Trans-siberian flamingo

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Monday, July 9 2007

48 hours of survival

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....

Wednesday, July 4 2007

CE in Ekaterinburg

2007-07-02...04

Hi all!,

We arrive safely to Eka, not without sweatting it, literally. 30 hours in a train full of people in very little space. Hopefully we had some good experiences there, like the guy who was alone and Baris talk to, and then he was with us almost all the time, and even played the guitar with us, or like Natasha, a pianist russian girl whom I met and talk all the night and taught me some russian sentences :P).

The good thing was the reception... LBG Ekaterinburg was waiting for us with a cartel saying "Bullshit" and with Champagne!!! Incredible!! Thanks a lot!!!

And once here guess... yes!!! More vodka!! (Of course, after a good cold shower after the train :P) in a party at Doctor's house (bffff, what a house!!!) and then go to sleep.

Next day city rally and meeting Natasha to say good bye. Maybe I will see her again, who knows. During the city rally some "stupid/funny" activities were done (as always in BEST :D). Including some race with eggs, lollipop-condom exchange, dances in front of buildings... etc, and of course flamingo photos!! :P

Lollipop - Condom Exchange... or something else? :P

BTW, this time some other "photographers" were with me (the reason I usually don't appear in the photos of the blog... is I'm taking the photo :P). We join together the whole family of a Canon series: 300D (me), 350D (Natasha), 400D (Yuri). We will see the results... ;-)

In the afternoon, appart of a boring museum where the organizers had never been :P we drank like in a botellon near the river with beer and then looking for a club where to go out. "El Dorado" was finally the place where to go out... and was a little crappy, mainly for the music and the people (most of them with sun glasses!!! O_O), but with some nice girls :P BTW, we have concluded that russians boys are too lazy to dance with their girlfriends. So you can see several girls dancing alone... but with boyfriend near them getting drunk :S Poor girls...

Today was Zoo!!! And incredible (maybe not too much after the weather in Moscow and St Petersburg), after all these days being too hot, this morning it rain a lot :S But then of course, the weather become good and hot again. Nice zoo with a lot of animals (photos coming), like siberian tiger, or hipo :P Sadly... not flamingos at all :S Just some similar birds, and even parrots... including one like Pirulo! (The parrot I used to have at my home). We went afterwards to the highest building in Eka (at the moment... and until they finish other building which will double this one :P).

Siberian Tiger

Tanya meets "hipo"!!!

Like my parrot Pirulo!

In the afternoon some sports. Yes! We don't just drink and drink alcohol... we are healthy young people! :D So, some voleyball and everyone was tired :P Actually it was quite good and relaxing :) Now the shower is waiting for me, and then... another club, more like talking (and drinking, of course! :P).

I promise to put some more photos of these days. :)