Trip 2, Day 16: 3 Cities, 2 Trains, and no luggage

Our last day in St. Petersburg started very early thanks to thunderstorms during the night. We had the windows open, due to the heat and humidity the night before. The pounding rain rattled off the tin roofs of the surrounding buildings, and the thunder boomed through the courtyard. As the morning came, the sun came out. It was much cooler than it had been the past few days, finally approaching a comfortable heat and humidity level. Our train did not leave St. Petersburg until 1pm, so we were able to have a leisurely breakfast, and read while waiting for our transportation.

During our two trips, we each spent a lot of time reading. Kathy mostly stuck with her favorite genre, TRN (Trashy Romance Novels). She also used "Eat, Pray, Love" as a sleeping aid. Alan decided to spread his choices across a few genres. He read books 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. He also read two Dan Brown novels, two Steve Berry books, and the first two Stieg Larsson "The Girl" books. Lots of free time meant lots of reading.

Once our driver arrived, we made our way to the train station. We were happy to board the train, and head back to Moscow. Our second trip on the "fast train" was fairly sedate; we knew that we were going to have a hectic 90 minutes in Moscow before we left for Kirov, so we rested.

Around 5pm, we arrived in Moscow. As we got off the train, we quickly realized that the rain and cooler temperatures had NOT made it to Moscow. It was nearly 100 degrees as we exited the train. Our mountain of bags trailed us out of the train berth, through the train station, down a flight of stairs (NOT FUN), out to the sidewalk, and then 1/4 mile to the coffee shop on the opposite side of the station. That was where we would be meeting our coordinator, his son, and the two other couples we had made our 2nd trip with. We were nervous making our way over, as we knew that the other train was scheduled to leave by 7pm, and our coordinator had our tickets.

When we arrived at the coffee shop, we discovered two things. First: We were the first to arrive. Good news! Second: There was no place for us to sit downstairs. Bad news. The idea of lugging our bags up a narrow flight of stairs to a smoking room (for 10 minutes) was not appealing, so Alan volunteered to stay outside with the bags. Soon, the German couple arrived with our coordinator's son Ilya. They relayed some bad news: The Irish couple's luggage had not arrived in Moscow, so they would not have any supplies for the next 3 days!

A few minutes later, they arrived. Sure enough, they had made their transfer in Hamburg, but their luggage did not. They now faced a 12 hour train ride on a very hot and humid train without a change of clothes. As we made our way to the rail car, all of the families loaded up on water, snacks, and soda. With the heat beating down on us, I believe we each bought 2-3 liters of liquid per person.

After settling in our rooms, we looked for offerings we could make to our Irish friends. Alan lent a pair of shorts, Kathy lent some of her shirts. The German couple also found some clothing they could lend, so no one would get too overheated. We visited for a short time, talking about all of the adventures that we had encountered in the nine days since we had separated. Their experiences were much different from ours, as each of them had been able to return home, and even work for a few days.

The ride to Kirov that night was surreal. The heat inside the train was oppressive; the first two hours of travel felt like riding in a sauna. Outside of our train, the sky was streaked with many unnatural colors. This was caused by the setting sun, and the fires moving through the countryside. In addition, we swore that our train took a different path from our previous trips. In each of the 4 previous rides, there was a large town that we stopped in about 2 hours outside of Moscow. On this trip, the large town appeared much later, and was not laid out anything like the other. In addition, at one point we passed a very high, long bridge that crossed a river. The bridge was strung with red, blue, and white lights along it's entire length.

In the morning, we quickly gave ourselves baby wipe showers (not particularly effective or fun) and made our way to the Kirov hotel for the last time. With all of the tension of traveling and court complete, there was a lot of joking going on in the van. Our coordinator Andre (who did not speak or understand much English) was howling with laughter after Alan acted out a joke about Andre's wife only being happy to see him until after he gave her everything in his wallet.

At the hotel, we learned that there would be 4 more families arriving in Kirov the next morning. They would be coming in for their 2nd trip. It was very odd to finally be the veteran families, who knew what to expect, and where to go.

Next up: Paperwork, Passports, and Gotcha Day