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Published: August 9th 2011
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Train impressions Chita – Blagoveshchensk was my longest train ride in Russia, 37 hours, 2 nights, 1 day to the Russian Far East . The train ride however was also the most boring one so far, nobody felt like talking; everyone just minded their own business. That gave me time to catch up on some blog writing and for once I actually took pictures of the nature passing by outside the train window 😊
At 7am I got picked up by Natalia at the train station. Natalia is a business woman as so many women in Russia nowadays. She rents apartments in the long-term and lets them in the short-term. Apparently it’s a well-working business in Russia 😊 After a short nap at her apartment, she went to meet some clients for the apartments and I went for a stroll through the city. Blagoveshchensk is right at the border to China – you
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Train impressions swim across the Amur River you’re there. They probably won’t let you on land, but that’s an insignificant detail 😊 The city just across the river is a visa-free zone for Russians, so they can go over to do some shopping. I think it’s funny though that a country is so close to you, but you need a visa to go there… Russians seem to be used to it. Blagoveshchensk as a city seems to benefit from the proximity to China; apparently it brings business and money for the people working and living there. There are also a lot of Chinese coming over to Russia to work.
In the evening, Natalia gathered a couple of local couch surfers at her apartment. Pasha just came back from a trip to southern Russia – he showed us pictures and explained everything in details. The most funny thing for me was his picture of different garbage bins that they apparently have over there – one for glass, one for plastic, … – for him it was something special to take a picture of 😊 Apart from that I felt like the tourist attraction of Blagoveshchensk – the girl from Switzerland who speaks
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Train impressions all the languages everyone wants to talk to 😉 So the next day I met up with Aliki, one of the girls from that evening, to go for a walk through Blagoveshchensk. We talked a mix of English and Russian – she has never travelled to Europe and was extremely interested how everything works ‘’over there’’ and how you can travel to Switzerland. For them it’s really a pain to get a visa to Europe, nothing works without booking a flight and a hotel, so you’re incredibly limited from the start unless you want to spend a fortune. On top, they seem to ask you some sort of proof that you’re earning enough money, which can be difficult for a lot of Russians as they have their own business and no real income statement 😉 I’ve learned from Natalia that on top of the salary you pay to your employees you need to pay an additional 35% to the government as a company. Consequently a lot try to avoid paying those 35%, which results in a lot of people not having the necessary papers… In the evening I had dinner with Aliki and her mom, we talked about money and
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Amur River in Blagoveshchensk saving… it seems like that’s only a Swiss concept, to put money into the bank and save it for later. Aliki’s mom’s comment was: “мы тоже кладым дениги в банку ‘’ – as opposed to the Swiss, who put the money “в банк’’, the Russians put their money into a can 😊
The next day I got another invite for a walk through the city, respectively another girl interested in foreigners and speaking English. Valentina is 18, just finished school and is soon going to China to study business . She told me that her friends are also planning to study somewhere abroad. If possible, the younger generation seems to be willing to turn their back to Russia at an early stage already. From what I have seen, often they speak also much better English than the people now in their 20ties. Talking to her, it had the feeling that Russia has to be careful not to lose all its young talent very soon. Back at Natalia’s in the evening, after her 3rd time asking, I prepared Russian Fondue [Swiss Fondue is what it is
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China across the river thanks to the Swiss cheese, so I decided to call the dish I cooked, Russian Fondue] for her. As for the result – well, let’s put it this way; try to prepare tomato sauce with cucumbers instead of tomatoes 😊 You might be able to get the same consistency but the taste is just completely different! But I guess, little is better than Swiss cheese – one of the few things that I miss from home .
On Friday we left at 9am to catch the bus at 9.10am at the main bus station 10 minutes away by car – Natalia in her element! We went to some tiny village outside a village about 200km away to relax at a small lake and to visit a ‘wood factory’ – not sure that’s how you call it. They turn tree trunks into beautiful furniture and houses. The inhabitants of this hamlet all belong to one family – they built it up themselves 20 years ago when their family was sent there. Ilija is the head of the wood factory – he
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At the Amur in the evening showed us around the hamlet and the factory. His dad gave us a place to sleep next to a small lake and a café that he has built himself. He’s a funny guy who seems to love his life in Russia. When we discussed the difference between Russia and Switzerland he commented: ‘’the longer we talk, the happier I am to live in Russia’’ – what he was referring to are all the rules and regulations in Switzerland, it would be too strict for him, he loves Russia with all its difficulties and hurdles to take.
On Saturday it was time to catch the train to Khabarovsk – Aliki brought me to the train station, we were talking in English about all kinds of different things on the way there. One funny comment stuck to my mind though. I was trying to explain something in simple English for Aliki to understand, she didn’t grasp it so she said “Don’t worry, you can say it in Russian!’’ – In the beginning of the trip it used to be the other way round 😉
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