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Solfrid Cristin TAC 2012 Team Sputnik | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 225 of 270 07 October 2012 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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@ Tarvos: Thanks for waking me up. Between the jet lag, and helping a friend who is risking loosing her
house, where she lives with her small children, I have not been up to speed lately, but here is the first part of my journal from the trip on the Trans Siberian Express : TRÁNS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 2012 Day 1 and 2 Black and blue, black and blue, black and blue... My thoughts as I fall asleep on the first night on the Trans- Siberian railways. The colour of the sky and the Russian night? No, what I felt the colour of my body would be like after a few nights on the hardest "bed" I have slept in in my life. The next thought was : What the hell have I gotten myself into! No water or paper in the bathroom, general conditions of that room which defies description, an ice cold compartment and the mentioned hard bed. And this was first class! And I who had looked forward to speaking Russian with the Russian babushka in charge of the wagon plus whichever cool Russians I met along the way, was stuck with an only Mandarin speaking staff and a wagon load of Norwegians. Plus a sister with a heavy cold which meant that she coughed by day and snored by night. And a 7 day train ride in front of me... I think I got about 2 hours's sleep that night. The next morning after a breakfast which consisted of omelet, cheese, bread butter, tea, water and an orange (meal decided by the people at the restaurant) my outlook became a lot brighter, particularly after we had some hot drinks with hot water from the samovar in the wagon. Before leaving Moscow we had been taken to see Kremlin and The Red square. Kremlin was very interesting, but on the Red Square they were preparing for a military tattoo so it was so noisy we could barely hear ourselves think, and the square was cluttered down with benches and booths. And then again, when you see things for a second time, they tend to have shrunk. The Vasiliev Cathedral which in my mind was humongous, turned to be a church of normal size, though of unparalleled beauty and originality in design. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was also lovely, and the fact that this was the church where Pussy Riots had recorded their famous video gave it an additional layer of interest. Some Dutch tourists we met on the train complained that the Muscovites were unfriendly and rude, but that was not my experience. There were perhaps a couple of waiters who should have made different career choices, but in general I found people friendly and helpful. I admit that I did not interact all that much with the locals, but I actually got to use my Russian quite a lot, and received two sorts of compliments. The first one was of the traditional kind, where they assured me my Russian was very good (usually after just a sentence or two) the other one was where I asked something and got a two minute rapid fire answer. I chose to interpret the second one to mean that they thought I would be up to understanding them. Sadly they were wrong, but in all cases that I wanted something, I could make myself understood. When we got to the railway station to board the train however, it was chaos. Our guide, though pretty and sweet, must have skipped some of the basics at her guide course and sent everyone to the wrong carriages, and it took us 20 minutes to make her understand who was supposed to go where, because for her a bed was a bed, and she could not understand that those who had paid for a 2 person 1. class compartment with a shower were not fine with being put into a 4 persons 2. class compartment without one. Not that any of us have much use for the showers, since when there is any (cold) water at all, there is not enough water pressure, but at least you can wash in relative privacy. The fact that only one out of 10 among the Chinese staff spoke any English, and one spoke Russian did not exactly help. At one point the guide and one of the staff almost broke out in a fight, and one of our group was just barely allowed on the train, in spite of having a copy of the ticket with her. The Chinese just said no, ticket or no ticket. On top of everything else one of the staff insisted that my sister and I go to a different wagon which he claimed was better and where we could stay at 1st class for a fee, so he dragged us into another wagon despite my protests that we had already paid for 1st class, and only after about 5 minutes his colleague explained to him that we had to go back to the first wagon. I was so stressed out that I thought I would get a heart attack by the time we were back in the compartment, and thanked my Saviour that my 75 year old father in law who was supposed to come had decided not too. The next morning we started to settle in, and when we got both water and heat back and the staff had cleaned up after the poor person who had gone to the bathroom with a severe case of upset tummy at the point when there was still no water, we actually started to enjoy ourselves. The people we travel with, though Norwegian and hence sadly unexotic, are really nice. People who go on a trip like this are not on their first trip abroad, and most of them have travelled a lot more than me. They are also prepared for anything, so even though all those who had not drunk a bottle of vodka before going to sleep had slept no more than I did, they were quite cheerful. The staff are also quite friendly. We can only communicate through signs, since both the one who spoke English and the one who spoke Russian have disappeared, but so far we are doing good. I could have kicked myself for not learning any Mandarin before coming, as even a few words would have gone a long way, but no use crying over spilt milk. They heat up the wagon with coal which is a new experience for most. Since I am married to a guy who is a fireman on steam engines in his free time, I am more used to Coal than the others, though. Their cooking is an endless source of amusement for me, due to the variety. They cook only for themselves, and we wake up to the scent of bacon, dumplings and fresh bread, and see all sort of exotic vegetables. The food we get to eat varies between ok. and barely edible. Fortunately we have brought so much Norwegian chocolate and marzipan and nuts and beverages and other food that we could probably survive a week without any extra food, so when the food from the dining car has been particularly awful, we just go to our rooms and have a feast. There has also been the possibility of buying food at the stations, either from mini stores, or from the locals who offer home made food. Since the dining car is the only place I get to speak any Russian (they speak no English whatsoever, which is amazing, considering 90% of the passengers seem to be foreigners) I try to speak a little Russian whenever I get the chance. Today I asked for some salt, and he handed me the bowl where they kept their cooking salt, so that I could take a pinch. Norwegian health authorities would have gone green in the face at the sight, but we are not in Norway anymore... We passed through Perm today, and I would have loved to give you my impression, but unfortunately I had passed out from lack of sleep. My sister assured me that the station was ugly and uneventful though :-) Sometime during the night we are crossing from Europe into Asia, and into Siberia. I look forward to that. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5224 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 226 of 270 11 October 2012 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Wow. Congratulations on having such an enjoyable experience at Moscow, and for all the practice, I'm sure you did better than you're telling us :)
That's why when I travel alone (and thus there's no fun in commenting on such 'ride bumps' with your partner(s)) I set all exoticness aside and I go the conventional way, which is normally cheap, boring and sometimes somewhat uncomfortable too, but at least that's what you can half expect -- or what, as they say, and of course unlike you Cristina, what you paid for ;)
If that's any consolation I can swear on a Bible that you wanted to :)
Now this is eating me so I'll go out on a limb and ask... What's with it? I mean, let's a assume for a second that the kitchen conditions were up to Kansas health authorities' standards, and that you washed your hands before eating (only 'objections' I can imagine). If the authorities approve eating whatever the cook makes for you as it comes out of the kitchen, it should be equally OK to eat any of the ingredients, shouldn't it? Anyway, fun to read -- looking forward to the rest of it ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 227 of 270 11 October 2012 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Russians do not go in the first class because it is cheaper to fly by airplane.
Even the third class becomes too expensive now. It's an interesting idea: maybe we should use pussy Riot to promote tourism in Moscow. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 228 of 270 11 October 2012 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I am an old interrailer (and did my 10. stint this summer), but I have never ever wanted to sit for seven days in any train looking out at the trees and the trees and the trees and ... well, a station, and then trees again. And I knew about the thing with transsiberian trains full of foreign tourists so that's one reason less to go on that epic journey. But you will find trains full of Russians on shorter trips. Last time I visited Russia (at a stage where my Russian barely permitted me to ask for the chips in the blue bag or an all seasons pizza) I travelled by train from Moscow to Vladimir and back on 2. class, and there was not a tourist within sight - only Russians. And I must say that the level of servicemindedness has risen from my previous trip to the USSR in the late 80s. I got my train tickets without any fuss, and you can actually buy stuff for rubles now in the shops. In 1987 (or was it 88) you would just be shown how to find the nearest beriozka, where you could spend your precious dollars. But the price level especially in Moscow must be shocking for everybody except Solfrid, who is Norwegian. Edited by Iversen on 11 October 2012 at 1:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 229 of 270 11 October 2012 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Why? Prices in Moscow are significantly lower than in Western Europe. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 230 of 270 11 October 2012 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Maybe there is (or was) an issue with the exchange rates, but I had to pay more in the small supermarkets in central Moscow than in Western Europe, and hotel and restaurant prices in central Moscow were skyhigh (and because of this Moscow still is considered an expensive city on the lists compiled for business travellers).
However I had found a good and not very expensive hotel near the old VDNKh park, which had been changed from an all USSR accomplishments park into a place where you could buy carpets and things for your garden - that was obviously a problem for hotels in that area. And prices in Vladimir were not exorbitant - I found an enormous Spar supermarket with reasonable prices in a shopping center, so I was quite happy there. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5054 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 231 of 270 11 October 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I see. I meant usual prices of goods. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5224 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 232 of 270 11 October 2012 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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My friends from Tambov always tell me to be careful with money if I ever go to Moscow, for the prices range from 'cheaper than here' to five times as expensive depending on the place for no apparent reason at all -- and we're talking simple stuff like having a coffee or getting a haircut. I'll admit we get some unexplainable variations here too, but nothing as wild.
I guess business chains should show a lesser variations than individually owned shops, etc. and you just need to learn where the rip-offs are, but that takes time, and stupid business types are usually happy to pay more instead, so no harm done. Edited by mrwarper on 11 October 2012 at 2:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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