Friday, August 15, 2008

Privyet....

Long time... no blog! But for once I do have excuses that I can give you all. About three weeks ago I had a work conference in Houston for 6 days. I can tell you, in my opinion, Houston has little to recommend itself. Unless of course you are a fan of sweltering heat. Foolishly, I did a fun run at the conference, which started at around 6:30am. Yes, AM. But by 7am, the steam in the air was somewhat like a well functioning sauna. My run was less than stellar, but getting up at sparrow fart and running in heat, deserves some sort of allowances. As a geek, at a Physics conference, in Houston, of course I went out to NASA. Bite me. But if it helps, I followed it up with some more shopping. True to form, I came home with twice as many shoes as I left with. In my defence, one pair is for Subtle....

I was home for a few days. Just enough time to "catch up" with Subtle (is that a covert way of saying, shagged like minks??) and wash my clothes before I left off another trip. But this time it is to Russia. I have been planning this trip since December last year. Well before Subtle was even a blip on my radar. But true to form, plan a holiday... get a boyfriend. Handy thing is, it is something to annoy my travel partner with for the next seven weeks. Yes, SEVEN weeks. About the same length of time that Subtle and I have been together. *sigh*

So, my trip to Russia started a week or so ago, with flying into Vladivostok, and then getting on the Trans-Siberian Railway. For those of you who have visions that this is some sort of luxury rail line... please let me dispel those myths now. Like most Eastern European trains, the quality and hygiene is questionable, and conditions are spartan. But, go me for my ability to slum with the best. Same clothes for days, no makeup, heavy drinking every night and lots of local foods to punctuate my day.

We stopped in Irkutsk, with a side trip to Listvyanka which is on the shore of Lake Baikal. The Lake is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world and has about 20% of the world's freshwater. Unfortunately, statistics like this do not extend to the state of the town. No matter, lucky we don't complain. Except when we returned to Irkutsk where we were booked into a hotel with a double bed. For two single straight women. Bozhe Moi! Especially when we made it clear to our (useless) Travel Agent that we wanted twin beds everywhere. And then, the hotel gave me food poisoning from my dinner.

So here I sit in their "Business Centre" using the internet, trying to suppress further urges to vomit, like I had been all night, before I am about to get on the train again for three nights and four days. I am not sure if I need to drink more Vodka to cure this or just keep avoiding it?

It goes without saying that I miss Isabella and Subtle - although it is amazing how much phone coverage one can get in Siberia.....

Next stop Moscow!

2 comments:

Mr Subtle said...

Good to see the things to miss are in "order".

And while that 1 pair of shoes was quite large, there is no way you can blame the excess baggage charge on them!

Is that how minks shag? Perhaps I need to watch a few mink documentaries?? ;)

kiki said...

that is the trip i want to do so bad!

tell me all about it when you get back?
have fun!