Archives
So soon. The routine. Did that other thing really happen? Did I really do that? Go around the world. Was it a long time ago? No? A few days ago you say…I’m already forgetting. I did. Go around the world. It was—in today’s vernacular—awesome. Actually it was just plain awesome. But when I started to catch up on diary entries for those days and weeks away they had already slipped into past tense,… Read More
I DID IT. SIBERIAN TRAIN TURNS OUT TO BE A PIECE OF CAKE COMPARED TO MONGOLIA BUT THAT IS ANOTHER STORY. COMING TO YOU EVENING FROM HERE IN BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN UB. SIBERIAN TRAIN. DAY FOUR: AUGUST 31, 2015. READY FOR DRY LAND ONCE AGAIN. CREW HAS SCURVY AND I’M SURE I HEARD ‘MAN OVERBOARD’ AT LEAST ONCE LAST NIGHT. 1:55am The windows are now seriously dirty. It’s still overcast, gray. Chilly. Trees… Read More
DON’T FORGET…ONE AND TWO BEFORE THREE. SIBERIAN TRAIN. DAY THREE: AUGUST 30, 2015/FIRST DAY OF WEEK FIVE 3:50am. This is strange magic here my friends. 3:50am. Did I mention that? And it is bright daylight. My watch is still set on the same time as the clock in the train. So obviously we are all forever on Moscow time. And we’ve traveled over 50 hours east so that’s not right is it?… Read More
The next four posts will be coming to you from a hotel in Ulan Bator; they will be posted in order but wind up on face book in a block. IF YOU are going to take the Siberian train from Moscow to Ulan Bator in the near future I suggest you read them—in order. Of course what you’ll be reading are my barely edited notes but they will offer you a front… Read More
This will be a very short post. Another great day with a guide who has become a real friend in a great city…yes, I like Moscow very much, seems rather American-like actually but with prettier churches, more borscht and way more drama in its past than any U.S. city can claim. A day with a lot of great art as well…at the big museum of 20th Century Russian/Soviet art. Weather has turned cloudy… Read More
COMING IN TO MOSCOW THIS AM. It is almost time isn’t it? For years I’ve dreamed of taking the Trans-Siberian train. Years. Tomorrow night I climb aboard. Will I ever repeat that saying ‘be careful what you ask for…’ in regard to Siberia. Before I overdramatize this whole thing it’s important to remind myself it is only five day for heaven’s sake—and there’s a long break after four of those days. How… Read More
St. Petersburg was happy photo hunting. Cameras are allowed everywhere in the Hermitage so I took advantage of that happy fact and here are the results. Enjoy the tiniest bit of the AMAZING ECLECTIC ONE-OF-ITS-KIND HERMITAGE. FROM ELSEWHERE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
Lobby coffee/bar at Hotel Budapest in Moscow. 9:30am. So what do I want, conference hotel with super service or funky gray-toned with surly service? I can do this I can I can…. Had a compartment mate again last night. Pretty young blonde woman with very curly hair who talked long into the night to her boyfriend but Russian is a nice background sound, soft and even melodic, odd isn’t? Bigger train car,… Read More
Norway and the trans-Siberian Express were the anchors of this journey. Everything else was and is an add-on; exciting add-ons it’s true but still not the anchor babies of this adventure. Norway now seems long past and Siberia still a couple of days away and I’ve seen all of the gold I can handle—although more palaces and squares are in my Moscow future. So why am I writing this morning? Maybe I’m… Read More