13th July 1992 Day 359

The Diary

A bad start to the 7th anniversary of Live Aid as Mikhail woke me up with The Scorpions from next door. Valeriy & Igor got off at Sverdlovsk and I had the compartment to myself again. The scenery outside had been pretty much the same since Irkutsk, flat, a few trees, a few villages, a few farmed fields & the occasional river & town.







The day passed pretty much as the others, some pot noodles, bread, tea and an attempt to make a meal from the fare on offer in the buffet car & some dodgy Russian beer. We missed passing into Europe as we were eating & we missed the Urals as we were crammed into a cabin with 3 of our student holiday provodniks (Chicks?), Mikhail, Marina and Tanya and 2 young Russians Lydmila & Alex. They asked us questions (mainly about the USA) we answered & then asked them about Russia. Debbie gave them Womens Weekly which they seemed most interested in & then we all swapped addresses.

Provodnik and Provodchicks

The rest of the day was quite unremarkable apart from Ken's admission that he was in the same class in school as Bono & his best mate Keith stole Bono's girlfriend & is mentioned in Dunphy's book. Best claim to fame so far!


2012
Sverdlovsk was the old soviet name for Ekaterinburg. Still 1,778km from Moscow at thispoint. Irkutsk was 5153 km from Moscow.


Someone else's view of the same journey - 14 years late.