Everyone speaks English
It's almost embarrassing how little effort you need to make with another country's language in most of Eastern Europe we've visited so far.
English has become the lingua franca - it's the diplomatic language. In these ex-Soviet countries, most of the population learnt Russian, but they don't want to speak it due to negative associations with the regime of that time.
People used to speak French, but who speaks French, besides those from France and maybe a few ex-colonies of that country? America is the place, baby, the world economy, king of the big guns. So the lingo is Englico!
At major tourist attractions, most of the information is in the local language, and in English. On English guided tours, you find Germans, Spaniards, Swiss, etc. Because it's easier to take the regular English tour than wait around for what, once-a-week tour in Finnish? Anyway, they understand English perfectly, or at least, well enough to catch the gist of tour-speak -- it's not rocket science.
With everyone here speaking their native tongue, plus English, plus often another language or two besides, I feel a bit one-dimensional with my one-language brain. I feel a bit exposed somehow, like I don't have a private code in which to express my own thoughts, or those of my culture.
If that exists!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Travel indulgence
It gets oddly lonely and disconcerting sometimes...
Running around the world, seeing stuff, not 'using' the experience for anything except my own pleasure. Somehow feels a little, well, not pointless but self-indulgent and maybe a bit patronising.
It's hard to only share the culmination of each day's culture-stimulus with only one person directly. But if others were here, the experience would be diminished. What a paradox!
Running around the world, seeing stuff, not 'using' the experience for anything except my own pleasure. Somehow feels a little, well, not pointless but self-indulgent and maybe a bit patronising.
It's hard to only share the culmination of each day's culture-stimulus with only one person directly. But if others were here, the experience would be diminished. What a paradox!
Thursday, November 02, 2006
The soldier and the scientist
Trains are a great way to travel.
You're forced to deal with other people, it's the best and worst of humanity. All across Russia on the Trans-Siberian we travelled in four-berth carriages. Each carriage has a Provoditsna (conductor), usually female, a toilet at each end that's extremely basic and a samovar for boiling water.
Vladivostok to Irkutsk: The Eastern marauders
Hoardes of drunken 20-year-old Russian navy boys stuck on the train for 6 days as they return to their homes on the other side of the country. Nothing to do but drink and congregate around anything that's vaguely novel, ie: Australian tourists. On the other hand, we had the 4-berth cabin to ourselves almost the whole time and Vera, the provoditsna, while shy with us (language barrier), was extremely effective at getting rid of drunken sailors by yelling and physically throwing them out of our compartment when things got a little out of hand.
Irkutsk to Ykaterinberg: Provoking the provoditsna
On the 'Baikal' - regarded by many as the finest train in Russia - we were also fortunate to have the cabin to ourselves the whole time. As we'd been used to on the previous leg of our journey, we clipped the upper bunks back against the wall to give us the feeling of a bit more room in the tiny space. Big mistake. The provoditsna came rampaging in, indicated that we had slept on the upper bunks because we'd tampered with them and started angrily remaking the upper beds, indicating that we would have to pay a fee for using two sets of sheets now! With hand gestures and indignation we tried to explain that she was wrong but it didn't really help things. The rest of the journey she ignored us, and the other Aussie tourists next door, only offering tea & coffee and other benefits, such as the shower (!!) to her fellow Russians in the carriage. Thanks lady.
Ykaterinberg to Moscow: The soldier and the scientist
This train, the 'Ural' is another good one but certainly not as new or schmick as the Baikal. We were sharing our compartment this time with two Russian men, a military guy and a medical scientist. Both of them had paid more than double what we had for tickets, and consequently had all their meals provided in the cabin. At the first stop, the military guy, perhaps thinking we were povvo travellers with our no-frills tickets, got off and bought us beer, vodka, sausage, bacon and smoked fish, isn't that lovely?! He wouldn't share the drinks with us, insisting we have it all to ourselves (we went easy on the vodka!). The other fellow was very quiet, even though he'd spoken a bit of English to us when we boarded. But the next morning he perked up and started telling us about his research into the medical (ill)affects of asbestos, turns out he was on his way to talk at a conference about it. He told us a few places to visit in Moscow, and all in all it was a lovely journey, with some shining examples of Russian hospitality.
Moscow to St Petersburg: Asleep in the snow
We were fortunate to be introduced via another friend to some Muscovites who not only took us to dinner on the night before our train journey, but saw us to the station afterwards and helped us collect our bags from the left luggage depot. As we had actually stuffed up and left our luggage at the depot in the next-door station, (there are three majour train stations in Moscow within spitting distance of each other) this was much appreciated! On the Moscow-St Petersburg (overnight) we were sharing with two women, one older Russian lady and a French girl who was also a tourist. But as the train left at midnight and arrived here at 8am everyone just went to sleep. This leg of the journey was on the Rossia train and was distinguished by a smelly, plastic-covered toilet seat and a male provoditsna. A mercifully uneventful journey and we arrived to find a beautiful snowy St Petersburg playground awaiting us.
And that concludes my account of our train travels in Russia. We caught the bus out of St Petersburg and will not be on the train again for a while... stay tuned.
You're forced to deal with other people, it's the best and worst of humanity. All across Russia on the Trans-Siberian we travelled in four-berth carriages. Each carriage has a Provoditsna (conductor), usually female, a toilet at each end that's extremely basic and a samovar for boiling water.
Vladivostok to Irkutsk: The Eastern marauders
Hoardes of drunken 20-year-old Russian navy boys stuck on the train for 6 days as they return to their homes on the other side of the country. Nothing to do but drink and congregate around anything that's vaguely novel, ie: Australian tourists. On the other hand, we had the 4-berth cabin to ourselves almost the whole time and Vera, the provoditsna, while shy with us (language barrier), was extremely effective at getting rid of drunken sailors by yelling and physically throwing them out of our compartment when things got a little out of hand.
Irkutsk to Ykaterinberg: Provoking the provoditsna
On the 'Baikal' - regarded by many as the finest train in Russia - we were also fortunate to have the cabin to ourselves the whole time. As we'd been used to on the previous leg of our journey, we clipped the upper bunks back against the wall to give us the feeling of a bit more room in the tiny space. Big mistake. The provoditsna came rampaging in, indicated that we had slept on the upper bunks because we'd tampered with them and started angrily remaking the upper beds, indicating that we would have to pay a fee for using two sets of sheets now! With hand gestures and indignation we tried to explain that she was wrong but it didn't really help things. The rest of the journey she ignored us, and the other Aussie tourists next door, only offering tea & coffee and other benefits, such as the shower (!!) to her fellow Russians in the carriage. Thanks lady.
Ykaterinberg to Moscow: The soldier and the scientist
This train, the 'Ural' is another good one but certainly not as new or schmick as the Baikal. We were sharing our compartment this time with two Russian men, a military guy and a medical scientist. Both of them had paid more than double what we had for tickets, and consequently had all their meals provided in the cabin. At the first stop, the military guy, perhaps thinking we were povvo travellers with our no-frills tickets, got off and bought us beer, vodka, sausage, bacon and smoked fish, isn't that lovely?! He wouldn't share the drinks with us, insisting we have it all to ourselves (we went easy on the vodka!). The other fellow was very quiet, even though he'd spoken a bit of English to us when we boarded. But the next morning he perked up and started telling us about his research into the medical (ill)affects of asbestos, turns out he was on his way to talk at a conference about it. He told us a few places to visit in Moscow, and all in all it was a lovely journey, with some shining examples of Russian hospitality.
Moscow to St Petersburg: Asleep in the snow
We were fortunate to be introduced via another friend to some Muscovites who not only took us to dinner on the night before our train journey, but saw us to the station afterwards and helped us collect our bags from the left luggage depot. As we had actually stuffed up and left our luggage at the depot in the next-door station, (there are three majour train stations in Moscow within spitting distance of each other) this was much appreciated! On the Moscow-St Petersburg (overnight) we were sharing with two women, one older Russian lady and a French girl who was also a tourist. But as the train left at midnight and arrived here at 8am everyone just went to sleep. This leg of the journey was on the Rossia train and was distinguished by a smelly, plastic-covered toilet seat and a male provoditsna. A mercifully uneventful journey and we arrived to find a beautiful snowy St Petersburg playground awaiting us.
And that concludes my account of our train travels in Russia. We caught the bus out of St Petersburg and will not be on the train again for a while... stay tuned.
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