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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 785 of 1511 13 August 2013 at 5:06am | IP Logged | ||
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In Vladivostok. At the End of the Road. I have
been able to speak all of the languages under speaks plus Hebrew and Portuguese. Tomorrow I start my journey home. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5040 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 786 of 1511 13 August 2013 at 7:39am | IP Logged | ||
Haha, ain't it true... I look forward to reading your travelogue! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 787 of 1511 14 August 2013 at 5:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Through customs. In a few hours I will be in
Korea 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 788 of 1511 16 August 2013 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've come home! Now, I have written a travelogue, but it's all by hand. So it may take
some time before I have typed everything up considering I did not bring a laptop (I never do anyways). But in any case, I decided to write some parts of it up today. Day 1: The Journey Starts Left home an hour early. Wasn't necessary; the train to Germany was delayed at Amersfoort anyhow. Quiet between the Hague and Amersfoort. Got onto the train to Hannover - the seat next to me was unoccupied when I boarded. Decided some music would fit my solitude. Kamelot was my choice (although I could have put "the Road" on repeat). Still hot inside the train though. Here's hoping that a fun character lights up my evening. I am anxious to practice my rusty German, which I have only done when buying the Hannover-Moscow ticket. No luck or assertivity so far. Seat next to me remained unoccupied. However, across sat two French-speaking ladies, but I didn't really talk to them (maybe I ought to have?) The journey remained quiet largely thanks to my in ear-headphones. I also found out that this IC has functioning electrical sockets, so I could charge my phone before the next leg - a blessing! The train did encounter some more delays though. Not too fussed though, that means I have to wait less in the darkness of Hannover Hbf. Got onto the train much delayed. Fell asleep somewhere around 3 am and slept poorly. Day 2: I like Trains Day started with the dumb error of closing my bed before taking out my money belt. Got the provodnik to fix it. Entered Poland in the morning. Looks somewhat dilapidated - reminds me of Wallonia. Went to the restaurant car - Polish - and had excellent breakfast. The waiter was Polish, but I do not speak Polish, so I ordered in Russian (he answered in a mix of Russian and bad English). I insisted on Russian with a Polish thank you. He was quite pleased with the attempt. If I ever return to Poland I surely need to be able to do more than read the menu. Realised I still feel sad about things that happened years ago. I hope this journey is the first step to getting my life back on track. Met some Germans in the carriage, happy to see that language still functions. My Russian is good enough to understand what is being said ot me; my responses tend to be slow though, but I eventually manage. I am looking forward to waking up in Moscow tomorrow. Only they can leave out the rain. That does not impress a true Dutchman. We get enough of it at home. Day 3: Arrival in Moscow Arrived safely at Moscow station, Belarusskaya to be exact (so named for the trains to and from Belarus that come and go from here I guess). Had a decent night's sleep on this train. The hostel was hard to find, mostly because Muscovites have yet bothered with road signs, to my general dismay. The hostel is quite relaxed. Many French people (/speakers) here, which is nice because I otherwise rarely get to practice at home. Walked around the Red Square for a bit. Moscow is either nouveau riche or hipster (this hostel obviously falls more into the latter category). Haven't had the chance to go out with anybody into town yet. I hope that will happen soon because I don't want to spend three days alone. Perhaps that's just a lack of good social skills though. I am happy to be able to have a good shower though. And the broad Aussie that I am hearing is quite pleasing to these ears. Day 4: Moscow's French Table Woke up refreshed after an all right night's sleep. Some person in the dorm was snoring horribly loudly though; luckily I have sleep superpowers. Last night I learned that my French is still in good shape. I hope to prove it tonight. I even found a Swede to speak Swedish with - that also functioned! The hostel personnel speak English, but I have up until now preferred to stay in Russian. Which is probably a good decision to make here. If only because it will improve that level of Russian I have. I seem to perpetually struggle with it. The French meetup group was interesting not so much because of the French I spoke (and the French people in attendance). It was more interesting to hear the local Russians struggle with it (although some admittedly did quite well). I then had fun drinking and talking, although I managed to knock over a glass of beer and cut myself on one of the shards. I also got a few FB invites out of the whole thing. In fact I also spoke German and improvised some Spanish/Italian mixture later on (I speak neither really but...) Afterwards, I had to walk back to the hostel alone - never doing that again at night, Moscow is fine by day but by night it's another story. I did not manage to buy a SIM-card today but I did manage to buy some good lavash from a roadside stand. Not unlike the Turkish bread we get at home. Day 5: The Kremlin Is Closed After a vodka-inspired night (apparently the other people decided an alcohol binge would be a good idea), I woke up in time for a short guided tour of Moscow. Unfortunately some of the interesting sites (GUM, Kremlin, Lenin's Mausoleum) were not open to the general public (in part because it was Thursday I think but also in part because the Red Square was occupied by a grand party for GUM's 120th birthday). We did visit Novodevichy Park and Cemetery, and a couple of nice cathedrals, one of which was due to host the arrival of patriarch Kirill later that day. I then went to buy a SIM-card on the way back - with success, although it took some confused stars and explaining to the sales assistant to make everything in order. I then texted my Tomsk friends to say I had the phone card, although it seemed to act up a fair few times (I eventually would later ditch the sim-card because of this). Tomorrow I will need to buy some supplies for the next leg of the journey - Siberia cannot be experienced on an empty stomach in platskartny. I then went out with hostel friends to cook dinner and buy ingredients. Excellent fried rice made by a Taiwanese girl. The rest of the night was spent drinking Russian beer (Baltika in fact I guess...) Day 6: Ticket Scare I woke up at noon realising I'd killed my day before it had even started. So I managed to eat someone's leftover sausage and bread for breakfast (thanks Dan the Australian!) and I found out I printed the wrong document for the flight home - the hostel fixed it for me (спасибо большое чиллаксу хостелу!) Legends! I then decided to go out for a bit and see the Gorky Park, but I ended up taking a whole load of bad turns and ended up the cathedral of Christ the Saviour. That's not entirely what I planned, but hey, it works for me too. I then went to Му-Му (it's a Russian fast-food chain, cafeteria style). Not that good, but cheap as hell. I then said my goodbyes to the hostel; the receptionist Katja (who a few days earlier had spent some time with me offering me tea and choclates and speaking in Russian - there's actually another funny anecdote about that I can share on request) gave me a hug, pretended to cry (I pretended to offer paper handkerchiefs) and asked me to come back. I safely got to Yaroslavskij station, managed to get on the train to Tomsk (the "Tomich") and met Vova, Sasha and another man in my compartment who f**ked off somewhere only to come back some hour later. I then fell asleep. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4692 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 789 of 1511 16 August 2013 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Fun travelogue! Please share the other receptionist anecdote.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4998 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 790 of 1511 17 August 2013 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for sharing, looks like you had awesome time!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 791 of 1511 17 August 2013 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's 20 more days to write up. I'll write up the Tomsk bit this weekend.
As for that other anecdote, there were some problems with the towels when I went to take a shower, and with the bed sheets... so I spoke in Russian. They also forgot to give me a key to a locker. So I complained in Russian, we got talking (they asked whence I knew Russian so well). At some point during that conversation, the girl asked me "what's your secret?" (I said there are no secrets, only practice, I just speak Russian). We got talking, they offered me tea and chocolate and everything. Two days later when I walked into the hostel (I'd gone out somewhere and came back in), another receptionist (who I'd also addressed in Russian), she whispered to the first receptionist (who was also present) "he speaks Russian splendidly", but so loud I could obviously hear it. Then the other girl answered "Yes, it's a curious secret..." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4223 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 792 of 1511 17 August 2013 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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oh, I wish I could hear that I speak foreign language splendidly. But I have problems in general, hence even in Russian... If I were you I'd be proud to hear that anyway :)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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