Cold!
Loving it!
Beautiful!
Siberians are awesome!
-end of transmission.
Loving it!
Beautiful!
Siberians are awesome!
-end of transmission.
Pictures are on my flickr page. Videos will be uploaded when I have the time.
Petrozavodsk trip:
Train trip (23h each way) aka practice for the Transsiberian : mostly good, but ach, we need more things to read than the stupid provincial Komsomolskaya Pravda which sucks ass and only talks about celebrities.
We met some interesting boys from Petrozavodsk who were on their way to Murmansk for a break dancing competition.
When we arrived in Nadvoitsy, Sasha, our dear friend who was supposed to meet us, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, we were greeted by his kind aunt Irena and her husband Dima who hosted us for the night. They were incredibly nice and we are very grateful to have had the chance to know them. Nadvoitsy is a small town of 20 000, where most everyone works at the aluminum factory. Irina works as a scientist, and Dima is a security guard. They have a son, Nikita, and an adorable dog, Vesta.
The next day, they accompanied us to the train station, where we took a minibus for what would be the bumpiest 5 hour (it was supposed to be 4…) ride in my life. We got to see a lot of the Karelian forest. Much more than we had ever wanted. During the whole 5 hour ride, we saw two tiny villages. The bus driver had been instructed to let us off at an intersection next to Vangozero, about 30 minutes before Kostomuksha (the final destination). A black desyatka (a car model) was supposed to meet us. What wasn’t my surprise, when I saw a sign indicating Vangozero, no car, and the bus driver just kept on driving. When I told him that we just passed Vangozero, he said “But there was no car waiting for you. Just come to Kostomuksha.” But we wouldn’t even know what to look for or what to do in Kostomuksha! We’re supposed to meet Sasha! We used the driver’s cell phone to call Sasha’s father. Irina had thankfully had the good idea of giving us his number, in case anything happened. First call: no answer. Second call: a woman answers, says that the car will be there in 10 minutes. So we get off the bus, and start waiting. Picture this: two foreign girls in the middle of the forest, on the side of the highway, with a lot of luggage, cell phones that do not work outside of Moscow, no clue if anyone will actually meet them. We were a little worried, so we had a shot of vodka.
Everything turned out alright, Sasha and his step-uncle Dima did meet us. We went to their dacha, where we met their whole family and went to their banya, where we proceeded to beat a naked babushka with branches, as she yelled “harder, harder”. It was fun.
Then we went to Kostomuksha, where we stayed at Sasha’s apartment. That’s the end of the good part of the trip. We knew it was all over when Sasha sat at the table and told us “I have found the truth”. Turns out he became a born again Christian. Apparently, when you live in Kostomuksha, it’s either that or becoming an alcoholic. At any rate, he spent our whole trip trying to convert us in sneaky ways and we both hated our trip. We came to see our friend, and it turned out he’s dead (he told us himself, and we couldn’t help but agree).
We walked around the city a lot, it’s also small (about 40 000 I think). There’s a lake and a lot of trees. Half the buildings are completely run down, half look brand new. They were all built at the same time, but half were built by Finns (in exchange for natural resources, which Kostomuksha has in abundance). And then there is the born again Church, which is the best looking building in the city. It has a ping pong table, probably the only entertainment option in the city. Can we say: foreign funds?
Apart from that, same old same old. Work is interesting. My boss had me do push-ups yesterday. I hang out with my awesome Moscow friends who are not (thank God) born again Cuckoos.
I had my birthday. My boss cooked a good Armenian dish. It’s what poor people eat over there (since it’s vegetarian). And my coworkers gave me a flower and a vegetarian cookbook. Then in the evening I went for a walk at Park Pobedy with D and Sasha. On Saturday we had a party at Sasha’s where my dear dear friends gave me so many sweets I will necessarily die in a diabetic coma, some much needed toiletries and a princess bow for my hair. D got me a succession of gifts: a scrunchie (much needed), a Kremlin Diet Book (mostly meat oriented, teehee), an Akunin book (yippee!), a Che Burashka t-shirt (with which I have been in love for quite some time) and Lingvo (a super dictionary program). I proceeded to get shit faced off absinth (someone should have told me it was 70%!) We went to a club, where I tried to dance for a while, but then decided it was much wiser to sit down and watch more skilled (and sober) people dance.
On Monday, D, Emily and I went with our boss to a seminar on the Italian Mafia in the US at the American Center. Then we met up with Bianca and a funny French-Canadian from PEI. It made us both a little home-sick to have what we both called “a normal evening”: a warm summer evening spent sitting, and talking and joking with fun people on a terrace.
And so that’s life. I’m going to Siberia tonight. See you in two weeks!
Petrozavodsk trip:
Train trip (23h each way) aka practice for the Transsiberian : mostly good, but ach, we need more things to read than the stupid provincial Komsomolskaya Pravda which sucks ass and only talks about celebrities.
We met some interesting boys from Petrozavodsk who were on their way to Murmansk for a break dancing competition.
When we arrived in Nadvoitsy, Sasha, our dear friend who was supposed to meet us, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, we were greeted by his kind aunt Irena and her husband Dima who hosted us for the night. They were incredibly nice and we are very grateful to have had the chance to know them. Nadvoitsy is a small town of 20 000, where most everyone works at the aluminum factory. Irina works as a scientist, and Dima is a security guard. They have a son, Nikita, and an adorable dog, Vesta.
The next day, they accompanied us to the train station, where we took a minibus for what would be the bumpiest 5 hour (it was supposed to be 4…) ride in my life. We got to see a lot of the Karelian forest. Much more than we had ever wanted. During the whole 5 hour ride, we saw two tiny villages. The bus driver had been instructed to let us off at an intersection next to Vangozero, about 30 minutes before Kostomuksha (the final destination). A black desyatka (a car model) was supposed to meet us. What wasn’t my surprise, when I saw a sign indicating Vangozero, no car, and the bus driver just kept on driving. When I told him that we just passed Vangozero, he said “But there was no car waiting for you. Just come to Kostomuksha.” But we wouldn’t even know what to look for or what to do in Kostomuksha! We’re supposed to meet Sasha! We used the driver’s cell phone to call Sasha’s father. Irina had thankfully had the good idea of giving us his number, in case anything happened. First call: no answer. Second call: a woman answers, says that the car will be there in 10 minutes. So we get off the bus, and start waiting. Picture this: two foreign girls in the middle of the forest, on the side of the highway, with a lot of luggage, cell phones that do not work outside of Moscow, no clue if anyone will actually meet them. We were a little worried, so we had a shot of vodka.
Everything turned out alright, Sasha and his step-uncle Dima did meet us. We went to their dacha, where we met their whole family and went to their banya, where we proceeded to beat a naked babushka with branches, as she yelled “harder, harder”. It was fun.
Then we went to Kostomuksha, where we stayed at Sasha’s apartment. That’s the end of the good part of the trip. We knew it was all over when Sasha sat at the table and told us “I have found the truth”. Turns out he became a born again Christian. Apparently, when you live in Kostomuksha, it’s either that or becoming an alcoholic. At any rate, he spent our whole trip trying to convert us in sneaky ways and we both hated our trip. We came to see our friend, and it turned out he’s dead (he told us himself, and we couldn’t help but agree).
We walked around the city a lot, it’s also small (about 40 000 I think). There’s a lake and a lot of trees. Half the buildings are completely run down, half look brand new. They were all built at the same time, but half were built by Finns (in exchange for natural resources, which Kostomuksha has in abundance). And then there is the born again Church, which is the best looking building in the city. It has a ping pong table, probably the only entertainment option in the city. Can we say: foreign funds?
Apart from that, same old same old. Work is interesting. My boss had me do push-ups yesterday. I hang out with my awesome Moscow friends who are not (thank God) born again Cuckoos.
I had my birthday. My boss cooked a good Armenian dish. It’s what poor people eat over there (since it’s vegetarian). And my coworkers gave me a flower and a vegetarian cookbook. Then in the evening I went for a walk at Park Pobedy with D and Sasha. On Saturday we had a party at Sasha’s where my dear dear friends gave me so many sweets I will necessarily die in a diabetic coma, some much needed toiletries and a princess bow for my hair. D got me a succession of gifts: a scrunchie (much needed), a Kremlin Diet Book (mostly meat oriented, teehee), an Akunin book (yippee!), a Che Burashka t-shirt (with which I have been in love for quite some time) and Lingvo (a super dictionary program). I proceeded to get shit faced off absinth (someone should have told me it was 70%!) We went to a club, where I tried to dance for a while, but then decided it was much wiser to sit down and watch more skilled (and sober) people dance.
On Monday, D, Emily and I went with our boss to a seminar on the Italian Mafia in the US at the American Center. Then we met up with Bianca and a funny French-Canadian from PEI. It made us both a little home-sick to have what we both called “a normal evening”: a warm summer evening spent sitting, and talking and joking with fun people on a terrace.
And so that’s life. I’m going to Siberia tonight. See you in two weeks!
