Some updates from the cultural exchange !

Yesterday we came back from the most remote place in Russia (almost) : Doctor's parents house in the countryside. Not the countryside as we know it, but let's imagine : first, three hours of train away from Eka to reach a city covered by pink smoke from the metallurgical plants, eating radioactive (but cheap) pizza waiting for the rain to stop. Then, hire a minivan to carry us to the Europe-Asia border.Europe side of the border

Asian side of the border

Turn right, on a very scary road full of holes. At one moment, the driver cannot go further because there is too much mud, so we get out and walk 8 kilometers to the place, with crazy mosquitoes attacking, the rain, and a destroyed bridge to cross.Scary bridge to cross...

Then we arrived to Doctor's datch in the middle of nowhere: Simply perfect! Except for the mosquitoes... Full of them eating all of us (well, mainly to Nicolas... french blood seems to be like french wine :P).

But some Bania (like sauna) plus cold river helped us to forget the mosquitoes... or maybe it was the vodka :P You can ask Stefano or Baris about it and how they felt the next morning... :P Consequences of driniking too much vodka... Emilie was a little socked at the begining due to the mosquitoes, but slowly she adapted to the situation and began to drink a lot of vodka as well :)

A special mention to Doctor's Mom, who became our Mom during the weekend and prepare a lot of good food for us :D

Another mention to the... Naked team!!! Formed by Sasha (alias terminator or porn star :P), Stefano, Baris and Natasha. Tanya was there taking the pictures....Naked Team!!!

Then come back to civilization thanks to a driver and his militar truck, which carried us through all the forest full of mosquitoes avoiding all the mud In exchange we promised him to make him famoues in internet thanks to our blog :D... Track driver and us more parties to stay the last days with all the people, including Natasha (the pianist), whom Jesus met.

There are some more things... but rigth now I have a lot of memory blanks... mainly due to the vodka and the hurry to take the train to go to Irkustk. Another 50hours in a train until we get there :S Let's hope it won't be so hot as the other one. We will also to get the Mongolian visa there, but we arrive on a friday evening, so we'll have to wait until monday for the consulate... :S I hope we will have time to go to Baikal as well and do everything we wanted (mainly in China... and have time to get to Hong Kong on time!!! :P).

See you from Irkustk!! (with 7 hours of difference with most of Europe: GMT+8).

P.S.: Maybe we will meet there the finish people we met in Lenin Hostel, the Vostoknauts!! ;)

P.S.1: Nicolas began this post on 9th, but me, Jesus, has finish it on 11th, and Tanya K. finished to upload the pictures on 12th at night - the last survivor in Ekaterinburg, drinking a beer alone (all the friends have to work tomorrow, to late for them to stay awake) and terribly missing everybody....