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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
I’ve given up trying to write like Ron Silliman until Delta-2 on the trip home. However being transported seems to bring out the babble in me. Wrote this on the train last night so, just to share the sheer pleasure of the first hours of my first first-class experience, I’m going to post it. I’ve spent most of today out and about in Minsk—which it turns out is a most impressive and… Read More
Where was I? Big 2015 Trip. Talking about Russia In San Diego. Even though it’s easy to focus on what for me is the most exotic part of B15T, there are actually four main segments: Norway; Riga/Minsk/St. Petersburg/Moscow; the Trans-Siberian Express and layover in Ulan Bator; and Beijing/Seoul. Since I’ve been concentrating on Russia—but mostly the nice people and the borscht, not really on the train part—let me get on board the… Read More
The planning for B15T(Big2015Trip) is moving right along. Bit like being on a train in fact when it is doing the switching tracks stuff. Jerks forward, halts abruptly, creeps ahead with shrieks and rattles, grinds to another stop…finally it moves slowly and then a little faster and then a little faster…onward…to the next pause. I love trains but much of the journey is as described. Of course the only trains I’ve ridden… Read More