in order to move on to things that are happening right now, i best finish up this blogging of trip mails idea. so here we go.
Mail #2 came from Russia and was about Mongolia, the Train and Moscow.
"Last i left off we were on our way to the ger camp in the steppes near UB. The stay there was great, as has been all of Mongolia really, but the highlight would definitely have to be the horse riding. Mongolian horses are smaller than the ones i've been on before and have shorter legs. We rode with our guide and the local horse guide and were basically put on a horse with a few instructions and if we could get the horse to gallop they'd have no objections to it. My horse galloped a couple of times and that was amazing and now makes me want to take more lessons, though of course the experience of riding a horse in the Mongolian steppe with vastness all around and mountains on the horizon and sheep coming down the hillside herded by a teenage boy on a horse as the setting sun warms up the grass with a gentle glow will never be recreated for me by a riding school in Wisconsin but might still be fun, eh?
we walked a lot in the steppe and i saw some weird insects and funky lizards and we played more games with ankle bones and also met some interesting people with whom we continued our journey out of Mongolia and onto the train."
"The train journey took 4 nights. We boarded the train on the 8th around 2pm and got off in Moscow on the 12th at 2:30pm. The time went by very quickly for me and we had a really good time. We shared our 4 berth compartment with an Irish girl and a British guy, both very interesting and lovely people...I would definitely recommend the train journey to anyone. It's long, but i personally really enjoyed watching the land change from the desert to steppe and then gradually into Siberian taiga and slowly after Baikal (which is stunning btw) into the European forests that reminded Rob of eastern England and me of Wisconsin. We had no problems on the train and our provodniza was sweet enough (though mostly because we became her partners in smuggling some goods. ha ha)....So off the train and into Moscow. The most expensive city in Europe if not the world, we saw Moscow in a very sunny light and i liked it immediately. It's definitely got style and likes to show it. We went to see the Red Square and the Kremlin at night and i think we were all quite overwhelmed to be there at first. The next day an 18 year old kid named Archie gave us a great walking tour of Moscow and we were on our own after lunch. We decided to see the Tretyakov Gallery and even though i knew it was one of the most important art exhibition spaces in Moscow (if not Russia) i was still not prepared to see in person the works of all those Russian masters. "
the next mail came from Riga but i also included some thoughts about St. Petersburg in it:
"I've just been pick pocketed. No kidding. Really. An honest to goodness gypsy lady attempted to steal my wallet. Walking out of an underpass, eating an apple, minding my own business in Riga, I felt a slight tug at my backpack. I turn around and a step behind me is a young woman attempting to quickly hide my bright pink wallet that's somehow making its way from one of her hands to another across her chest. I quickly snatch the wallet back with what i presume was a look of disdain and shock, and she and her two friends/relatives snicker at their bad attempt and dare i say look slightly ashamed as they increase the distance behind me. So there you have it. It happens. Be careful. :) "
"For those not in the know, I've been to St. Petersburg once before. My mother took me there when was 11 years old, and she did a great job showing me the city during our two week stay. I remember quite a lot from that trip, so impressed I was by everything I saw in the then Leningrad, and I always knew that I would come back to that city so that I could see it all again as an adult. Which I just did, and am very happy for it, even though the weather turned from tolerable to miserable and i went from healthy to quite sick, and I didn't get to see and do all that I planned. But I'm not disappointed by the city, even though there were moments when I felt that all I wanted to do was leave, but those were moments of weakness, exasperated by my illness and me missing Okinawa. Kelly was quite right about that last bit--no matter how much i see and do as i travel, my longing for Okinawa seems to grow rather than lessen, and there are moments when it actually hurts to think about all that |'ve left behind, so i try not to and try to focus on the present and the new experiences in front of me.
Anyways. St. Petersburg is a city with character. It's way better than Moscow and I won't back down from that opinion. It's classy and it's got style and it's rich but it also has a very somber grandness to it all. It's like a beautiful woman who knows she's worth being looked at but is at the same time a little self-conscious about it. I don't know. I'm rambling really. I don't know if i could describe to you what the city is like, so just go and see it...And I think the last thing I'll mention about St. Petersburg is about the sadness I felt for the city every day i was there. It's a great city; it's beautiful, it's been (and being) cleaned up and repainted and refabbed but there's a darkness to it all. There's a despair in people's lives, no matter how lively of a front they put up. Things are not on the up and up. And no matter how many ginormous supermarkets are constructed to make it seem that consumerism and capitalism are finally thriving nearly 20 years after the fall, it's still quite obvious that people are struggling and only the very few and elite are truly able to afford all that new and shiny goodness--everyone else is buying on credit and the banks are thriving.
But I don't want to finish on a sad note. I liked St. Petersburg this time as much as I did last time. It's just that this time, I saw through the beautiful facades of 300 year old architecture and into the dirty, inner courtyards behind them."
i'm gonna skip over some thoughts on Riga and Warsaw but both i liked very much, especially the amazing Art Nouveau architecture in Riga. Here is an excerpt from a mail i wrote while enjoying Krakow (#2 on my list of best cities from the trip):
"A couple of observations and experiences there:
Sunday morning I walked from my host's apartment toward the tram stop. The road from the giant apartment block where he lives leads through a road that is surrounded by trees so it feels like an artificial tunnel that eventually leads you out to the main road. As i entered that road, i saw that coming towards me was a giant crowd of people. The road was bathed in sunshine and the big group of people kept getting closer and closer until i was walking through them--one lone person against a traffic of sunny people dressed in their Sunday best walking home from the morning church service. A lone Jew walking in the opposite direction of a crowd of Catholics. ;-) It amused me and also was a great experience for some reason--can't describe it really, but it was nice seeing all those nicely dressed people walking back to their apartments--families, couples, grandmas with grand kids--just a good feel Sunday scene. And also reminded me again about how religious Poland is and how it is very much a big part of most people's lives in this country.
Most young people in Krakow will understand some English and most older people in Poland will understand some Russian.
I somehow always manage to run into some russian speakers--one night a traveler from Washington DC who was born in Kiev and moved with his family (to Alabama!) in late 80's, and the next day my tour guide through the Jewish Quarter who was born in Latvia, has lived in London and Chicago and now loves his life in Krakow. He was a great guide, btw, but i felt a bit guilty that after we discovered that we have russian in common we spent the entire time between "points of interest" chatting and ignoring the other lovely people in the group. oh well. :)
I also went to Auschwitz. It was the only rainy and colder day the whole time in Poland and i thought it was fitting for a trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau. The experience is with me every moment of every day but it doesn't oppress--maybe because i gave myself time there, on my own to sit down and think near one of the nearly destroyed gas chambers and crematoriums. I went through lots of emotions that day and i think for the first time in my life actually experienced a feeling of deep hatred and also of bottomless despair. I would recommend to all of you to go someday and witness with your eyes the truly unbelievable scale of inhumanity and pain that no book, photo album or teacher could ever convey."
the next note is from Budapest (skipped over the mails from Czech Republic):
"There are lots of gypsies in Budapest and most of them look as if they are homeless though i'm sure they're not. But there are quite a few homeless everywhere in Budapest--more than any other city i've been to so far on the trip. Budapest is gritty but very likable. It's got great architecture but not all of it has been renovated so it bears the signs of age and I kind of like it more for it--you have to look closer at a building to discover its past beauty. The people here are nice too, way nicer than in Czech Republic but the language is incomprehensible so it's harder to communicate--even Russian can't save the day for me here. Once again i'm completely illetarate in a strange new place, but it's great to have the help of the local CSers. "
and since i stayed in Hungary nearly two weeks, i wrote another note from there:
"the best thing about this trip so far have been the people I have been meeting through couchsurfing. It's a fantastic community of travelers and locals and I am constantly surprised by how lovely the strangers I meet are. I'm generally reserved and shy when meeting new peeps so this experience has been good for me, to push me to communicate more freely, to open up a bit more, and to let others be nice and helpful without me feeling like i immediately owe them something in return.
In Czech I stayed with a Slovak couple who taught me about how young people work in Prague. In Prague I also met up with the CSers from Krakow at a giant CS meeting that was quite fun. I met a Greek guy from that meeting at a dinner party hosted by a Budapest local last Sunday. I met a German girl in Prague whose family owns a home on a Greek island and she's invited me to stay with them there in October. The Finnish girl who stayed at the same host with me in Budapest cooked us a dinner of reindeer and mashed potatoes and it was quite tasty. I met an American guy who was in Budapest for a week--we traveled together with my host and conversations with him have been some of the most enlightening on this trip. The family that hosted me first in Budapest were so down to earth and welcoming that i actually miss them now as i miss some of my closest friends."
a quick note from Sarajevo, an amazing, small, vibrant city which is easily #4 on my list:
"Yesterday i spent a half hour or so watching middle aged and elderly men playing big chess in the park; i have a couple of photos up but it doesnt do it justice. I know very little about chess and i dont understand Bosnian but it was just fun watching them interact. Two men would be playing but 20 or so men gathered all around would shout out their suggestions and opinions and sometimes the discussions would get quite heated. I was particularly amused when a younger guy who obviously was in line to play next was trying to convince an old guy who had lost that he had actually lost cause the guy wanted to play it out til the end but everyone around him including the younger guy were telling him, "Mat tebe!!" ha ha"
From Sarajevo i went through Belgrade on the way to Istanbul and the rest of Turkey. Turkey is a wonderful country. It's #1 on my list of best countries from my trip for many reasons, mainly 'cause the culture is welcoming, the history is multilayered and surprising, the people warm and beautiful and the food outstanding! Next came Greece which is a bit more expensive but i had an amazing time there thanks to family friends who took me in and made my visit there unforgettable.
But i'll finish this blog, finally with some notes from England--definitely the highlight of my trip because I got to spend time with my closest friends from Okinawa and I got to go to Amsterdam for the weekend with Ben and David.
"Last night, I went out to an izakaya (japanese style restaurant) with a few of the Okinawa friends I haven't seen in over a year and we even got to show off our japanese skills with the staff. The food was good and the company even better and it was as if i went back to Okinawa for a couple of hours and we were just hanging out in Yukino with no care in the world.
Everyone here are getting their lives sorted and doing wonderful things. It was good to catch up with Amul and Helen and to see Josh before he takes off for New Zealand next week. I'm jealous of their meeting up with others next year in NZ for the Iron Man and it made me think that it might be a good idea to plan some sort of a get together in a new to all of us location a few years down the line--a reunion of sorts. :)
It's sad to have the trip come to an end, but I'm also really looking forward to coming home and seeing my family and friends. I have been missing Milwaukee a bit during my last year in Okinawa and on this trip and just thinking about all the places I'll be able to see again does make me want to come back."
so that's that. the short version of the four month long journey. So, should i write a book? :)
oh and of course all the photos are up at my fotki site and the link is on the right hand side with all the other links.
love
-e
Zaduszki - All Saints Day- All Souls Day
6 years ago
