I definitely underestimate the country that I live in most of the time. Living in the flat, Siberian cold, capital city, I often forget that the entire country doesnt look like new construction, dirt, snow and slush, and a lack of trees or anything green! Yesterday, I had the chance to break out of this place for a few hours, 18 hours to be exact, with two of my teammates. Jon, who is quite an adventuresome guy, decided that we all needed to go skiing in "Little Switzerland" for a day. He knew that they had a place to ski in this city, and he also knew that we needed to buy tickets for the train.... That was about all the information that he had! But he is a convincing guy, and soon Phil and I had agreed to join him on this little day of alpine fun.
Our train left at 6:45, so that meant a 6:00 departure time for us. Unfortunately, none of us are morning people, so my wake-up call from the guys that came at 5:55 didnt leave me much time to put myself together. Luckily I remembered my passport, something I dont always do. The taxi driver I had hired was actually on time, so by 6:10 we were on our way! The train, which is quickly becoming my favorite mode of transportation, took 3 hours. I'm not sure what I expected when I got off, but I should have been prepared for a little chaos outside the train station. See, we really didnt have any idea what we were doing, nor did we have an idea how to get where we wanted to go. After a bit of haggling, we got a Russian guy named Sasha to drive us to his favorite cafe in town. Well, guess what, cafes arent open at 10:00 in the morning, so we were stuck with this strange little Russian guy in his Volkswagen. Our communication was very poor, partly due to the fact that our Russian isnt super wonderful and partly due to the fact that he wasnt really listening to what we wanted to do, and after a bit of driving around unnecessarily, we arrive at a hotel. He has decided that we must get a room; no amount of talking can convince him that we dont want a room... So we pay him and go in the hotel... We just dont need a room though! The highlight of that car ride was that Queen's We Will Rock You came on, and he obliged us by blaring that song as Jon played the drums on the dashboard and I laughed hysterically in the back!
While at the hotel, we find out what we had started to expect- that you couldnt ski in the place we were. Luckily, the ski area was just 40 or so kilometers away. So we get another taxi and start the drive up the "mountain". Now, remember that few things here actually are beautiful. Mostly I look at old Soviet things and new, modern, weird things. This place was beautiful. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip... It really gets good when we get to the "ski lift"!!
Our train left at 6:45, so that meant a 6:00 departure time for us. Unfortunately, none of us are morning people, so my wake-up call from the guys that came at 5:55 didnt leave me much time to put myself together. Luckily I remembered my passport, something I dont always do. The taxi driver I had hired was actually on time, so by 6:10 we were on our way! The train, which is quickly becoming my favorite mode of transportation, took 3 hours. I'm not sure what I expected when I got off, but I should have been prepared for a little chaos outside the train station. See, we really didnt have any idea what we were doing, nor did we have an idea how to get where we wanted to go. After a bit of haggling, we got a Russian guy named Sasha to drive us to his favorite cafe in town. Well, guess what, cafes arent open at 10:00 in the morning, so we were stuck with this strange little Russian guy in his Volkswagen. Our communication was very poor, partly due to the fact that our Russian isnt super wonderful and partly due to the fact that he wasnt really listening to what we wanted to do, and after a bit of driving around unnecessarily, we arrive at a hotel. He has decided that we must get a room; no amount of talking can convince him that we dont want a room... So we pay him and go in the hotel... We just dont need a room though! The highlight of that car ride was that Queen's We Will Rock You came on, and he obliged us by blaring that song as Jon played the drums on the dashboard and I laughed hysterically in the back!
While at the hotel, we find out what we had started to expect- that you couldnt ski in the place we were. Luckily, the ski area was just 40 or so kilometers away. So we get another taxi and start the drive up the "mountain". Now, remember that few things here actually are beautiful. Mostly I look at old Soviet things and new, modern, weird things. This place was beautiful. Stay tuned for the rest of our trip... It really gets good when we get to the "ski lift"!!
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