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Published: August 4th 2006
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I found my hostel with not much trouble. This was only the second time I had stayed in a hostel on this trip, and the first time in a hostel with other travelers. Youth hostels are a fairly new phenomenon in Moscow, and there are still only a handful of them in this huge city. So finding a hostel with vacancy is difficult. I arrived at this place called Godzillas Hostel, and they were full. But after some discussion they said that I could sleep on a foldout chair in the kitchen for ten bucks if I didn’t mind the discomfort. I said OK, and in fact I was happy to be getting such a great deal. A chair was much better than the floor, which is what I had slept on more than a few times on this trip. Sadly, there was cancellation later that evening and they were forced to give me a bed, and charge me a whopping 25 dollars.
Youth Hostels are interesting places; in one evening I met more travelers than I had on the whole of the previous 1½ months of travelling. Many of these travelers had been on the road for much longer
than I had. But staying at this hostel for two nights made me realize how possible it would be to travel the world for months and return home having seen more hostels than cities, met more other travelers than actual people from the countries which you visit. I did notice quite a few individuals that, in the two days I was there, did not leave the hostel for more than one or two hours (or atleast were there whenever I returned). Or maybe they would stay in the hostel most of the day, then go out at night, then sleep in and do the same the next night. My first evening in Moscow I didn’t even leave the hostel, I stayed there all evening hanging out with other travelers, sharing stories, talking about the various countries we had visited in broad and generalizing stereotypes, talking about our native countries often using those same broad and generalizing stereotypes.
The following day I spent roaming the city with Henrique, a guy from Portugal I befriended in the hostel. As with most of my encounters with people on this trip, I failed to capture a single photo of Henrique. Anyhow, we walked
the city for about 8 hours that day, seeing many sights and a couple of the major museums in the Red Square. I forget the name of these museums. I saw one of the tallest human beings I have ever seen in my life (picture included), he was a tourist just like the rest of us, just seeing the sights. He was atleast two feet taller than me. I am serious. And he was like a celebrity—people were coming up asking for his autograph (notice the crowd around him in the photo). He seemed to take it in stride, but still I can’t imagine what one goes through being that huge.
That evening we ran into an Australian couple that Henrique had had chance encounters with twice already during his travels through Asia. They met in Beijing, and then met again in Mongolia somewhere. This, I think, is more common than one would expect, especially for those traveling through Asia and Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Darren and Meg were on their honeymoon. They were the most delightful couple; they were on their way from Australia to the UK, where they would be visiting family and then settling in
London for the new jobs that awaited them in the fall.
Darren took it upon himself to teach me Australian slang. Did you know what name Australians have for Americans? Seppos. Yep, Seppos. And here is how Darren explained it to me. Australians, Darren says, create a new slang word by taking the original version of the word, then finding another word that means the same thing, then finding a word that sounds like/rhymes with that word, thinking of a way to shorten that word to arrive at the slang word. Seppos, for example: What is a word used to describe Americans? It took me a while, but I finally came to the word ‘Yanks.’ And what rhymes with ‘yanks?’ Septic tank. And from the word Septic, they get Seppo. Seems funny to me.
Darren and Meg introduced Henrique and I to the most beautiful grocery store I have ever seen (see photo).
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