New Siberia

Just finished brushing my teeth with "highly carbonated" seltzer water. Seems like a typical sort of thing to do in this part of the world. We left Yekaterinburg last night on the famous "Sibiryak" train bound for Novosibirsk. Having only good luck, we arrived 10 minutes before departure but managed to negotiate a reasonable fare for the overnight journey from the conductor. There were whole train cars full of foreigners - many from the Spanish Canary Islands and elsewhere. Dustin and I enjoyed practicing our Spanish with them - but I found myself slipping Russian words into every sentence. With so many interesting people to speak with - I postponed sleeping until sunrise in lieu of interesting conversation. Luckily managed to get in a nap later in the day as we made our way from Omsk to Novosibirsk. Again out of luck, we managed to arrange a home-stay with a great couple with an apartment on the Ob River. Our hosts, Simon & Valentina, had an amazing meal prepared for us which was exactly what I was hoping Dustin could experience. Fresh food prepared in a very Russian way. For dessert we had ice-cream (from a bag) with a bunch of home-made jams from local Siberian berries and hot "piroshki" which are similar to pastries, containing apricot, raspberry, and black current filling. Even had some fresh mint tea, slightly sweetened... perfect Russian meal. Afterwards, we trotted down to the Ob River and took a dip in the light rain. Water was plenty clean.... well... clean enough in the dim light. Our hosts showed us photos of their recent excursion into Central Asia - a route Dustin and I are considering for our return to Europe in a few months. Tomorrow we'll coordinate with a pile of other foreigners, photographers, local astronomers, German physicists, Austrian astrophysicists... in order to best view the eclipse.
Photos Here

New Ekaterinburg

Made it back to Ekaterinburg - just a bit more than 10 years after leaving. Having a hard time recognizing people and things - they don't match my memory at all. The kids I remember teaching English slang to now have kids of their own. We're staying in an apartment across from what used to be the only Western restaurant in town - we were so excited to see it open in 1997... The countless others that have sprouted nearby since then make it seem insignificant. New malls, hotels, roads - I'm glad I saw it while it was still Russian.

Continuing East from here - either overnight as far as Omsk, or all the way to Novosibirsk - depending on train tickets. Eclipse should be total from there. We'll meet up with some local astronomers to make sure we're properly prepared for the event. Taking a good amount of photos - just need to stick them online here... stay tuned.

moscow

i'm getting accustomed to a random sleeping pattern, depending on the day. now that we've been out a week, i feel like i was over jet lag a while ago, but the pattern of sleeping a little here and there has remained. up late, up early, catch some sleep on a couch or train, or a nap at the hostel. walk around the city at 3 am to find bottled water, pasta, and dark chocolate with cayenne spicy. we have tickets for a train to kazan tonight. clothes are drying on a rack at the hostel. i feel like fixing a bowl of museli before we go out.

Semi-plan

Landed in St. Petersburg in the evening, realized we hadn't even looked for a hotel. I somewhat enjoy traveling without a plan - but approaching an extreme of some sort perhaps. Haven't planned much better since - we wanted to make our way from St. Petersburg to Moscow last night but all the train tickets for Russia's most popular route were sold out long ago. Regardless, we headed to the train station in the evening and proceeded to inquire of the train conductors themselves about any extra spaces for "sale" - essentially bribing our way into beds on a night train. The first few attempts were unsuccessful - then one space available for about the price we would have paid had we booked in advance... then we were approached by a police officer of some sort - which turned out to be a good thing as he offered to sell us spots on the "#1 / Red Arrow" train on which he was working. We negotiated a price plenty below what the other forward-thinking passengers had paid - and proceeded to board. I think Dus enjoyed his first train experience. We'll have many more to come in the coming weeks.

From here we'll head East - Kazan, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Omsk... looking to make it to Novosibirsk by the 1st of August for the eclipse, then continue on to Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk before crossing into Mongolia and finally China before the end of the Olympics there. Trains all the way!

wander through asia

st. petersburg is the first stop on this wandering excursion.