Ulan-Ude: Getting there.

Well,

I was uploading pictures Friday night, and I feel asleep while typing Amanda a valentine’s email. I woke up with a lot less time to get ready than I thought I would, but I had to get the email done and send it off. It was not as long as I had hoped, but it got the message of love across.

So, I throw all my stuff into my book bag and we start a walkin and take the marshrutka to the train station. This time I remembered my outlet converter so I would be able to charge my camera’s battery without having to ask to borrow someone else’s.

The train ride was uneventful. There was the beautiful never ending Siberian landscape to look at, and several small gatherings of buildings that are the villages dotted along the train tracks

Since we got or tickets on different days, the party was split up into two different train cars. So, Anna went to go get Jean-Jacques and Alison, but she never came back.

While we were waiting Raya busted out two large grape fruits and began to cut them up with her pocket knife, I totally need to get me one of those. She offered me some, and I was reluctant because I have only tasted grape fruit juice, and I hated it. But, in my desire to experience new life experiences I ate a slice. It tasted kind of like the juice I had drank many years ago in the states, but it was a lot better.

I then went to check on Anna and the others. Walking from one train car to the next is quite a trip. You can see in between the cars, and feel how both cars are bouncing around differently from each other, creating a really freaky sensation if you stand on both at the same time.

I made it to car four, we were in car 6, or maybe it was the other way around. We sat around talking for a bit, and Anna took some pictures of me and Jean-Jacques with my camera. They then left me and Alison to go the other car, I told them I would help watch their stuff while I was gone, and I think at that point me and Alison fell asleep.

I woke up when the train stopped at some random train station, and then Jean-Jacques came back, and I decided to return to my car, because the windows in this car were really really dirty and I could not take pictures out of them, but the windows in my car were a lot cleaner.

I returned to find most people reading or sleeping. And so went the rest of the train ride.

We arrived in Ulan-Ude, and met up with Jean-Jacques friend whose name I always forget. He walked us to our hostel, and we went to our rooms to put our things down. We then went out to find some food.

All of the good places that he suggested turned out to be closed for the day, and one of them told us that they were out of food. We guessed that they did not want to serve a party of eight foreigners.

We finally found a place with decent food and decent prices. We ate beet salad and their version of vinaigrette and stuff salad, and twenty pieces of bread, and the main course were these crazy little meat dumplings with soup inside. So, you had to bite a little whole in the dough shell, and suck out the oniony soup that was on the inside. They were quite the treat.

We then walked around for a little bit, and walked out onto the river that was frozen, but you could not even tell because there was like five inches of snow covering it. Next we hit up a store to buy breakfast and beer. I did not get anything because I was on a budget trip, and I only wanted to spend money on travel, the hostel, and whatever restaurants that we would end up going to.

The whole time in the store we got followed by the crazy suspicious workers, and I guess I looked even more suspicious because I want not actually picking anything up to buy. We left with our goods, and went back to the hostel. There we met up in one of the girl’s rooms to drink. Everyone then started speaking all the languages they know besides Russian and English, so I was pretty out of the loop, but Anna came to sit next to me and share some of her beer.

There was some English speaking going on, and Jean-Jacques as usual said some funny things in English. When our acquaintance left, we decided that we would all go to bed and get up early to go to the Buddhist temple that was about 30 minutes outside the city.

So, to bed we went and I think I will make this blog a two or three parter to keep them from being a mile long.

AWAY!

Crazy Times in Ulan-Ude

Well,

I was uploading pictures Friday night, and I feel asleep while typing Amanda a valentine’s email. I woke up with a lot less time to get ready than I thought I would, but I had to get the email done and send it off. It was not as long as I had hoped, but it got the message across.

So, I throw all my stuff into my book bag and we start a walkin and take the marshrutka to the train station. This time I remembered my outlet converter so I would be able to charge my camera’s battery without having to ask to borrow someone else’s.

The train ride was uneventful. There was the beautiful never ending Siberian landscape to look at, and several small gatherings of buildings that are the villages dotted along the train tracks

Since we got or tickets on different days, the party was split up into two different train cars. So, Anna went to go get Jean-Jacques and Alison, but she never came back.

While we were waiting Raya busted out two large grape fruits and began to cut them up with her pocket knife, I totally need to get me one of those. She offered me some, and I was reluctant because I have only tasted grape fruit juice, and I hated it. But, in my desire to experience new life experiences I ate a slice. It tasted kind of like the juice I had drank many years ago in the states, but it was a lot better.

I then went to check on Anna and the others. Walking from one train car to the next is quite a trip. You can see in between the cars, and feel how both cars are bouncing around differently from each other, creating a really freaky sensation if you stand on both at the same time.

I made it to car four, we were in car 6, or maybe it was the other way around. We sat around talking for a bit, and Anna took some pictures of me and Jean-Jacques with my camera. They then left me and Alison to go the other car, I told them I would help watch their stuff while I was gone, and I think at that point me and Alison fell asleep.

I woke up when the train stopped at some random train station, and then Jean-Jacques came back, and I decided to return to my car, because the windows in this car were really really dirty and I could not take pictures out of them, but the windows in my car were a lot cleaner.

I returned to find most people reading or sleeping. And so went the rest of the train ride.

We arrived in Ulan-Ude, and met up with Jean-Jacques friend whose name I always forget. He walked us to our hostel, and we went to our rooms to put our things down. We then went out to find some food.

All of the good places that he suggested turned out to be closed for the day, and one of them told us that they were out of food. We guessed that they did not want to serve a party of eight foreigners.

We finally found a place with decent food and decent prices. We ate beet salad and their version of vinaigrette and stuff salad, and twenty pieces of bread, and the main course were these crazy little meat dumplings with soup inside. So, you had to bite a little whole in the dough shell, and suck out the oniony soup that was on the inside. They were quite the treat.

We then walked around for a little bit, and walked out onto the river that was frozen, but you could not even tell because there was like five inches of snow covering it. Next we hit up a store to buy breakfast and beer. I did not get anything because I was on a budget trip, and I only wanted to spend money on travel, the hostel, and whatever restaurants that we would end up going to.

The whole time in the store we got followed by the crazy suspicious workers, and I guess I looked even more suspicious because I want not actually picking anything up to buy. We left with our goods, and went back to the hostel. There we met up in one of the girl’s rooms to drink. Everyone then started speaking all the languages they know besides Russian and English, so I was pretty out of the loop, but Anna came to sit next to me and share some of her beer.

There was some English speaking going on, and Jean-Jacques as usual said some funny things in English. When our acquaintance left, we decided that we would all go to bed and get up early to go to the Buddhist temple that was about 30 minutes outside the city.

So, to bed we went and I think I will make this blog a two or three parter to keep them from being a mile long.

AWAY!

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