From Beijing to Warsaw

Hello from Poland!! Or as they say here: wylcoz cazoyoyakz zakukokayzzc.

So, it's been a while - did you miss me? I missed you too. But you'll be glad to know that's it been a fun filled couple of weeks and I took another few million pictures to bore you with when I get back.

So, as you may have guessed, I've made it back to Europe and I must say that it feels like something of a homecoming. When I went to China I didn't think it was really THAT different to Europe but now that I'm back in Europe I can see that it's actually totally different. But it's good to be back - the air is fresher, the people are better looking and the food is more to my taste. You can cross the road without fear of being mown down by a lunatic scooter rider and you don't have to dodge flying saliva when you walk down the street. The whole noise level had been taken down a notch and it's generally a more pleasant place to be. Not that I'm saying that I didn't enjoy China - I actually really enjoyed it and looking back at the last few months I've pretty much achieved everything that I wanted to do (except for Nepal - grrrr!) when - but I found it a tiring place to be for a long period of time, so after two months I'm pleased that I'm somewhere different.

And Warsaw in particular is absolutely beautiful. Perhaps it's because I've been away but the architecture in the Old Town is really lovely and just wandering around the place is really pleasant. They also have a fantastic building in the centre of the city that was apparently a gift from Stalin. If you were friends with Stalin and he gave you a skyscraper as a present then I'd expect it look exactly like the skyscraper he gave to Warsaw: Click here for a picture

So, I suppose you're all sitting at work pretending to be working but really you're desperate to know what I've been up to for the last week? Yes, No, Maybe? Well I'm going to tell you anyway.

On the Tuesday (23rd May) I was up at some absurdly early hour to get to Beijing Railway Station to catch the Trans-Siberian to Ulaan Bator. I was sharing a cabin with three other people who were also going to Mongolia: a girl called Anna who was to be my only travelling companion for the next week or so - much to Cath's delight - and an English couple called Dave and Sarah who were getting off a couple of stops early to go camel-trekking in the Gobi desert and then spending a further 9 days in Mongolia. The journey itself was pretty uneventful - I took the opportunity to eat loads of junk food and to spread myself liberally around the cabin so that I could have a comfortable snooze.

As we came into Inner Mongolia the scenery changed quite quickly and the lush green fields gave way to monotonous desert as far as the eye could see. The sun was quickly blotted out by sandstorms and even inside the carriage with the windows shut you could taste the dust in the air. The day went quite quickly and as darkness fell we drew up to the Mongolian border where we were going to have to wait for a few hours while the customs officials did their thing and also while they changed the wheels on the carriages to fit the narrower gauge line that they use in Mongolia and Russia, so we took the opportunity to get off the train and stretch our legs.

By the time we got back on the train it was 2am Mongolian time (they are on Beijing time but they also observe summer time so we were in the strange position of travelling west but putting the clocks forward an hour) and we were all knackered from our strenuous day of sitting and eating so we went straight to bed.

We drew into Ulaan Bator (minus the English couple who'd got off earlier) in the afternoon and were met by our guide at the station. She had a piece of paper with our names on which made me feel very special and gave us a quick tour of the city - it was very Russian and for the first time in a couple of months I finally felt like I wasn't in China. After we'd seen the city she took us out to our home for the next couple of days at a Ger camp outside the city.

There wasn't much to do except read and go for the odd walk and horse ride and I found it really relaxing. The scenery was fabulous and our Ger camp was very comfortable with good heating and good food served in the restaurant. There were even hot showers in a separate block although some of the visiting Americans were whinging that the water pressure wasn't strong enough for them. Quite what they expected I don't know but I was very pleasantly surprised by just how comfortable the whole set-up was.

On the Friday it was back on the train for 4 nights until we got to Moscow. I was in a cabin with Anna, another English girl called Belinda and a German girl called Susan. Cath was delighted to hear that I was locked in a carriage with 3 girls for 4 nights but I was very honest and at the risk of mental breakdowns and suicide threats I very quickly told the other girls that I had a girlfriend and to their credit they took it very well. I also gave them a daily run-down of how many days it would be until I met up with Cath in Poland which obviously wasn't annoying for them in the slightest.

In actual fact, I didn't speak with Susan very much at all because she was a nutter. Her method of introduction involved taking an almighty Germanic strop at us all for leaving a bag temporarily on her bunk as we were trying to find somewhere to put all our luggage after we'd arrived in the cabin. Not the best way to make friends with the other people you'll be sharing a small space with for 4 days. So after her little outburst at us, we pretty much ignored her for the rest of the trip which was a bit harsh on her but in our defence she was a complete fruitcake. For example: at the Mongolian border crossing into Europe she refused to answer the (very angry looking) border guard's question about why her passport was ripped, then attempted to make a joke about finding her passport on the ground in the street and then as a manic finale made some throwaway comment about having a bomb. She also took a massive strop at another passenger who she claimed grabbed her - although this could be true cos he looked well dodgy, and on another occasion she was screaming at our conductor (or provodnitsa as they're called) that she hadn't given her an immigration form. You can see why we tried to distance ourselves from her.

Anyway, the rest of the journey was quite quiet and I spent most of my time reading, sleeping, eating, daydreaming, doing Sudoko or making preparations to eat and sleep. Simple tasks took on monumental importance and minor decisions were weighed up with every pro and con considered. It sounds dull, but it was a great trip and really exciting to be crossing an entire continent by train.

We had a bunch of Mongolian traders on our train who had loads of junk that they tried to sell at some of the stations along the route. It were fantastic to watch as these crazy traders dashed off the train with some of the most awful clothes you could imagine and tried to force them onto the people that had come to the station to buy this junk. Now, I was told that Russia was full of beautiful women but this couldn't have been any further from the truth. Some of the people I saw looked like they'd been attacked repeatedly by the ugly tree rather than falling out of it. I had to applaud just how ugly some of these people were because it must have taken a serious amount of concerted effort. Then to complete the ensemble they bought some of the most incredible clothing - purple velour tracksuits and lime green quilted jackets and such like. I don't know what on earth was going on but I watched with detached, bemused, horrified enjoyment. Put in the context of how little was going on each day, every stop became a little bit of theatre that you prepared yourself for in advance.

And so, before long (seriously - the time went quite quickly) we drew into Moscow where another man was waiting for us (this time without our names on a piece of paper - amateur!) and took Anna and myself off to our hotel while Belinda was taken away by her tour group rep. I'm not sure what became of Susan - I imagine a group of Russian policemen were getting an ear bashing from her and then baton-charged her but I can't be sure.

Our hotel was very nice and I had a very well deserved and very welcome (and not just by me) shower before crashing out after my exhausting few days of sleeping and eating. In all seriousness though, I was really tired and I don't know why. I slept like a log all of the time on the train so I'm putting it down to some strange sort of jet-lag and culture shock. All three of us felt a bit out of sorts in Moscow which meant that our attempts at sight-seeing involved maybe an hour of wandering around and they going for a coffee and food somewhere before going back to the hotel. I didn't really see much of Moscow and the rain and wind was a bit off-putting too - it sounds lazy but I've done so much sight-seeing the last couple of months that I think I was a little jaded. Plus the locals didn't seem to be massively friendly and I personally just wanted to get to Poland.

But it was good to see Moscow - I got lots of pictures, went to see Lenin (who was looking a bit grey and off-colour but not bad for someone who's been dead for 80 years) and it was nice to be back in Europe.

And now, after an overnight journey from Moscow and a slightly early stop where they kicked us all off the train outside the city I'm in Warsaw. I guess this'll be my last blog entry until I get back to the UK (albeit temporarily - I still have another 3 months off work you know?) for my friends wedding so hopefully I'll get to catch up with some of you while I'm back.

And so that's it from me for the time-being. When I'm back in the UK I'll update my Flickr site with some more of my pictures and I might even be able to tell you what I'm planning for the rest of my trip.

Until then - all the best!

Gregor