I wanted to list the highlights/low lights of the 17 day tour that I have just completed. The 16 of us spent 8 nights and 7 days on a train and thus these unique memories are bound to happen. These are the things that I don’t want to forget years to come and thus am recording now for mine and your entertainment.
So here they are, in no particular order:
(1) Dave from Canada, Fredrik from Sweden and I got extremely lost on the Moscow metro. Damn that metro! First all, if you happen to look up the network map it consists of a large brown ring which I would like to refer to as the ring of death. However, that’s not the part that tripped us up. In one section there is a light blue line and a dark blue line that parallel each other and have stops with the same exact names. We needed to get on the dark blue line, we found ourselves on the light blue line, and kept getting on and off, trying to switch lines, finding ourselves on the right line, wrong direction, until eventually we did get home with quite the story to tell. Boy was that a joke for the next few days. Our guide was going to buy me a Moscow Metro shirt to remind me of my fun experience. What a brat!
(2) One of the travelers, Johan from Sweden, had a constant desire to improve his English expressions and vocabulary. I took great amusement in this and by the end of this trip had him saying “was sup?” and “how’s it hanging?” to people. I did tell him that he shouldn’t use the expression “dude” though, even though I was starting to say it quite a bit in the end. But the highlight of this experience was when Kiki from Norway asked him if he was “having a cow” and Johan responded “a cow? I don’t have a cow….but I had a dog once….but he died”. So funny!
(3) I decided to start speaking in my Smeagol from Lord of the Rings voice to the group and they got such a kick out of it. They started to ask me to do it all the time. The best was when we were comparing how animals make different noises in different countries and I said “kykkeliky” in the Smeagol voice, which is apparently the sound that a Swedish rooster makes. Or “neuff! Neuff!” which is the sound that a Norwegian pig makes. We were, by the way doing this in the middle of a Mongolian restaurant where the other Mongolians were looking at us like wtf?
(4) While playing a card game on the train I spilled wine all over the place, then proceeded to run to the toilet to get a paper towel to clean it up and slipped an fell on the freshly washed floor. I developed a nice gash on my leg and now have a badass scar on my shin which I will tell people came from my Tran Siberian ride. I will leave out the fact that it was from falling in the bathroom.
(5) In the middle of the night a random Russian came into our train car. We think he was drunk….or just slightly confused. I slept through this entirely and woke up 5 minutes later only to think that it was time to leave. What is amazing is how much the story from my cabin mates changed of the intentions of the man. First he was just walking around. Then he was going after me and my cabin mates shooed him away. Then apparently he was taken out by Dave and David. Then apparently there was a knife fight? But each time the story was focused on the fact that the Russian was going after the poor American and the two Dave’s defended my honor.
(6) I electrocuted myself in Ulaan Baatar. Let’s just say that it’s not a good idea to try to plug in a lamp in the dark in a Mongolian hotel with loose wires hanging down. That was a head rush. Too bad the other lamp had an American plug and will never have power as long as it is sitting in a Mongolian hotel room. Oh and then I find out 5 minutes later that my phone was stolen - but that is another memory.
(7) Two people fell from their horses riding in Mongolia. Both were named David! One David actually popped his arm out of his socket and had to be taken to a small Mongolian town to fix it up. Poor guy - thankfully my scarf I bought from Estonia served as an excellent tool to allow the doctor to get it back in there. Thankfully the other David didn’t get hurt too much.
(8) I had Peking Duck….twice! I had it once with the entire tour and then a second time with my two Swedish friends Johan and Fredrik. The second time was amazing and was a sort of a “last meal” for us since Fredrik had to leave the next day. We had a full course meal: soup, salad, the Peking duck (which is so incredibly, mouth-watering delicious) and desert and spent less than $20 each. Fredrik and I both had a taste of the brains from the duck head. That’s right….don’t think I will be doing that again but at least I can say I tried it. I left the meal feeling a bit sad though - these guys were so sweet and I’ve learned so much about Sweden from them…more than when I actually was in Sweden. I really hope that I will get to see them again some day. They were always good people to have a beer (as we lovingly called Peeve in every country) with.
(9) I got to have Starbucks in Beijing with Kiki twice. She is the only non-American I have ever met that had such a love affair with their coffee. I was glad to share the experience with her. It was sad to say goodbye to Kiki as well, as she is on her way to Tibet now. I really hope that I can visit her in Norway someday.
(10) Our group started to make up words - for instance “Kebass” for garbage. Apparantly that is the word they use for it in Belgium and David convinced Fredrik that it was the word for garbage in Russia. Fredrik then proceeded to call it the Kebass for the rest of our time in Russia. We did eventually let him in our secret but then we continued to use the word for the rest of our trip.
(11) On our last day on the train we had Mongolian money to burn. We went to the train car which was supposed to take only Chinese money, laid the massive amount of notes on the table and were able to get a full feast out of it. Hurray for kind Chinese waitresses!
I love memories like this, and I am not even touching on all of them. I am going to miss these people very dearly. I am happy to have ridden the Tran Siberian with them and I wish them safe and happy travels as we continue to see more of the world in our own way.
