Dosvedanya is harder to say than Goodbye
On our third-last day in Russia, we finally got some Russian words to stick in our memory. Learning the Russian script was essential, and we're very glad we did that, if only for the streetsigns etc. But once you get past words like 'internet', 'restaurant', 'supermarket', its use is limited without knowing any actual Russian words. We would read the phrasebook, repeat the phrase over and over and over... then forget it immediately. In cafes we'd pore over menues: 'soup' and 'salad' were easy, but we couldn't seem to remember much more than that. We did better in Thailand!
The main problem was when we needed to buy train tickets. We could write out what we wanted, but then they would ask us questions, and we would have absolutely no idea what they were saying.
Then on Tuesday, it somehow happened. We were having one of those days where you go around and around in (icy) circles trying to organise tickets, get cash, find food etc, and having no luck whatsoever. But then we walked into a ticket agency, and remembered all the Russian words (rather than just one or two of them, which always comes across as rather imbicillic I feel). 'I would like two tickets to Ulan Bator please... How much will that be?... No problems!!
It is when the going gets tough that your communication resources are really shown up. By a strange and inexplicable lack of judgement we decided to take a bus from Siberia to Mongolia rather than the train. It allegedly took half the time for half the price. We turned up at 8am to a happily idling bus and a group of people waiting to get on. And waiting. And waiting. Then it seemed the bus wasn't going for some reason, and everyone started walking away. Unable to find out what the guy is telling everyone else, and casting our usual cultural sensitivities aside, Soph takes deep breath and calls out 'Does anyone speak English?!!' and bit by bit the infomation came out - 11 o'clock from the other side of the square.
Great. But at 11 o'clock there is no sign of bus or crowds and we're standing around with our tourist-beacon backpacks on. A kind woman came up, only speaking Russian, and found out we wanted to go to Mongolia. She looked very confident, and described where to go, then even showed us... to the Mongolian consulate.
Then one of the other passengers turned up also looking for the bus, and found out it was delayed until tomorrow. Without that early morning bellow for information we would have been none the wiser.
Happily we did make it out of Russia the next day - they didn't want us to leave, and kept our passports for almost an hour before letting us go through (5 hours of the 12 hour journey were spent at the border, one hour was spent putting gaffer tape on parts of the engine). So for us it will be Christmas in Ulan Bator.
The main problem was when we needed to buy train tickets. We could write out what we wanted, but then they would ask us questions, and we would have absolutely no idea what they were saying.
Then on Tuesday, it somehow happened. We were having one of those days where you go around and around in (icy) circles trying to organise tickets, get cash, find food etc, and having no luck whatsoever. But then we walked into a ticket agency, and remembered all the Russian words (rather than just one or two of them, which always comes across as rather imbicillic I feel). 'I would like two tickets to Ulan Bator please... How much will that be?... No problems!!
It is when the going gets tough that your communication resources are really shown up. By a strange and inexplicable lack of judgement we decided to take a bus from Siberia to Mongolia rather than the train. It allegedly took half the time for half the price. We turned up at 8am to a happily idling bus and a group of people waiting to get on. And waiting. And waiting. Then it seemed the bus wasn't going for some reason, and everyone started walking away. Unable to find out what the guy is telling everyone else, and casting our usual cultural sensitivities aside, Soph takes deep breath and calls out 'Does anyone speak English?!!' and bit by bit the infomation came out - 11 o'clock from the other side of the square.
Great. But at 11 o'clock there is no sign of bus or crowds and we're standing around with our tourist-beacon backpacks on. A kind woman came up, only speaking Russian, and found out we wanted to go to Mongolia. She looked very confident, and described where to go, then even showed us... to the Mongolian consulate.
Then one of the other passengers turned up also looking for the bus, and found out it was delayed until tomorrow. Without that early morning bellow for information we would have been none the wiser.
Happily we did make it out of Russia the next day - they didn't want us to leave, and kept our passports for almost an hour before letting us go through (5 hours of the 12 hour journey were spent at the border, one hour was spent putting gaffer tape on parts of the engine). So for us it will be Christmas in Ulan Bator.
posted by Wednesdays at 11:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home