For the next 5 days we will be stuck in a train. We get to jump out now and then at stops but mostly we'll be enjoying looking out the window at the Gobi Dessert and saying to ourselves "yeah, I'm glad I don't have to ride my bike through that!" Figuring that every hour and a half of train riding is equivalent to a day of bike riding I think we're making a good choice by cutting out SIBERIA!!! Then again, we might come back and bike it just for the heck of it later on. when we're old and ready to be eaten by wolves maybe.
so, 10/8: we get up and bright and early and stuff chris' bike into our tiny compartment and pick our bunks. It's a tight fit for sure. We've got a friendly neighbor. In discretion I will refer only once (maybe that's not true) to another neighbor, affectionately named "leather face." well, we have enough food to last us till the end so it looks like noodle boxes and pbj are on the menu indefinitely.
10/9: Spent most of the day looking at books about Moscow, learning the cyrillic alphabet and figuring out what we'll try to see with our few days upon arrival in the city. We woke up in the morning to the golden glow of the gobi dessert. so wonderful! the hallway of our cabin car was lit up with the morning light. We passed into Russia in the evening. One of the inspectors looked like a dominatrix and the other looked like the bad guy from the new indiana jones movie. the one who gets eaten by a swarm of ants. haha, Welcome to Russia!!!
10/10: continued passing the Russia and entered a birch forest. the morning was cold and frosty and is definitely fitting the stereotype of "siberia." what a freezer box. Finally made it to Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world that holds more than 20% of the worlds unfrozen fresh water. it even has its own species of fresh water seal in it! Unfortunately we didn't get to go out and explore it or swim, but it was certainly a possible once in a lifetime experience just to see it. At our stop today I was able to use russian for the first time in a practical way. I asked for a loaf of bread and got it! Oh, and we have a new neighbor. an ex-con, hairdresser. he told me to shave my face. I shaved my face.
10/11: I spent almost the whole day reading the brothers karamazov. Want to finish it before arriving in moscow. Chris and I figured out why americans drive on the right side of the road. Doug is a hoot. he's a retired aussie teacher. travels a lot but doesn't go anywhere without his little fudge cookies...
10/12: and i finished the brothers karamazov today! mmm, feels good. Haha, it snowed today! Are we insane? Hard to tell if we're going to be biking in this kind of stuff soon...
10/13: Last day in the train!
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