Journal Entry 37

September 9th, 2004

"Momentum"

 

Finally, momentum. I left off in Xining, middle of China, and I've been running since then. The first job was to escape China. To do this, it was three straight overnight trains, hard seat class. 25 hrs to Beijing, 5-hr layover to catch next train, 21 hrs to Harbin, 7-hr layover, 9 hrs to Suifenhe. A bit lacking in sleep. Okay, a lot. But next night, I'll be in a hotel, right? Wrong! But I did finally leave China.

Next step was to cross into Russia. This took a while: after many hours on the bus and at the border controls, I arrived in Vladivostok at 1am. And couldn't find a hotel, so I spent the night reading in a hotel lobby. Four nights now.

Funny, strange: if you'd told me 15 yrs ago, that as an American engineer (who's worked for NASA and Lockheed Martin nonetheless), I could have an independent visa (no itinerary, no reservations) for Russia and walk around the port city of Vladivostok (off-limits to even Russians without a permit before 1990), taking pictures of their naval vessels, I would've thought you were cracked. Times have changed.

Anyway, I found a place to stay the next day, in a decrepit old apartment building with a red-haired old lady...finally sleep! (15 hrs)...and the next evening I was on the Trans-Siberian railroad, my home for the next 7 days. I had planned to stop off a few places en route, but in the end I decided that that is exactly the reason it's taken me so long to get out of this part of the world, and decided to do it in a go.

What a ride! The Vladivostok--Moscow run is apparently the longest train in the world. 9300km, or 6000+ miles. It was heaven. I splurged (as I was very tired), throwing out about $210 to go 2nd class, which gives me an enclosed compartment with four beds. And for 80% of the voyage, I had it to myself! Heaven! Read, nap, write, eat, buy food (baked goods and fresh berries and caviar) from babushkas when we stop at little stations...and, of course, gaze out the window. I had company too: a group of five Nigerian students in the compartments adjacent to mine...how random.

Crossing Russia this way was fantastic. The countryside was amazing: forests and rivers and small fields and beehive-shaped stacks of hay and little wooden cottages with rickety fences and brightly-painted shutters and sunflowers in bloom and cool fresh air. The cities are ugly, but everything else was great. 7 days? I could've contentedly stayed on that train for 2 weeks.

Here are some perhaps little known facts: the train crosses 7 time zones, about one per day. 30% of the world's trees are in the Siberian taiga, four times the size of the Amazon Basin. It was settled by people who wanted free land (27 acres) and by convicts. Before all the bridges were built, they ferried across in the summer and froze tracks to the ice in winter.

About day six, we cross the border in the Ural mountains, from Asia to Europe.

On a whim, I jumped off the train 4 hrs before its arrival in Moscow, a place called Yaroslavl, from where I took a bus to a small town called Rostov. Good choice. It's a tiny place with a medieval-looking kremlin that contains a scattering of old old churches and buildings. Again, hotels full, so I stay with a little old Russian lady called Nina, in her home by the lake. Visited a nearby monastery and listened to monks chanting. It was so nice and picturesque and non-touristy (aside from weekend Moscow holiday-ers) and my visit coincided with their annual festival, which meant beer and food and a bad music concert by a Moscow pop group.

Then I made it to Moscow. Crossing into the Red Square and seeing St Basil's Cathedral was one of my absolute highlights...I got goosebumps like you wouldn't believe! Couldn't believe I was actually there. St Basil's Cathedral is amazing; it looks like a giant piece of candy.

Moscow, then St Petersburg. Brief stops only in these places, as I wasn't much in the mood for big cities. Saw the highlights, did my usual wanderings, and explored the subways. Deep deep deep, like descending into hell on these escalators that zoom at twice the normal speed.

Then, off to the Baltic Republics. What have I always done in Europe? Seen castles! The first was right at the Russia/Estonia border, opposing castles separated by the border, a river. Stopped a couple days in Tallinn, capital of Estonia, and wandered around the old town. Then I hitchhiked to a small town called Viljandi--it's on a lake and has a ruined castle. The last dude I hitched with gave me the keys to his apartment in an ancient-looking building on the lake. For the weekend. Just dropped me off, gave me his keys, said he'd be back Monday. Incredible!

Hitchhiked to Sigulda, Latvia, and spent a couple nights there. Took walks in the forest and explored three nearby castles. Yesterday, the cold gray rainy day reflected the state of my soul. So instead of hitching (always mentally a bit more challenging), I took some buses to Vilnius, Lithuania, where I'm currently posted. I love it here.

If I'd written this yesterday, or two or three days ago, the tone would have been much different. I seemed to be tired at the core. Truly. Why the change? Well, I seem to always hit these random events as I go along. Yesterday was Day One of this Lithuanian folk music festival. I went to this concert last night, and it filled me up again. Live music from talented musicians is so amazing, one of my greatest joys in life. The highlight was this impromptu jam session with two accordians, a mouth harp, a drum, a cello, this homemade harp-thing, a triangle, and these clacky things. I left the concert my normal happy self again.

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Russia: land of the people that don't smile. A Colombian girl I met in Rostov asked a Russian woman why they don't smile, and was told "People who smile in the street are either drunk or mentally challenged." And there is a demographic, I'd say Russian women in their 40s, that are the most miserable buggers in the world. Don't even try to be cheery with them. And also, beer is everywhere. Starting straight-away every morning, people walk the streets, beers in hand. And it's cheap. They also have this cool drink called kvas, which is made from fermented rye bread. Quite tasty! And great dark bread, both in Russia and the Baltics.

The Baltics seem to be getting westernized quickly...very modern compared to what I saw of other parts of Eastern Europe on a separate trip, five and a half years ago. To tell the truth, it interests me less. I still am enjoying myself, but I find that I move much more quickly than I tend to usually. I thought I'd changed the way I travel (on previous trips to Europe, I rarely stayed somewhere longer than 1-2 days), but it's not me, it's the places.

The trip changes character soon. A lot.
 

"Don't you think you'd have to be a hopeless nonentity to play only one role all your life, to have only one place in society, always to stand for the same thing?" (-Pasternak, 'Dr Zhivago')

 

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