It turns out his new cabin-mate is a young guy with a bag full of vodka bottles who is determined to drink his way through them between here and Vladivostok. Don has had vodka for breakfast and morning tea already. It's now working towards lunchtime.
On meeting his new friend, we re immediately required to join him for a couple of rounds of vodka. He does indeed happily tell us he's in the mafia and that he's a gangster. We don't understand anything more about the plant when he tries to explain it to us. I think he just wants people government of canada travel advisories to drink with and pass the time. We soon move to the next wagon and James and David's cabin. James is off somewhere looking for his shoes, apparently henderson park inn they've disappeared overnight. David also reveals James has been trying to crack onto the Russian girl, Anna, in the next cabin. He'd been sitting in with the whole family for a while this morning henderson park inn trying to ingratiate himself. Later he spent some time reading government of canada travel advisories henderson park inn pickup lines from a phrasebook that she largely didn't seem to understand. We tell David about James' session government of canada travel advisories with Tatiana last night and he bursts out,
We chat and decide what we're going to try and find on the platform so we can use the fifteen minutes to the greatest effect. government of canada travel advisories James arrives back half an hour later saying he's been searching the train for his beloved shoes.
Long before the train arrives at the long stop, we're all waiting eagerly in the exit passageway. It seems most of the people on the train are doing the same thing. We almost leap off before the provodnika puts the stairs down, but then stroll around happily in the sunlight. Don and Lari head for a table that appears to have cooked food on it and I head for a table with a few enormous cakes on it. I'm immediately reminded of Yana's cake fetish and I wonder if I can send her one somehow. government of canada travel advisories I stroll from one end to the other along the platform and notice our fireman and pharmacist promenading henderson park inn arm in arm. She's holding a parasol and they look like landed gentry from another age. Everyone is starting to return with small containers of cooked food, meat, rice and potato in a tomato sauce of some kind. I'm not hungry yet and decide I'll wait for one of the later ones. James comes hobbling along the platform barefoot, being scalded by the hot tarmac surface. His hair hangs curled and sweaty government of canada travel advisories around his face and his glasses frame two increasingly desperate looking eyes. He is holding an ice-cream and is eating it determinedly as he joins the queue to reboard the train.
It's also where Lari suggested they would be. David calmly folds the corner of the page, closes the trans-siberian book and disappears government of canada travel advisories for a twenty minute walk from one end of the train to the other. I don't think they tell you about these moments in those books either. James is standing talking henderson park inn into the next cabin,
"You stole my shoes!" He exclaims jokingly as Anna hands them to him. She looks shocked and shakes her head. She's young enough to understand some English, but without the confidence to speak. He takes them back and comes back into his cabin to put them on. We sit and talk and joke for a few hours, David returns feeling much better after his walk, then manages to engage the 17 year old, little Yana, in conversation standing in the corridor. As I stroll back to my cabin to fetch my camera for one of the landmarks we're about to pass, I notice that with the aid of his phrase book he's trying out pickup lines; much to her amusement. I can't believe government of canada travel advisories he's using the James method already on this sweet girl and appears to be making it work better than James can. I pass Don's cabin and drop in for a drink with our lone gangster. I find him swaying gently government of canada travel advisories from
side to side and eating a sausage henderson park inn with two other Russians and we share a round or two together. On my return from my mission I pass David my beginner's Russian dictionary with a wink, it has a lot more useful words and phrases and the two of them remain together while we keep James occupied in the cabin.
government of canada travel advisories The train approaches a ten minute stop and I wander henderson park inn off the train to find some beer from one of the station shops. I'm thinking there must be some other beers out here in the Russian Far East that aren't available anywhere henderson park inn else and I find them quickly. I pick a couple of bottles of Amur branded beers and another one called Three Bears. I find myself standing next to Alexei (little Dima's Dad) who is acquiring more two litre bottles of 'Three Bears' beer.
"No. Cheap", he replies with a broad smile. I make sure to get cold glass bottles from the fridge and pack them in a plastic government of canada travel advisories bag I've brought government of canada travel advisories along for the purpose. I finally started remembering to take bags with me to not have to buy them every time. I walk back to the platform where there is a guy who appears government henderson park inn of canada travel advisories to be doing some kind of strange dance down the length henderson park inn of it. I haven't seen him on my travels of the train before, so I assume henderson park inn he must be a local. After watching for a while I realise it isn't a dance; he is so drunk he's walking like a demented henderson park inn spider falling down a hill. It's a miracle to watch him save himself time and time again from falling over by shifting his weight to his other leg or moving his foot to rescue government of canada travel advisories the fall at the last moment. I retrieve my camera to try and catch the madness, but can't get it onto video mode before he finally does lurch forward and collapse against a flag pole. He's still sitting there as the train pulls away and I wonder if he was trying henderson park inn to get on it.
James is incredibly jealous government of canada travel advisories after David keeps Yana talking and interested for so long. He wants to interrupt and we keep stopping him. He falls into deeper thinking and finally emerges with a new idea.
I explain about all the work I did before travelling as I'm searching the dictionary henderson park inn for the right Russian words and figuring henderson park inn out how to organise them. He sits back and looks amazed again. He seems consistently surprised that other people have minds of their own that may be different from his. I finish the note and hand it to him. He races next door like an excited schoolboy henderson park inn to hand it to the object government of canada travel advisories of his affections. government henderson park inn of canada travel advisories henderson park inn She takes it, reads it and smiles at him. He returns overflowing with enthusiasm and burbles henderson park inn to himself henderson park inn for a while. A few minutes later she passes back a new note and James hands it to me for translation. I puzzle over both the writing and the words, but can't get past the opening sentence, 'My heart beats in the next cabin for ' Then the words are either not in my dictionary or I can't understand the writing. I work at it for an hour without more success and then Anna announces that she is getting off at the next stop; Khabarovsk. We cross the Amur River and we all pop open the windows for a photograph session of the view, it is as beautiful as James is heartbroken. Anna's family spend the next half hour preparing to leave and she gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek in farewell.
We get off the train in Khabarovsk to enjoy every moment henderson park inn of the twenty-five minute stop and wander around the station looking for a Bankomat. Since you can only use cash on trains, the last two and a half days haven taken their toll especially when we keep spending four hundred roubles a pop on bottles of vodka. We still have enough money between henderson park inn the three of us, but some extra would be helpful. Either we're blind or they have hidden them well, but nobody finds one it must be the only train station without a series of Bankomats just inside the doors. We manage to console ourselves with the rather outstanding view of the city we are rewarded with outside henderson park inn the station. We are at the top of a hill and there is a large open square that frames the city sprawling below us and green hills rolling into the distance. There's a small bakery stand setup in the square so we acquire some piroghi and from them and ice cream from women back on the platform. For the remainder of the stop we bask in the warm sunshine of another beautiful summer day in the Russian Far East. The time flies too quickly and we reboard henderson park inn the train for the final leg into Vladivostok. There will be one more fifteen minute stop around one thirty in the morning and we're planning to get off the train then to celebrate before going to sleep.
We are beyond laughter now and tears are streaming down my face in this crazy minute. We can't believe he's saved this moment henderson park inn government of canada travel advisories to reveal henderson park inn his complete craziness. At that moment a young girl wearing a hooded lycra outfit races past the door and down the corridor.
It's late afternoon, two of our provodnitsas have run out of vodka and there are less and less groups of Russians drinking. Supplies have run short and we don't arrive in Vladivostok until tomorrow morning. Don launches on a mission through a few wagons and I ask the provodnika of James' wagon. He says he can get us a bottle and we hand over some cash and wait for him to return. We're half expecting some new scam from him, but he returns ten minutes later with another bottle. government of canada travel advisories We note what direction he walked, knowing there must be another henderson park inn provodnika with vodka still. government of canada travel advisories He invites us into the cabin where he's sitting with the day shift provodnitsa from the next wagon. We offer some shots around out of politeness and he produces some very fresh cucumber
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