Today, Thursday we had a vodka tasting. We tasted four kinds of vodka, and now in a bit of a fog.
The fields are covered with wild flowers. The landscape decidedly prairie like. Saw fields of potatoes growing in gardens.
Dill is a favourite herb. Looks like it is growing in the ditches outside the train window.
The town we saw today, with an unpronounceable name is hosting the next Universiads and are busily trying to improve the appearance. There is a huge river there with a kilometre long bridge over it. This train goes at unbelievable speeds and lurches every now and again like a drunken sailor. I wonder if the tracks take a beating because of the winter weather and frost heaves.?
The bus drivers are uniformly a sullen bunch..nary a smile or welcoming glance. Is that a Russian trait ? Amsterdam was different for sure.
Gas is approximately one dollar per litre and cigarettes cost the same per package. Our little guide, Anna, works at the university in Moscow teaching German and her wage is 20000 roubles per month which is less than $500.00. She has inherited her grandmother’s apartment so is fortunate. Taxes are a flat rate of 13%.
No flowers to speak of coming from apartment decks or few seen in public spaces...where there are public gardens, there are flowers but no where else. Everyone lives in apartments. Huge looming things.
Tomorrow we are staying a hotel in Irkutsk...the Marriott. We will be glad to spread out. We are having lunch with a family first, on a farm, I believe.
Anna our little guide, is like a mother hen crossed with a guard dog. Yesterday Joyce and I thought we would separate from the group in the half hour left before meeting the bus and go across the street to the shopping centre in search of a Starbucks and wifi. She appeared from nowhere and before we knew it, we were shepherded in the direction of the bus.
Diane Draffin 🌷
The fields are covered with wild flowers. The landscape decidedly prairie like. Saw fields of potatoes growing in gardens.
Dill is a favourite herb. Looks like it is growing in the ditches outside the train window.
The town we saw today, with an unpronounceable name is hosting the next Universiads and are busily trying to improve the appearance. There is a huge river there with a kilometre long bridge over it. This train goes at unbelievable speeds and lurches every now and again like a drunken sailor. I wonder if the tracks take a beating because of the winter weather and frost heaves.?
The bus drivers are uniformly a sullen bunch..nary a smile or welcoming glance. Is that a Russian trait ? Amsterdam was different for sure.
Gas is approximately one dollar per litre and cigarettes cost the same per package. Our little guide, Anna, works at the university in Moscow teaching German and her wage is 20000 roubles per month which is less than $500.00. She has inherited her grandmother’s apartment so is fortunate. Taxes are a flat rate of 13%.
No flowers to speak of coming from apartment decks or few seen in public spaces...where there are public gardens, there are flowers but no where else. Everyone lives in apartments. Huge looming things.
Tomorrow we are staying a hotel in Irkutsk...the Marriott. We will be glad to spread out. We are having lunch with a family first, on a farm, I believe.
Anna our little guide, is like a mother hen crossed with a guard dog. Yesterday Joyce and I thought we would separate from the group in the half hour left before meeting the bus and go across the street to the shopping centre in search of a Starbucks and wifi. She appeared from nowhere and before we knew it, we were shepherded in the direction of the bus.
Diane Draffin 🌷
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