). Amanda and I managed to figure out the bus schedule yesterday and took a bus out to a Siberian village Kosorova for a couple of hours. This village was established in the late 1600s and I don't think it's changed much. It was gorgeous, peaceful, and I can't wait to share some pictures.
However, the intenet place is slow, I can't open multiple windows at the same time, and it's weird and dark here. So I guess you'll have to wait until next time.
Next time... hmmm. Well, Amanda and I bought train tickets to Taiga - which will put us back on the Tran Siberian line. However, we have no idea when we can catch a train to Mongolia - our (hopefully) next stop. We're afraid we might get stuck in small towns waiting for trains - but then again, I'm not afraid - I'm sure it will be great - but I just don't want to cut short my Mongolian time. So we're taking off tonight to Taiga, and we're hoping to catch a night train heading East - then we will have another 2 days of train travel to look forward to.
More to come...
I'm not sure what I expected Siberia to look like, but it resembles Northern MN - parts of Kansas - parts of Nebraska - lots of trees, fields and miles and miles of nothing. I can't imagine taking a three day trip in Northern MN, just driving around in circles, but it was really peaceful. It really was. I loved it.
What the Lonely Planet guidebook told us about the train ride:
Don't bring books, you'll spend way too much time playing cards, meeting friends, drinking vodka. It's like a regular party.
I'm not sure what kinds of parties the Lonely Planet writers attend, but I wouldn't describe it as a party.
We made enemies with the train ticket lady (she's kind of the host of our carriage for three days).
The lady in the bar car spoke food English "beef" "soup" "milk" but we couldn't communicate much else.
We did meet a young Russian couple who told us they spoke English - but they didn't understand most of what I said. I played cards with them for several hours - or tried to - they couldn't communicate the logic of the game.
We did meet a lot of people who wanted to communicate with us - 8 year old hyperactive girls who thought Ben was a big teddy bear - drunk Russian guys sit down at our table and speak Russian to us - for hours. I think they think we somehow picked up the language throughout the conversation, but that's just not the case.
Our language dictionaries have come in very very handy.
There were no other English-speaking travelers on the train.
I wrote a lot.
But we arrived in Novosobirsk late on July 1. We had no hotel accomodations set up. We had no real plans besides the fact that we wanted to go to Tomsk. After much deliberation and negotiations over prices at different hotels, we ended up taking a taxi to Tomsk (3 1/2 hour drive). Since we didn't have hotel reservations there either - and our cabby spoke zero English. Amanda demonstrated the universal sleep position - hands folded down, head resting lightly, eyes shut. It was 4:30 am and we need to get some sleep. Well, he took us to a pay by the hour hotel that (i'm sure you never would have seen this coming) a hooker on the street recommended. No one at the "hotel" spoke English, our cabby didn't speak English, the three of us, exhausted now, tried to dig through the dictionary in order to communicate. "Sputnick" I kept repeating - the name of a hotel listed in Lonely Planet.
Eventually, (hours later) the cabby dropped us off at Sputnick, they had three single rooms available, and after a much needed shower (remember, I hadn't showered since St. Petersburg) I finally cralwed in bed for a couple of hours.
Amanda and I forced ourselves to get up at noon. We walked the streets. Tomsk is known as a college town. I was thinking Ames, Mankato, somewhere with a lot of culture, bars, fun young people. It is possible that these things exist here, but they certainly don't exist in English. Amanda and I are quite a tag team. We've managed pointing at the cyrillic spelling of the word chicken - and hoping they bring us something delicious. I've created my own phonetic vocabulary, and I'm able to recognize certain words now - ignoring how they're pronounced (or vice versa). Amanda and I managed to figure out the bus schedule yesterday and took a bus out to a Siberian village Kosorova for a couple of hours. This village was established in the late 1600s and I don't think it's changed much. It was gorgeous, peaceful, and I can't wait to share some pictures.
However, the intenet place is slow, I can't open multiple windows at the same time, and it's weird and dark here. So I guess you'll have to wait until next time.
Next time... hmmm. Well, Amanda and I bought train tickets to Taiga - which will put us back on the Tran Siberian line. However, we have no idea when we can catch a train to Mongolia - our (hopefully) next stop. We're afraid we might get stuck in small towns waiting for trains - but then again, I'm not afraid - I'm sure it will be great - but I just don't want to cut short my Mongolian time. So we're taking off tonight to Taiga, and we're hoping to catch a night train heading East - then we will have another 2 days of train travel to look forward to.
More to come...
posted by Annette Schiebout at
1:36 AM
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