The diary. Trans-Siberian journal, entry 29. Vladimir

30 Nov.

Chicken, rice, tomatoe, smoked salmon – my breakfast. Delicious! There’s no way I would normally eat that much at 8am, or indeed anything for that matter. But I feel a lot more healthy for is. I’m actually trying to delay going out as long as I can for fear of the cold. Colder than yesterday apparently. I really hope it isn’t like this all the time in Moscow – barely three weeks ago it was almost +15oC apparently. Strange to think that tomorrow I will be in Moscow already.

Can’t see how a warmer coat would really help more in this weather as it’s really my face that’s taking a battering here. Had a real high earlier though when I succeeded in getting my watch fixed at this little place near the entrance to the ‘Torgovy Centre’. All it needed was a replacement battery in the end – took about 5 mins of this very friendly skin-head attacking my Seiko with a pair of pliers and a hammer and all is well again (if a little scratched). I agreed to meet a mage of Ivan’s later on tonight called Tanya who works as a English teacher here.

The Crystal Museum was closed unfortunately so opted to go visit the Vladimir history museum where I saw a very famous, very old Andrei Rublev icon called the ‘Holy Virgin of Vladimir’ - Владимирская икона Божией Матери. Actually the best bit of the museum was the children’s not least because it was easier for me to understand the captions. Got some great chat from each of the lovely old dears who worked as the assistants on each exhibition. One was a pre-historic display with lots of mammoth tusks and old bones. The attendant mate me sit down on a rock and try to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together – I didn’t succeed but nor did I mind at all acting like an idiot since there was nobody else in the museum. In another exhibition I was take through a lesson in old Slavonic Script – occasionally being asked questions along the way. I found it really interesting even though I probably understood less than 10%. I think I’ll stick with modern Russian for now before moving on to Old Slavonic.

Well what an interesting evening (I seem to be using that adjective a bit too much I find – both in English and in Russian. Oh well, it was interesting). I went to meet Tatyana – a friend of Ivan’s who was keen to meet me. Based on our brief phone conversation I was expecting someone about 30 years young but no worries. She certainly had a lot more to say than the last Russian I met who wanted to practice English (back in Nizhny Novgorod). She invited me to her flat where we shared an ice-cold bottle of red wine in her kitchen. She lived alone in a 3 bedroom flat she had previously share with her father and sister. She was a very open person and her stories were quite poignant in many places. We spoke about many things. Some of her views were a bit wacky. Such as the one about how Russian is Helium and Arabic is Hydrogen and all the other languages are chemical elements too which derive from these two sources… or something. There were many other pseudo intellectual and philosophical exchanges between us – most of which went over my head. She was very friendly and offered for me to stay with her next time I was passing through Vladimir. She said that Russians like to revel in a gloomy inferiority complex which has existed since the age of Peter the Great. Thought for the day from Tanya: Americans are peaches – soft on the outside hard on the inside. Russians are coconuts – hard on the outside soft on the inside. Ok.