Glazov, Udmurt Republic, Russia
The train ride to arrive in Glazov must have been the most hilarious train experience I have had yet. I'm always on the slow trains, since I city hop short distances, so a very diverse crew is always getting on and off the train. I was in Platzkart, which is the crappiest cabin with sleeping room. The bunks aren't long enough to lie completely down, the open hallway makes noise travel a lot, and there are four bunks in a cabin plus two on the other side. My cabinmates included an old babushka and a young guy, Anton, who got on at Kazan like me, and was going to Kirov. Down the line, at one of the 15 minute stops we had at different train stations, Anton and I began talking. He didn't speak much English, so we were conducting the conversation in Russian, with some English interjections on his part. The problem is that outisde of basic words of the Russian language, my knowledge of nouns and adjectives are extremely limited. So I would not understand very often, and he would type away on the Google Translate app on my phone. We continued on, until everybody in our train car went to bed. So we were standing in the space between cars, when a super drunk guy came in and starts talking to us. He had had too much vodka, and said he wanted even more. He spoke so slurred that I couldn't understand a word he was saying, Anton joked with him a bit. He ended up following us back to our cabin, and talked so loudly he pissed off all of our neighbors and just wouldn't go away. In fact, he drank half the beer Anton was sharing with me. So we attempted to get rid of him by giving him a cigarette and suggesting he go to sleep. But he was soon back, so this time we tried to dodge him by sitting next to another cabin. However, the people in that cabin were really pissed at all of us and ended up shooing us away as well. In the end, the guy did go to sleep, and Anton gave me a lot of food, as we ate and laughed about the drunk guy. I felt like a little kid again - up late at night eating when everybody else was asleep,and not really knowing what to say (as we didn't really understand each other), but having a good time.
I had a great time in Kazan as well. The atmosphere there is much more relaxed and friendly than in Moscow. People are actually smiling there! Old town is also really beautiful. At night, I was walking around, drank a beer, and began talking to these college kids from the university there. They were friendly, and we began hanging out and walking around town together. One of the guys had a huge bottle of beer, so we ended up sitting on the edge of Lake Kaban, in city center, drinking, and talking half in Russian and half in English. Most of the Russians I've met who even speak English have limited English abilities, so it's good for me to practice speaking Russian, while still having a cruch to rely upon for communicating words I don't know in Russian.
My last day in Kazan, I met two Chinese guys in my hostel, and they were awesome! They had been traveling in the opposite direction, east to west, so they told me about Yekaterinburg and Lake Baikal, which I am excited to visit. They had been hitchhiking and camping, which I also want to do on my way east! One of the guys was on a mission mostly to interact with people, and learn about different people and cultures, so he told me about his adventures - from hand waving with kids at Lake Baikal, to motorcycling on the steppes of Inner Mongolia and hitchhiking in Tibet. He told of how the natives of Tibet and Mongolia invited him into their yurts upon meeting him and fed him, and of all the kindness and acts of faith he experienced on those trips. We talked long about cultures and people. It was my first philosophical conversation in Chinese! Later we went to a bar, and a Russian girl wrote us a note on a napkin in Chinese, asking if we were Chinese. Surprised, we went to go talk to her and her two friends. She had studied Chinese a bit, but still couldn't really converse in it, while one of her two friends spoke English maybe only a little better than I speak Russian. So it was a tangle of languages at that table, with English, Russian, and Chinese going on, but no language able to completely break the barrier between our two groups.
Here in Glazov, I am visiting a friend that I met in St Petersburg, who is from Glazov. We went hiking a bit in the countryside today, including a trailless excursion into the woods. We were swarmed by mosquitoes! In fact, even after we left the woods, the mosquitoes kept following us, and scores were landing all over us! There was a definitive cloud of these buggers, and it was pissing me off. Luckily, after the trees, I was able to keep moving, so the mosquitoes bit me less. Will definitely bring bug spray to go camping next time, and will soon attempt to hitchhike into Siberia!
The train ride to arrive in Glazov must have been the most hilarious train experience I have had yet. I'm always on the slow trains, since I city hop short distances, so a very diverse crew is always getting on and off the train. I was in Platzkart, which is the crappiest cabin with sleeping room. The bunks aren't long enough to lie completely down, the open hallway makes noise travel a lot, and there are four bunks in a cabin plus two on the other side. My cabinmates included an old babushka and a young guy, Anton, who got on at Kazan like me, and was going to Kirov. Down the line, at one of the 15 minute stops we had at different train stations, Anton and I began talking. He didn't speak much English, so we were conducting the conversation in Russian, with some English interjections on his part. The problem is that outisde of basic words of the Russian language, my knowledge of nouns and adjectives are extremely limited. So I would not understand very often, and he would type away on the Google Translate app on my phone. We continued on, until everybody in our train car went to bed. So we were standing in the space between cars, when a super drunk guy came in and starts talking to us. He had had too much vodka, and said he wanted even more. He spoke so slurred that I couldn't understand a word he was saying, Anton joked with him a bit. He ended up following us back to our cabin, and talked so loudly he pissed off all of our neighbors and just wouldn't go away. In fact, he drank half the beer Anton was sharing with me. So we attempted to get rid of him by giving him a cigarette and suggesting he go to sleep. But he was soon back, so this time we tried to dodge him by sitting next to another cabin. However, the people in that cabin were really pissed at all of us and ended up shooing us away as well. In the end, the guy did go to sleep, and Anton gave me a lot of food, as we ate and laughed about the drunk guy. I felt like a little kid again - up late at night eating when everybody else was asleep,and not really knowing what to say (as we didn't really understand each other), but having a good time.
I had a great time in Kazan as well. The atmosphere there is much more relaxed and friendly than in Moscow. People are actually smiling there! Old town is also really beautiful. At night, I was walking around, drank a beer, and began talking to these college kids from the university there. They were friendly, and we began hanging out and walking around town together. One of the guys had a huge bottle of beer, so we ended up sitting on the edge of Lake Kaban, in city center, drinking, and talking half in Russian and half in English. Most of the Russians I've met who even speak English have limited English abilities, so it's good for me to practice speaking Russian, while still having a cruch to rely upon for communicating words I don't know in Russian.
My last day in Kazan, I met two Chinese guys in my hostel, and they were awesome! They had been traveling in the opposite direction, east to west, so they told me about Yekaterinburg and Lake Baikal, which I am excited to visit. They had been hitchhiking and camping, which I also want to do on my way east! One of the guys was on a mission mostly to interact with people, and learn about different people and cultures, so he told me about his adventures - from hand waving with kids at Lake Baikal, to motorcycling on the steppes of Inner Mongolia and hitchhiking in Tibet. He told of how the natives of Tibet and Mongolia invited him into their yurts upon meeting him and fed him, and of all the kindness and acts of faith he experienced on those trips. We talked long about cultures and people. It was my first philosophical conversation in Chinese! Later we went to a bar, and a Russian girl wrote us a note on a napkin in Chinese, asking if we were Chinese. Surprised, we went to go talk to her and her two friends. She had studied Chinese a bit, but still couldn't really converse in it, while one of her two friends spoke English maybe only a little better than I speak Russian. So it was a tangle of languages at that table, with English, Russian, and Chinese going on, but no language able to completely break the barrier between our two groups.
Here in Glazov, I am visiting a friend that I met in St Petersburg, who is from Glazov. We went hiking a bit in the countryside today, including a trailless excursion into the woods. We were swarmed by mosquitoes! In fact, even after we left the woods, the mosquitoes kept following us, and scores were landing all over us! There was a definitive cloud of these buggers, and it was pissing me off. Luckily, after the trees, I was able to keep moving, so the mosquitoes bit me less. Will definitely bring bug spray to go camping next time, and will soon attempt to hitchhike into Siberia!
Lake Kaban, Kazan
Fisherman on the Volga