On my way Jackie, my host texted me how to get to Xiahe village where the accommodation was located. Because it sounded easy and my train was quite early, I had no reason to panic. On the other hand as I got off in Xiamen, even the distance wasn't enormous towards south, "just" 814km, the heat quickly pushed me over my comfort limits, and I took some time off to sit down by the nearest steps.

I barely just lighted a fag when some girl approached me. First she tried to sell me a SIM card, but after I google translated her that I already have one from the same company she represents, she just stuck around to talk. Just because I have never seen anyone in China to do so and she was cool I wanted to increase the "foreign experience", and I gave her hug leaving her somewhat astonished before I went to find my bus. Outside of the train station there were palm trees. It was a bit surprising because I have never made any research about the climate of the city and I expected it to be less tropical.

Maybe because the city is built on multiple little islands or for other reasons but subway isn't really a thing in Xiamen, BRT was the name of the game however. It is a bus service that has it's own roads - usually on bridges above the city - separated from the traffic.

BRT had it's own security gate. The security picked a lady just front of me and they wanted her to leave her deodorant behind as it isn't allowed to carry on the bus. She wasn't gonna waste it so sprayed the whole thing on herself. Probably half Xiamen was coughing. They also stopped me. Since that instance I know how it works; if I have any drink I have to drink front of the security and I'm good to go. But back than I didn't know so I just kept saying it's okey no worries waving with my hand. And at some point they gave up on the language barriers and I just had my drinks on the bus.

BRT dropped me off about 3,5km from the accomodation. On my way I picked up some watermelon and just walked it.

For £120/months I didn't really expect anything luxurious, but I still got stunned by the way of living in Xiahe village. I don't think that any of the buildings have ever had a construction permit or any sort of approval. A chicken crossing a road or a man hitting some metal with hammer on an anvil by the roadside was quite normal. Most building's ground floors were small shops or Chinese fast food restaurants. And there were always people just hanging out in the street. The streets were more crowded than in Europe, but the flow was significantly slower. Xiahe village didn't have categorised streets it was the whole living area and by some order every building just had a number. 340 was after 339 so there was some sort of order but it was still not 100% predictable.

In China strong passwords aren't really a thing. Locker codes or WiFi passwords are often just "1111" or "1234". They are mostly just functioning as a sign that shows it is someone's property so leave it alone. It wasn't different in my case either. While I was waiting for my host just discovered that front of my room's window there was a temple. It also had an open air theatre and cinema. Mostly families from the village were socializing there. (When I say village I mean Xiahe village it was still surrounded by the rest of the city.)

During the first few days I didn't fully understand the functional diversity of Xiahe village, and I was naive enough to think that I can manage to use the mall's sitting toilet for 25 days. So I spent most of my time around the mall. It had one fully children stair and at the bottom stair there were always some event for children. There was a roller skate competition. Some hip-hop dance event. The next day some children show. English and music school for children and all sort of things. China really invests into children. A quick fun fact that Chinese parents spend the same percentage of their incomes on children's out of school education (private teachers etc.) as Americans spend on new cars.

After a few days I couldn't avoid the encounter with the "traditional Chinese bathroom" and find some place in the village where fried chiken and burgers were served, so the mall lost it's magic and I stuck in my room a bit.

For that time I had also realized that I have no real chance to find any relatives in Xiamen. So I just redirected myself to experience the city and locals. And through the Airbnb app texted Jackie if he wanna have a drink or maybe a dinner. He shown up in a few minutes and took me to a close restaurant where he introduced me to a friend and we had a proper Chinese BBQ on sticks.

Because I had my fair share of struggling to pronounce and remember Chinese names and also remembered that my mom used to give European names to Chinese people I initiated an agreement if I could just call Jackie's friend Nick (seemly he liked his English name). After the dinner they rented a bike for me and we went to the beach where we had some Chinese ice lolly made of water and sugar and I also tried a game. The main objective of the game was quite simple; handwrite numbers from 1-400. The price was a bracelet that I had to pay for cus I fucked it up around 143.

Two days later Jackie invited me for a breakfast. After he shown me that breakfast place - what was a street market - I kept going back every morning having the same stuff. I really liked it. It was vegetables in pasta made of the same stuff as rice noodles.

At the same weekend Jackie had new tenants who during the summer were working for the same company what he co-owned. And other work related friends were visiting so it became quite crowded and busy. Phone rings, it was Jackie:

 - We are here.

As I got down Jackie, a guy and a girl was getting rid of their rented bike - In China renting a bike is dirt cheap. It's one yuan/hour(11p). - We started to walk towards the "meeting point". The girl already had an English name, Jennifer so on the way we only had to find a name to the guy. I called him Charlie and later when he saw my notebook he started to call me Ben Zou or something like that what means notes.

Charlie and Jackie were childhood friends and were living in the same building. Many times I thought they were fighting, but then Charlie always put his hand on Jackie's shoulder like he was explaining the misunderstanding and they both bursted out laughing.

Our way to the restaurant lead through the narrow alleyways of Xiahe village. At that point I think Jennifer had the best English of the three so I mostly talked to her. As we arrived to the restaurant Jackie's new tenants were already in the restaurant. Tom was implying every new things he learnt probably he was the first start swearing. Luois on the other hand was the type of introvert everyone in Europe wants to be. 

It was a traditional Chinese dinner. Big round table - it means equality between the people sitting around it - with a smaller round in the middle and it was rotating. Everyone had rice and at the middle everything else was shared. If one dish was too far we just turned the smaller table. Not much later an other girl joined us. She had already had an English name too, Chelsea. She was mostly chewing her own snails brought in a plastic takeaway box. After we ate we played some dice game. When someone lost they had to drink 50 ml beer. We played a lot so we got quite pissed. Especially Charlie who took many risks to make others lose and drank even when he won. I also underestimated the effect of 50ml beer so played similar to Charlie and because Jennifer sat next to Charlie and I next to her then Jackie, the game often stuck between us and we drank multiple bottle of beers before Chelsea, Tom and Louis could take part. The dices were in some sealed cups, but after we accidentally opened one I taught Jennifer and Jackie how to play bash. I think Jennifer was a little bit competitive, so everytime when someone else lost a point she went crazy. Was a funny night, enjoyed it a lot, "chill and play".

Unfortunately the next day I got sick so I spent the next 12 hours cursing NHS and the fucking administration bullshit, why they denied my typhus and hepatitis vaccination just because I had no idea where my last GP was. When someone is healthy all the time it is easy to over react. I didn't have typhus but I only got better for the time when the girl's left (two days later). After that incident I got more confident with the local food - what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. I thought if I can get away with only one day upset stomach it is still worth it.

The next event was with Charlie, Louis, Tom and Jackie on the rooftop of their building. Having a few beers talking about east, west, sports, girls, future and computer games. Proper boyhood feeling just like when I was ten before we moved to a village from Budapest.

We also went to an internet coffee to play League of Legends, where even it wasn't allowed Charlie was smoking like a chimney. It was an other example of people mindig their own business. The place was well ventilated and he was the only one smoking so it didn't really bothered anyone. With no snatches and self-designated law enforcement officers; I dare to say that people have more freedom under a so called communist dictatorship in China than people in the "democratic west". A country can have the best government(that western countries obviously doesn't have) but if live and let to live isn't practiced that place sucks.

Only ten days were left of my stay in China. As none of us had kitchen and restaurants were quite affordable we had most of the dinners together with the guys. Usually just went to the place at the same time and they shown up. Played LoL once again.

Jackie also took a day off to take me to see the world's 14th longest cable bridge in Xiamen and an other campus of Xiamen University. He originally wanted to take only a half day off but it took more than that and for that time he already learned the more expressive part of English so when I asked if it's not a problem to his boss, he just said "fuck the boss".

For the last weekend the guys left. So only with Jackie we visited Jennifer in Fuzhou. For that time Jackie's English caught up and he translated if it was needed. Jennifer brought her best friend, who was the first person ever negotiated her English name. After 3 names she was happy with 'Serena' and wanted to take a picture with me. She wasn't much taller than my waist. We four went to visit some tourist place where we had some really weird Chinese milk tea, than green tea and finally I found a post office where I could send some postcards from. In China even that works different. Stamps are not sticky but have to be glued. I had a good time there, but also felt a bit uncomfortable, because after our Xiahe village the places where the girls took us were a bit too fancy. I wanted to get back a bit earlier as we planned, but wasn't gonna take Jackie as he seemly had better time in Fuzhou than me, but he came back and even convinced me like it was better to him too.

After Fuzhou we went to an electronic market where we still couldn't find a Xiaomi action camera, but negotiated the price of a used GoPro 5. It is still working so was kinda purchase of my life. It was calculated. However in Fuzhou none of us were too gentle to our wallets so I didn't have a hard time to convince Jackie to cycle back from the BRT station instead of taking a taxi. We went to our local everyday restaurant. Where I had some surprise as Tom and Louis came back to town.(I thought they weren't gonna come back). Not much later Charlie also shown up. Xiahe village and their presence were really comforting and I was just about to leave again... Somewhat later we had an other last dinner and we went to the sea. The next day all four of the guys took me to the airport.

I don't know why I bought into Cebu Pacific bs and shown up 4 hours early, but I did, so Louis and Tom had to take the rented car back earlier and only Charlie and Jackie stayed for a longer goodbye. It felt like leaving Budapest for the village.

I have to mention at this point that the hostel in Shanghai was quite cool about practicalities and about their own policies. And they didn't have a single word when I arrived at half midnight instead of eight o'clock. But other than that the customer service was really shit, the hostel was dirty and didn't have any windows.

Next day I woke up around 15:00. I was more or less rested. My first thing was to find a shop and by some shower gel. I packed three mini ones in England but for the boarding of the transsiberian I lost all three.

I remember when we had a drug prevention talk in high school. The guy told us that heroin is like a constant orgasm diffused to the whole body. It wasn't the main thing that kept me away from it, but the expression stuck in my head and now I can use it to describe what I felt when I took a shower after 8 days, it was happening on the surface of my skin. On the train I "kinda" cleaned myself but it was only a tap.

I could sing while I was taking that shower it was so good, but wasn't gonna disturb my roommates. They didn't have such a concerns... They were singing all. I mean meowing is a better word for the sounds they made. I was really regretting not to sing. I tried to talk to them, but they hardly ever talked back. They had a "thank you very much, but I'm alright talking to humans in the upcoming weeks" attitude. They spent most of the day in the dark room and did stuff on their phones. Seemly they were just killing time.

I was still not ready for China so on first day I just got to the other side of the road to get some water and Oreos.

Second day:
I woke up around 10 , but because of the lack of natural light I felt like it was still night and I didn't want to make any noise, so I somehow wasted the first two hours of my day till midday. After that I went out for a walk just for wandering and absorbing the city. I took a few photos, but they aren't even close to give the feeling back. It isn't just that it was dirty. It actually wasn't that dirty, but the bad smells, the heat and frowstiness created a different benchmark for the streets.

An other benchmark of the streets were the traffic. It was amazing how efficient it can be when people approach it in a rational way, it wasn't the war of egos. Most of the vehicles were electric mopeds and bicycles,few cars, and few homemade uncategorizable somethings. People were constantly looking for gaps where they could get through. Traffic rules even for cars are more like just guide lines. Cars mostly just slow down by redlights. And people didn't care about eachother. They were like "do you know what is even more of a time waste than taking that stupid manoeuvre? Stopping and arguing about it." It was all about efficiency to the extremes. Couples didn't even walk hand in hand next to each other but in lines. I mean they did on the Huangpu river walk, but it is almost a designated hand in hand walking area.
After I had enough enjoyment in the traffic, I picked up some more Oreos and headed back to the hostel. On my way to my room in the hall, I heard two girls talking in Spanish.

- habla ingles? - I asked.
They did.
Bea was from Barcelona and Anna was from Madrid. They were traveling around China with trains. They were against the Idea of going to a Zoo in Chengdu to see a panda, because it is too touristy. But other than that their route were including mostly the major tourist attractions in China. They looked less culture shocked than I was but when I asked them what they usually eat in China, they said mango and banana mainly, and they also tried some dumplings, but they weren't taking more risks either. They were just about to leave for their train. So after I unwillingly confused them about their train station we cut the conversation short.

The same night I left the hostel to find the dumpling place the girls were talking about. I set down by the hall of the hostel and ate my dumplings. They had some minced meat inside, probably not cooked enough and when I bite them liquid was running out. It wouldn't be a pleasant experience by its own, but while I was eating I started to feel something ticklish on my feet. Looked down and it was a Chinese cockroach, size of a smaller rat. I tried to shake it off but the fucker bit me and I couldn't even have my revenge, it run away. My feet turned red and had a little swelling. At that moment, I really hated China. Went back in my room and started to browse Kiwi.com with my aching feet.
It was a hard one. I had non refundable tickets booked already, but I really thought that the negativities outweight the good stuff of China. I have seen it's technology, a cable bridge and experienced the traffic, but I didn't like the unfriendly people, the thick air, the food and the wildlife either (cockroaches).

My planning was interrupted by newcomers. We had two new roommates. They were from the Czech. Andrew and David were traveling with a 15 member group. (they had Czech names, but as experienced travellers they introduced themselves by their English versions). They came to China to perform some folklore dance. Even our conversation was really short it was nice to have a little back from what I know as civilization. That was everything I found out about them because they had to perform the next day, and went sleep early.

On the third day I got up at nine and wasted only about an hour before I decided to go out. For the costs of hard research I found a Xiaomi store in China. Xiaomi produces probably the best value/price electronics. So I wanted to buy an action camera.

Walking towards the store I've been caught in some light showers. I kept walking repeating to myself "it isn't a rain in England, it isn't a rain in England", but after a few minutes it turned to be something that even in the heart of England AKA Chester would be considered as a rain.

In China there's a convenient store at every corner and they have all sorts of products. I just realized the concept of small European Chinese shops. These shops are usually very stuffed with loads of products what noone would ever intentionally go in for. But when the stars meet in that certain angle and someone falls in the shop and asks btw don't you have this or that or umbrellas, they never say no.

I didn't have an umbrella for probably more than 10 years when we got one for free as a promotional gift from a construction of water purifier that we visited with the dorm. And I didn't have such a small umbrella since I was about 6. But it did the job so I kept marching towards the Xiaomi store.

As a result they didn't have the action camera, I still had the urge to do something useful. I decided to go to the train station and buy my ticket to Xiamen. The problem with these impulsive decisions is the lack of preparation. I didn't have my passport. I just realized this when I wanted to get through the identity check.
I wanted to give my ID card a try. For some reason in China plastic is more trusted than traditional things, in this case a paper passport, and they haven't even read it's back or anything they were like "you have a plastic card, you must be okay". After that I could purchase my train ticket only by showing a picture of my passport. They put my middle name to the place of my surname. I was really concerned about this because when I purchased my ticket from Hongkong to Guangzhou the travel agency stressed it a lot how important it is to put the name in the right order. She just waved about it like nobody cared unless I screwed up the passport number.

On my way back to the hostel I got off from the subway by Yuyuan Garden and just right after the exit a girl stopped me. She looked a few years older.
- you are no from here, I right? - she asked it in English.
- no, I'm not. - answered shortly.
- you look sooo young. - she stepped close pushing her body towards mine and stroked my face with her hand.
- come drink with me. - she continued.
- life is too short for bs, huh? - I asked.
- yes. What you say? Come! Come!
- My phone's dying and I rely on it too much.

I got back to the main road towards the hostel and start recognising buildings, I knew how to get back from there without navigation. I gave an other try to Chinese. The thing I had is kinda popular in Europe and in animes as well, but I never knew it's name. It was a big bowl of soup with all sort of things with rice noodles. I wouldn't have ordered a big bowl of boiling soup at the middle of summer, but the menu was misguiding and they didn't show the soup part.

Back in the hostel I met the Czech guys again. They didn't just perform in Shanghai. They performed in a Czech bar called Krajanek. They told me that the city has an other Czech bar.
- are you guys secretly colonizing Shanghai? - asked them.
After some jokes about the Czechs are being the Italians of Asia, they gave me some Czech lemonade. I really like drink and smoke when I have fags so I went out with my drink to have one and they said they will join me in a few min.

Outside of the hostel I found other smokers; Maja and Lenka - or as she accidentally introduced herself Emlenka (she was a bit too lazy to say "I am Lenka" and somehow it became Emlenka) - were also with the dancing group and from the Czech. While Maja had the impression like it took her a real effort and overthinking of talking to someone new. Lenka was just effortlessly floating on the conversation, and had a really chill vibe. They both had a clipper lighter.

Not much later other members of the group shown up for their late night cigs. And the conversation divided into small groups. I just realized that it was the first ever time when I heard people speaking Czech. It was really like someone had spoken a Slavic language with Italian accent.

Next day I went to see the market. Whenever I touched something, I instantly got approached:
- you buy this? Yes?! How much you give me?! Fittie? Okey? Twenny fife?
- I'm okay, just looking. - usually answered.
- feeteen? Okey ten? Ten good?
After I succeeded not to buy 50 kgs of shit I don't need, I tried to find out what the pearl tower is about - and I still have no idea. At the end of my wandering I had my first legit Chinese meal with rice and unrecognizable meat.

For the time I got back to the hostel, the Czechs were gone, but I had a new roommate originally from Taiwan. I can't remember his Taiwanese name I mostly called him Sam. He was working in a restaurant in Shanghai and was living in the hostel only because he closed himself out from his apartment and his family with the spare keys were on a holiday for a few more days. He was the first friendly local(ish) I met, but that time I was the one who had to go sleep early, because next morning I was traveling to Xiamen to find my relatives.

After the army had left, I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I started  to pack my stuff preparing for moving out from the train. So did Giorgi who was the only one passenger at that section of the train. He found some sweets left behind by the army and he was nudging to give it to the staff of our wagon. I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea because of the paltry of the sweets but somehow convinced myself that it is about the gesture and Giorgi was right as they really deserved the gratitude for their job. They also did the whole trip with us, the komanda (team) Moscow-Vladovistok. 

- you talk...

- okey. Let's go - the boys often said let's go, one of the few things we had multiple options for as I'd understand it in Russian (davaj), but they learnt it in English as well.

We walked through the nearly empty wagon. Giorgi walked to the staff room to talk. - I thought at least.

He knocked and run back behind me and chuckled.

I started to swear. Not because I was angry, it was just funny taking the piss.

"Keep laughing"

I typed in Google: you girls did a great job, thank you for that.

- Spasibo! - said it while showing the phone. And pushed/handled the sweets to Giorgi to make sure they know it's not an other truth or action task, but we both mean it. He also said something and gave the sweets. I was use to in Europe that people think that being antisocial is equal with being professional. And following a protocol is often more important than getting the job done. Not in Russia tho. On the top of doing a superb job the girls were always cool as the other side of the pillow. We talked a little mentioned the blog and took some group photos.

Accordingt 61seats, I thought that taking this train is the most casual thing to Russians. The website said that after all, the train is the way of transportation in the country, but seemly it was a big thing to other passengers too. Or people were less afraid of being seen engaged with things. Russians don't really act like they were just born to be cool. Like cool things around them were just accidentally happening. People wanted to remember the train, they wanted to have stories to tell and photos to show. And after Giorgi and I took photos with the staff others too had their courage to get a few selfies with "strangers". And everyone just started to take pictures with everyone. It felt really good that people also wanted to remember me.

The amount of buildings outside slowly started to increase and at their peak frequency the train started to slow down. I couldn't believe what is happening. After a few days on the train it felt like a never ending trip like it will be my whole life. Whomever I was traveling with and whatever we were doing inside the train it was always the same outside. And then the train stopped and it was over.

Said goodbye to the staff and remaining few people, walked to a carpark with the kids and they took a taxi.

During the seven days I left the train at least once a day just for walking a few meters or to buy some water, but it felt completely different when I get off in Vladivostok knowing that I won't go back anymore. Before, it felt like I was leashed to the train. But that walk was with no leash for the first time. I was massively experiencing the downside of freedom. When one is free to go anywhere, they need to find their own direction. Was also thinking about this at a larger scale and it made me feel a bit lost in life. But I didn't forget my existential crisis technique ("fuck it...") and being lost in Vladivostok was more concerning than being lost in the universe anyways.

Somehow during my preparation I forget to download the offline map for the city so I didn't have any idea where I was. Eventhough the silhouette of the town was shown on the map, I couldn't see the roads and the navigation was out of order either.

That part of Vladivostok is very steep. So I didn't have to wander too much to find a hill. I climbed the hill and tried to identify the shape of the coast. It wasn't even close to what I saw on the map. However I found something better. The Russky Bridge. It was a lucky turning point. In general I'm really anti architecture, but once when I hung out with my grandfather watching documentaries we saw one about cable bridges. That time the Sutong Bridge in China was the longest, but they mentioned that the Russky Bridge will be longer. I mean the Sutong is still longer, but the longest cable supported span. It wasn't only about saying random numbers leaving us astonished, cable bridges are masterpieces of architecture.

I found out that the Russky Bridge is actually in Vladivostok only a few days before my travel and I got really excited about it what also made me feel like I was the uncool kid, because noone shared my enthusiasm. Nvm! I saw the bridge I knew that it connects the Russky Island and the mainland so I kinda understood where I was, and I knew which direction is North. It was mostly necessary only for my confidence and comfort. For finding the airport I still needed some internet access.

//Hitchhiker's guide to Russia: it is always worth the time and effort to check out the transportation to/from the airports and stations, in the planning phase.

I started to ask places if I could use their WiFi. I had a few impolite rejection, before a comparing to the town fancy looking hotel let me in. I checked the airport. It was further than I thought. Like 53 kilometres... Not really walkable... Downloaded the offline map, posted the Traveller's Patron Saints post and got to a bus. The driver put some music on from Vladivostok FM, I passed out and only woke up by the airport.

In Europe usually I just scan my ticket once and after that just have to send my handbaggage through the security for getting to the gates where the cool shops are. In Vladivostok my ticket was checked at least 4 times by people. And they let me through only an hour before departure. I had an other 14 hours to rethink my life. The conclusion was that I really hate airports...

On the airplane I did probably the most stereotypically Asian thing. Get into an argument with a Chinese guy over mathematics. I mean it was simple currency calculation and I didn't let him get away thinking that he was right when he said that 3 million Chinese yuan is 43 million USD.  (USDCHY=6,5).

He really got butthurt, we stopped talking and only my exhaustion saved me from my most awkward flight ever. - After the arguement I passed out again and only I woke up two hours later in Beijing.

At the airport there were self-serving fingerprint machines where arrivals scanned their passports, it took fingerprints. And then it matched them to the ones taken in London(or wherever). It printed a little paper that says "ok". I didn't get it why is it better than an other gate and qr code on the paper, but these "ok papers" were checked by a normal looking guy, like the ones at the train stations in England who easily let people through showing them the wrong ticket, they just want to see a little piece of orange paper. So all this high-tech stuff and then they put there a human who on his best days can work at a 69% accuracy (not that particular guy, it is just being a human we are horrible at making things right).

I'm not better either. I screwed up my Chinese migration card. That led to my second ever encounter with a Chinese person. She wasn't really in the mood talking to me, even it was her job. She just kept saying "sir please sir". At that point I was really glad I didn't born to be Chinese.

From terminal three there was a proper 15 minutes subway to terminal one.

It was 2AM.

I couldn't connect to WiFi cus I had no Chinese phone number. So I went to the help desk and asked every question I had.

The guy who was working there was surprisingly capable to do his job comparing to my previous Chinese experiences. His answers were quite straightforward yet disappointing:

 - you can buy a Chinese simcard from that shop over there at 6 o'clock. And the bus to Beijing south train station starts operating at 7.

After a few tries I managed to make my giffgaff(English simcard) working and for a small fee I could RECEIVE a text for signing up for the WiFi. I thought that the internet would solve all my problems. But Google was blocked and yahoo search was not working either.

I run out if ideas how I could use tinternet.

I could just buy a ticket back to England and skip the whole China bullshit.

I find a convenience store where I bought a bottle of water and a can of beer. I was ready to setup a one man party, some booze seemed to be a good way of killing time.

I was gonna save the beer for a bit later. Wanted to do something useful and went out to the bus station for a double check. There I talked to an other useful representative of China, but they didn't accept card. The bus ticket office was about 7 feet and 9 inches from the airport. We could still play darts from the airport if the board was on the wall of the ticket office, but on my way back to the airport, the security pulled me over...

I was  a bit oversensitive and just couldn't believe that on the top of the shit I already had I still get that one. Soon enough I realized that they do it for everyone, and felt better. They touched my jacket and backpack with some paper than put the paper in a machine. After 15 sec scanning they let me in. Got back, and tried to find a cash machine. The first one I tried said that I should contact my bank. The next one didn't even have a withdraw option. "Agricultural bank of China..." At that point the only place where I could utilise my money was the convenience store. I bought a pack of cigarettes and went out for a smoke through the same door that I used for the buss ticket office. On my way back I tried to explain to the security that I'm their old buddy who they checked before and I left the airport only for a few meters, but they still scanned me.

Went back in, sat down and "talked" to a Chinese guy who was also trapped in the airport. He was working in Kuwait. We talked a bit more, but the conversation died out quick and I can't remember more about him. After we stopped talking I opened the beer. It was a Tsingtao beer, but not the one I remembered from the UK and Hungary. It was some unfiltered version. I expected it to be even softer than the 4% European version. When I finished that one just realized it was 11%. I had a proper one man party! I decided to explore the airport like I'd explore zoo. After 20 minutes of walk I found a new cash machine that I didn't try before. It was working!

Went out from the busstation once more. They didn't sell tickets yet, it was just an information not a ticket office. After 6 hours with no food and Mr. Tsingtao I wasn't that touched as for the first time. On my way back the security kinda remembered me, but some new girl just started her shift and she was gonna take my samples but I didn't let her. She was really concerned how she will be able to do her job so I give her the corner of my jacket. The booze definitely made me friendlier.

I queued up once more for the helpdesk.

I remembered a little bit of the structure of Chinese, the difference between a sentence and a question is that they put the word 'ma' at the end of the sentence.

Like 'Ni hao' - you good(you alright, hi) and 'Ni hao ma?'(are you good?- How are you?). So neglecting English grammar and just type the words in order makes Google translate's job easier. It works so well in this way that on Airbnb when I texted a host, she only asked after 10 minutes if I'm actually not Chinese(not to mention it took her 10 minutes to answer my text). It is also advised to limit the conversation to yes/no questions so non English speakers can just nod or shook their head and it is already a 50% chance to get the right answers.

 - you know any search engine that is working in China? - asked the help desk (it was an other person than before)

 - no Google in China solly.

 - I know, but what else works?

 - no Google in China, please sil.

I went out for an other smoke...

It was about half five...ish... I went for a Lou and queued up by the simcard shop.

The girl in the shop was a genius. She served 6 people in two minutes. And it wasn't just exchanging cash for simcards. She had to register the passports and do stuff with the phones.

Waited an other 50 minutes and get to the bus station. On my way out the whole security group was smiling. I paid 30 yuan(~£3.2) for the 75 minutes bus trip to Beijing south railway station. I almost instantly fell asleep on the bus. Once at halfway I woke up and noticed that Beijing is even more bike friendly than Copenhagen. There were 2-3 meters wide bike lanes on both sides of the road, and people drove cars like they were riding bikes. I mean they had a head movement like they were watching a table tennis game. Constantly looked both directions for more road awareness. I don't try to debunk the myth about the quality of Chinese drivers. Because they used that awareness also for going through red lights or just violating any conventional traffic rules in any possible way, but it still looked better than those idiots who think that if they do some stupid shit at high speed noone will notice them. Stupid people at slow speed>stupid people at high speed.

I quickly slept back and just woke up by the train station. There I had to send my backpack through a security baggage scanner and I had to walk through a frame. I wasn't gonna spend more £££ than I calculated for the Beijing- Shanghai trip, but there were no second class tickets available in time, so I waited from half eight to 15:50.

Once I left the train station for a smoke. People in Beijing were ridiculously tall. Like Netherlands and Scandinavia tall. It can be the result of the region's historical wealth, comparing to the southern regions. On my way back, the security stopped me. It was my butter knife. I get that knife through in three different train stations and an airport (twice) in Russia and once in the same train station in China, but he stopped me. Arguing is really the kryptonite of the Chinese:

 - sir I really can't let you in with that knife.

 - and what if I say please? - I asked him for more of my own entertainment than for expecting anything from it.

 - I'm afraid not even in that case this is the rule. - he said with a bit of hesitation.

 - so it is because of the rules. Not your personal decision? You just follow the rules?

 - yes.

 - would you let me in if you had the power to make the decision? - asked and smiled.

 - yes it is just a butter knife I know, but the rules.

 - in that case if you won't tell anyone, I won't tell anyone and nobody will know. (Maybe people who read the blog)

He started to laugh, looked at the other security guards then at the security camera:

 - okay just go!

Not leaving the station was not the only risk I wasn't gonna take. As a result I was not ready for the Chinese food yet, I bought two quarters of pizzas from pizza hut. They had plastic pizzas for providing a better understanding what we are ordering. Pizza isn't too common in China so probably it was easier than to create a new vocabulary for the whole thing. After the pizza purchase my train appeared on the screen and the check in had started.

The train was very neat and orderly. The full female train staff didn't just have the same uniform, but they had the same hairstyle and make up. They were like the police officers and nurses in Pokémon. Before the train started there was an instruction video for the train both in Chinese and English. I just understood why they asked for passport when I bought my train ticket. It's been told that every stupid stuff will be taken into record and add to one's travel scores. It is like credit score if one doesn't pay the bills won't get a loan. If someone cannot use the train in a civilized manner won't get a train ticket. Other than that they asked passengers not to let children run on the corridor between the seats and don't use the gypsy speakers, but headsets.

Even the train often reached the 300+km/h the 1318 km trip took about 6 and half hours as we often stopped. At that speed we were passing mountains like normal trains passing trees and bushes. 

I couldn't find certain information about the Shanghai subway operation hours but the "between 22 and 23" was enough to know that I won't have much time in Shanghai. On the train I looked up the closest subway station to the hostel, downloaded an English subway map and when I got off I started to sprint. I didn't know what I was exactly doing but the next step was always signed in English. I also purchased my ticket in English with no problems and took the subway to Century avenue. My connection, the last subway just closed it's doors front of my face. I could take off by People's square and then walk three kms instead of two but I wouldn't have risked walking 5 in case of missing my connection.

At least my OSM And+ was working. It is an alternative map application as Google map is blocked in China. It was taking me to the river and on the other side was my hostel. It calculated like the ferry was operating. But it wasn't...

In anywhere else I'd have just set my tent and check in next day, but in China the accomodation provider has register it's guests. It isn't taken that seriously in administration but if they caught me in a tent I could have more troubles. On my way back from the river I saw a group of girls. Tried to ask them how to get to the other side of the river, but they weren't really helpful.

Fortunately some guy just shown up and he advised me to call a Didi. Anyone who I ever sent a link to in the past year probably received an article about Didi and knows how much of a fan I am, but I had no idea how to get one. The world Didi means 'bepbep' in Chinese, and it is a ride-sharing company that killed uber in China (that's why my sympathy).

The guy offered that I can travel with theirs and after they got home he tells to the driver to get me on the other side. They get me the front seat and didn't let me to pay for my own ride. So I just thanked them and enjoyed the view. Shanghai is actually pretty from a car when it is dark.

After they got dropped off we were heading to the other side if the river. The Didi app was brilliant. It shown on the map where we are, like a normal gps yet it shown it on a 3D virtual copy of the town too indicating which road has to be taken. The company also cooperates with local traffic control authorities so they installed smart lights that (in theory) increased the speed of traffic by 15%. The lights were always green. I couldn't experience the user surface, but it has a very intelligent algorithm that studies the user's commuting habits and offers rides few minutes before they'd need them. The company has the vision of replacing private owned cars with ride-sharing services. It would mean no parking cars in China and also less cars on the road even the cars would either be in service or would just circle around the ring roads of the city. For that time they'd be all electronic and driverless. I would have never thought that taking a taxi can be so exciting. And it hasn't even started yet! We went through a beautiful cable bridge. I mean they indeed all look the same, but I really like them and in Vladivostok I couldn't cross the Russky Bridge. The cable bridge constructor companies are nearly 100% Chinese btw. This had a 700 meters of span so it was probably in the top 15 the world. I didn't remember that one even I knew that Shanghai has one. I couldn't freeze that moment of my life and just look out from the car in 28 C° enjoying the wind blowing in and watching the lights of the city knowing that I don't have to do anything, things will be fine. It didn't last forever but things were fine; we arrived to the hostel I checked in and finally first time since the Trans Siberian Express I could lay down and sleep.

The officer's presence meant mainly three things. Firstly it effected the army's cleaning habits... When they brushed the train they didn't anymore brushed the remaining part under the bed that Olga had befor. Secondly it effected the army's and my social life. It almost wiped out. It's not that the officer was rude or anything we just didn't know what to expect from the situation. He wasn't really talking to anyone, but sticked more to his position. It wasn't personal whatsoever, but according to his army hierarchical position he had to act superior. So the people downer at the hierarchy were unsure if they have or need any approval for talking to outsiders.

On the other hand because the army's presence kinda kept Ilya and Kolya away, after the officer shown up, things balanced back and the boys came back to hang out more. After Olya left and their grandfather was more reasonable with the sweets they experienced a great Trans Siberian regression as nobody feed them with sugar anymore. Firstly Ilya shown up. He almost had withdrawal symptoms of sugar. I told him he can make a Nutella sandwich or something if he gets some bread. He said thanks and ate the whole thing. After he couldn't have more with the spoon and fingers he tried to lick the rest from the cup, he had Nutella even on his forehead. I mean it wasn't even Nutella it was some 35 rubles copy. I mainly got the cheap stuff, because it makes me feel really uncomfortable when others have casual stuff and give up comfort while I, the stupid tourist with the £££, would just buy everything. And the world is a safer place for the ones who are not constantly showing off.

Once after I already taught Ilya the arm bar and rear nacked choke - so I played out my most interesting cards - we just had a seemly casual talk with Google translate:

 - what are you into? - I asked.

 - football

 - and anything else? - I really wanted to avoid talking about football.

 - girls.

 - You?

 - cycling.

 - and girls - I answered and just had a flash back from the Broken Flowers(film). They had almost the same conversation in the ending scene

 - did you hear me singing in Russian btw? - I asked.

 - what do you mean?

"Vodka piva voda piva pod konyec car para tyeevah!"

It blown his mind:

 - come, come, let's go! - he said it in English.

Ilya took me to his unit. He set me down to the end of the bed under his. Some girl was still laying in the bed she just pulled her knees up. He had some new "roommates". The girl who I mentioned and on the other two beds an other girl and her boyfriend. I kinda said "hi" but things were happening way too quick. Ilya had his phone and started to record me; Sing Ben Sing! He pointed at himself, then at his phone and after that he said Olya. I decoded it as "I will send this to Olya." I knew that I have way too much compromising stuff recorded already so my political carrier won't suffer more because of that video, I started to sing in Russian.

Even got some ovation from my audience and we ended up hanging out. The girl's boyfriend on the other bed spoke the most English. He was working for the police, but can't remember nor his neither his girlfriend's name. We played some new game. Everyone had to clap the next ones hand and we counted. When the count came to a certain number (it was randomly different) had to dodge the clap. If it missed then the clapper, if they hit the hand than the other person was out of the game. First we played counting in English, but I felt a bit cheeky making 5 people to play in English only for me so we swapped to Russian. I even learned to count in Russian. The girl without the boyfriend had a bottle of Lake Baikal mineral water what first the boys used as a baseball bat to hit stuff away, but after they were spoke off not to do it. When they put it back to the table I said I want to take a decent photo of Lake Baikal's water, and ended up talking to the owner of the bottle. Her name was Alina and I told her that I came to Russia and took the whole train trip for the lake, shown her a pitch black photo and said that it is as I saw the lake. She shown me a few pictures she took before. They were really good photos. It was just about brunch time so I left their unit and not much later on the day they left the train.

There was one guy from the army who kinda had a crush on Alina, but he didn't talk to her. Instead of that started to ask me about her. Usually I really hate when people do that. But in that case I really couldn't give him any information so I didn't freak out. On the other hand this act that he was seen talking to someone outside of the army answered the question to everyone. It is allowed. After we hang out with the army once more and the social life came back even the officer became friendlier. His English was quite okay. He had some friend from an other wagon who came to see him and he introduced us to eachother. Shown me videos of Siberia, and chopping wood. He knew a few things about stuff we passed. He was a knowledgeable man.

He also talked about the army. He proudly said the army teaches people to basic stuff for life. I was just about to ask him what basic stuff when guys start showing up telling him some lessons back. He asked them questions and after some hesitation they point to directions.

The army was really not creating killing machines, they just taught people which one is their left and right hand. What would still be considered as a big thing in England or Hungary.

We again made Lake Baikal jokes and the officer was laughing with us. But it was more calmed. No singing at the middle of night and stuff. The last two days went quietly. We played cards talked about plans future, life after the army. At the night of 5 of July when the officer was gonna already the guys told me that they don't actually come to Vladivostok they get off in some small town 4 hours earlier. I knew I couldn't stay up with them, so asked Andrej to wake me up when they go and I felt asleep. A bit later I woke up, the guys were staying by the corridor, I sleepily opened my eyes:

 - bye Ben. - and they were gone.

The third morning when I woke up and looked at my phone I was a bit disappointed, cus I thought that for some magical reason we'd all wake up early, all rested of course and once for the last time I could hear the jingling sounds of the spoons as everyone is stirring their tea or coffee for the breakfast. But it was  twelve past eleven and Sasha was getting off around half past, so the odds of having a last breakfast with the apostles were not in our favour.

At 20 past she was still sleeping. I didn't want to get any grumpiness, but I didn't want her to miss her stop either so after a bit of hesitation I woke her up. She thought it is 9:20, but we travelled two timezones since Moscow. She jumped off from the bed and went to the good old always reliable train clock to find out if it was Novosibirsk. It wasn't yet, but she still had to hurry. First time we got off from the train to say goodbye to someone.

After Sasha left us an other lady took the old lady's place, and her teenage daughter took Sasha's place. The lady also had an other daughter who was living in England. She told me that and shown her on a picture after I heard Olya saying the word 'Angliya' while they kept having glances on me. They took off in a few hours and then two other girls maybe 2-3 years younger than me took their places. One of them spoke English, but she was really shy and I wasn't too comfortable either, the conversation died out quite quickly.

After we lost one of out Moscow crew I had mixed feelings before about saying goodbye. I wasn't gonna get to passive before Olya leaves and we run out of time, but I wasn't gonna miss her more than I would. At the end of the day I realy hate the low risk no outcome mentality so I'd rather miss her more than regret not talking to her. It might sound strange missing people so much, but in hostels and on the transsiberian, one day often feels like a whole month. Especially on the train where spending a day with people means 24 hours.

She advised me to be careful in Russia. I made a few jokes about that the RZD (the Russian railway company) advertising to foreigners by surrounding them only with women. And I am really curious who the next ones are going to be when she and the other girls get off by the same station.  - apart from a few expectations I've really only seen the female side of Russia. - With  the kids we stayed up late to get off from the train with her too and to say goodbye. On my way back to the train I saw the girl who talked English, we also stopped for a few words.

Sometimes the security walked through the train, they didn't do anything or talk to anyone they were just checking in. After Olga left they were marching through the wagon. They were many more than before and they were carrying goods. Once four just stopped by our unit and took the beds. They weren't the security, they were the Russian army.

Some guy who looked like a very well fed daycare student with crazy bright eyes and with a 99/100, smile/face ratio just started to talk to me. I still felt a bit down for the girls. And someone from the army?! No way! I wasn't too chatty... Fortunately I had the good old "ne ponimayu"(I don't understand) card. He was consistent, I'm telling ya. Just kept talkin' and talkin' even I kept saying "I don't understand". Giorgi told him my brief story. He stopped talking.

Half minute later:

 - Ben!

 - I'Misha!

 - I am Russian Army.

 - my name is... Misha.

 - I am... from Russia.

 - khju love Russia?

I wasn't sure if it was more funny or concerning, but I burst out laughing.

 - you my friend, Ben?

 - Da, I am your friend. - I answered it still laughing.

Some guy walked through the corridor who didn't have green uniform like the guys, but navy blue.

 - This is my Fuhrer.

 - My Hitler.

 - He is from Japan.

With his accent and as he was slowly articulating while thinking of assembling these sentences I couldn't stop laughing.

The others were also just chuckling around.

Next day when I got up Misha was grinning on the the bed that Olga had before. He looked like he was up for hours waiting for telling the English sentences he fabricated:

 - I am car... racer.

 - Every night I race.

 - I am Russian Vin Diesel.

To be honest a little bit he looked like the Russian cartoon version of Vin Diesel.

Between two Russian Vin Diesel and "we learn to kill" sentence - supposedly joke - I went to the toilet. When I get back 3 army guys were sitting on my bed.  I was not ready to socialize yet, so I just took my mug and slowly went to make a tea. I opened the tap as little as I could for slowing the process down even more. It was so slow I even forget it, and my mug was full when I realized what I was doing. The water was spilling out I had to close it quickly, but in the rush I turned the tap the wrong way and made a complete mess. After some helpless hesitation I knocked on the staff's cabin. An other (not the one who checked my ticket and who I said "I love you"  to in Russian) girl opened the door. Told her that I was the one who made the mess and I'm really sorry for it. On the train people have to face lot of adversity and it's quite often easy to forget how much worse it could be without the staff. She had a smile that made her look happy for not taken her efforts granted. Her name was Zanya, and with Dasha, they were responsible for the wagon between Moscow and Vladivostok. We talked a little bit about the train then I went back to my bed. The army was still there and they looked at me like i was late from somewhere. The three guys stood up, I laid down and they sat back the free side of the bed.

They started to introduce themselves.

One guy had a way of talking like it was his train and firstly he wasn't happy for us being there, but he couldn't do anything about it so he kinda accepted the situation without being a dick. He also called everyone bratan(brother). His name was George.

My first time in pizza express(restaurant) the Romanian head chef told me that his name is George, when I asked what's the other guy's name he said Clooney. I found it somewhat funny while English people didn't find it funny at all, so I had the theory the more eastern someone is the funnier they find this joke:

 - George Clooney bratan? - I asked.

After that question it was such a cliché scenario. Everyone went silent. They looked at eachother like they were watching Titanic for two hours and they still didn't have an idea whatsoever. What is the whole film about and I just interrupted them saying that it will sink and Leo dies... After the few second shock someone start chuckling then the rest followed and I wiped my forehead off.

The next guy was called Vladimir. The first thing came in my mind was an other joke, but it would have been a bit more provocative so I just freeze for a second and then asked back "Vladimir?"

 - yes bratan Vladimir Putin - George answered. Probably everyone knew that was the thing I was exactly thinking about.

It was probably my ignorance, but before I always thought that people would be taken by the KGB or the Russian secret agency for saying such a joke.

I started to ask them questions about the army how all of this is going.

They were mostly 19 and it was a compulsory one year national army service.

The Google translate experience increased their interest even more. And they were queueing up for asking me questions - mostly about girls in England.

Around 5PM we were getting closer to Irkutsk, and when we passed some little pond I asked them if it is lake Baikal. They didn't get it. So next time we passed some water I asked again. Still nothing. For the third time Andrej who had Sasha's bed asked me why I'm always asking if it's lake Baikal. It felt like giving fags for a 14 years old. "Are there no trolls or sarcasm in Russia?"

 - Sutka(joke) - I answered.

They were like "uhh you actually aren't that thick that you don't get that lake Baikal is a big lake, and just fucking around?" From that moment anytime when someone saw any water pointed out through the window and said "lake Baikal".

It was dark already when we actually got to the Baikal, but regardless of that I start filming. At that point there were at least 10 people around our unit shouting "Lake Baikal bratan!" They taught me a Russian song. I wrote it down phonetically so my pronunciation was kinda spot on. They made me sing that song till 3AM and they taught me the first Russian swear word. It was a noisy night.

Next day they had a wake up at seven and had to get their full uniform and boots in 30+ degree Celsius. The train was slowing down. I didn't know what's going on so asked Andrej who probably had the best English. 

 - Why are you guys getting dressed I thought you travel to Vladivostok.

 - because our sergeant is a di... - he didn't finish the sentence just turned his back to his bed fixed his position and looked straight. The other guy on the bad next to mine did the same. Some middle age guy (not the "Fuhrer" one from the previous day) just stopped by our unit. The train stopped. He signed to Andrej that he can go, and talked a few words to the other guy. The other guy took his bedsheets and left. The officer put his own bedsheets on, changed his army uniform to casual and laid back on the bed like he just purchased it for coins after the disband of USSR.

I slowly stood up and started to follow the crowd, supposedly to the platforms. A minute after I got out from the building I started to feel a bit chilly. I wanted to go back and just leave in the last minute, but the crowd was too big, I had no chance to make it. People were pushing eachother for getting closer to the doors. It was proper annoying, I just started to film and commentate/swear how much I hate the crowd, and let them go. I wasn't gonna take part anymore. The odds of missing the train were quite low. It has never happened that I had a seat reservation and they closed the door front of the queue because it was time. Anyways... somehow a new train staff shown up and called me to show my passport. I got on the train and find my seat. On the train there was a very narrow corridor. On the right side of the corridor there were bunk beds(they were inserted but their positions were like bunk beds, one above the other one) parallel with the train, on the left side it was like an open cabin same length as the beds on the right but four(two bunk beds) of them in perpendicular position. Those six beds were one unit. The people who had those beds were spent the most time together. These units were like a cabin, but the corridor was running through those units.

I don't remember the order of arrival, but I remember that my 5 passenger companion was... Basically the opposite what I expected. I had one of the lower bed of the four. The other one was taken by an old granny like lady. The upper one parallel with the corridor was taken by a 15 years old boy who was traveling with his younger brothers and grandfather. And the other three beds were taken by solo females similar to my age. Noone was playing chess(actually kids played chess on an iPhone in the last two days) drinking vodka from bottle, bringing bear on the train or looking ugly at people who passed them. There were no knives in the table, just people trying to save a few rubles on transportation and avoid to bore themselves to death. People had smart phones, tablets and books.

The old lady kept doing stuff. Probably it wasn't her first time on a sleeping train. She moved in to the train like I moved in to the dorm at the fifth - last year of high school. The only difference was that she was probably sober. I'm often afraid of talking to older ladies and it wasn't my time to overcome that (I will when I'll be old too). The girl who had the bed above the old lady's looked a bit tense as she crossed/grabbed her own forearms. I wasn't gonna bother her before she looks at least a little bit more comfortable. The other girl who had the bed above mine looked more travel experienced. When the train staff walked through the wagon and gave everyone a set of bedsheets, EXPECT ME(!) I typed in Google translate that "no russian no bedsheets" and shown it to her. She was sitting next to me. The beds were not made yet. She was laughing, so I made some other low effort joke about my missing bedsheets. She was laughing at everything indeed. I like people who handle uncertain situations just with laughing. She also got concerned about my bedsheets so she talked to the staff. They said I didn't get bedsheets because I didn't give them my ticket. I gave the ticket, they gave me the bedsheets. I said "spasibo" (thanks) and start talking about stuff with Katya(the girl I was writing about in the previous 5 sentences). She also travelled around Europe in March. And asked lot of questions about my travel. It was cute how she were making her way to speak English sometimes saying only one-one word that she were comfortable about like "okay" or "yes". We were the only ones who talked that night.

The bed about feet from my feet was Olga's bed. Without the corridor our beds would shape an L. The first day when I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was her stretching like a cat, I quickly shied away and I turned on my side, and tried to fall back to sleep. I couldn't fall back to sleep but I wasn't fully awake either.

A Russian mug of hot drink landed on the table next to my pillow between the two beds. The girl above the old lady made it.

 - Are you drinking tea with milk?! - Google translated it.

 - This is coffee. - she answered saying it with a really soft accent.

 - in England we drink tea with milk and it looked exactly the same. - I was still typing.

 - so you are from England?

 - I live there - said it realising that she speaks English.

On 61seat they mentioned that there's a samovar in every wagon for hot water supply, but indeed I had no idea what a samovar actually is, so we talked about hot water and about how to get it. At that point of conversation I was thinking that it might be true that smarter people have less friends, because they ask less stupid questions, so they have less opportunity to interact. Fortunately with Alexandra or Sasha as she preferred to be called had more to talk about than the hot water so after she shown me how it works(open a tap and hot water runs like in Harry Potter), we discussed other stuff. In English! I was really missing the language. She was quite concerned about looking stupid struggling with the language but her English was much better than she thought it is. And taking an effort is the opposite of being stupid anyways...

After I had my tea Katya also woke up. And we talked more. She was from Omsk and was planning to get a job in Moscow as a copywriter. With writing we had an other thing in common and to talk about. She was the first who get off in Yekaterinburg.

For some reason the 5 can be a better number than 6 or we just needed to "lose" someone, but after Katja's left, social life started to be buzzing more. I talked to Giorgi as well. He was the only other one from our super six Moscow crew who was also heading to Vladivostok. When I learnt about it we fist bumped and established the komanda(team) Vladivostok. By our first talk he offered me some dry fish from under his pillow and he kept offering it everyday. He was a good kid.

Soon enough his younger brothers joined us. My first thing was to challenge Ilya to a staring contest. Cheap game for the train. Teardrops were running down on both of our faces but he wouldn't give up. He won. Ilya was the middle brother. Latter he was the one I spent the most time with. As a middle brother he didn't have the physical strength to rule the brotherhood, but because there was a younger one than him he couldn't utilize the victim card either so he had to be smart. So was he. He had a scare on his forehead. Not an ugly one, the cool one. He got headbutted by a cow. When he told me I was laughing.

 - cows are dangerous animals!

 - I know that's why I'm laughing, last summer I stuck on a mountain because of them, finally someone sees it.

At the same time Kolja the smallest one was playing with Olga. It became one of Olya's four most common activities. She was either sleeping, making food, eating, reading or playing with Koyla. She taught him that game when they sit front of eachother, clap then gave a cross five(left to left) then clap again, swap hands (right to right), clap then a double one and just keep repeating it faster and faster. After I played it with Ilya, we played an other game when one person has their hand with palms up the other one with palms down on the first person's hand and the one under has to hit the upper side of the hand of the other person. We never counted scores.

Later we played truth or action. Sasha was a savage in that game, she asked Giorgi if he is in love with someone. Every 15 years old boy is in love with someone. Come on! He tried to lie, but his brothers exposed him. Was funny. In first round everyone was answering so I said action just for encouraging the guys. Later it turned out that in next round everyone had to do the opposite so I could get away with truth, but instead I had to walk to the staff room and say "I love you" in Russian to Daria, the girl who checked my ticket. In next round Giorgi performed a gypsy dance, Ilya and Sasha ate a tea bag and Olga had the same task that I had.

At some point a woman in her 30s took Katya's bed, but our komanda Moscow was too closely established for recruiting new members. She looked okey it was more of the circumstances.

It wasn't a new thing that I like kids, but they were always somebody's kids and never talked about them in the way we talked about them with Sasha. She said they remind her to her own childhood. It really made me think, and I fell asleep with this though on my mind. I was thinking of going to the zoo with my grandma then just jumping on the park trampoline. Then have some ice cream. It was 4 months ago already when she passed away but my eyes still teared up. I wiped them off and turned on my side towards the wall...

Expect the cup of yoghurt that I bought a day before (unbelievably) I managed not to add to the list that includes items I forget to pack after leaving hostels (Amsterdam - Mr. Nice book, Helsinki - metal mug). Eventhough I was quite low on social energy in the past days I tried to be friendly to everyone I met. And I had the foreigner card, and being a giant... people kinda remembered me and my leaving was a thing to the hostel. At least for the first time...

I caught the bus that would have been taken to a few subway stops from the train station, but my plan was taking it only to Aviamotornaya as I was way more comfortable with the subway than with the ground transportation.

Although I didn't lose anything to my room or locker, I left my food beg at the reception... Went back for one more time (with significantly lesser impact) and took the footbus(walk) to Aviamotornaya. Yellow line to Marksistkaya and from there the brown one to Komsomolskaya. Easy! It was all signed to the train station(s). There were two(at least I am not sure about it). One's name really reminded me to Lenin and the one what I was looking for, the Yaroslavsky.

I haven't checked my weight since my flatmate moved back to Hungary and took the scale but if I had to guess it, I'd say that I was under my racing weight. The idea was a bit too late to eat as much as I can and store the energy in fat for the trip, but I ordered a pizza and a Kebab.

Ordering one stuff with Google translate is a thing, but thanks to the glitches in the matrix ordering two things are exponentially more complicated. The cashier quickly got frustrated, the lady in the queue behind me was also impatient, and the guy who was making the foods also turn towards the situation. The air was glowing.

An other girl got into the shop, she interrupted the whole wild west vibe.

She was ginger, slim, already a bit taller than the average, but her shoes also had at least 5" soles(Seriously don't know why I pay so much attention to women's shoes on this travel), was very generous with the black eyeliner to her eyes and looked like she was dressing only from thos hippie souvenir shops. Seemly she wasn't too attached the our world. I had the feeling that her presence was even more unusual than mine as I tried to order with Google translate.

Everyone calmed down they get their hands away from the guns, took my money and served the next customer. When the girl's turn came she ordered probably the most customized kebab that I've ever witnessed. She kept talking to the guy who made it and pointed at ingredients signing with her hands how much she wants making jingling sounds with her bracelets with every movement she made. She even made a taichi style movement showing how and how much sauces she'd like to have.

For the time she ordered I already finished my kebab. It was time to find the train station. I still wasn't sure which one is mine. After a bit if hesitation I asked the only one person around who I didn't have any "bad" experience with. I typed in Google translate "just for the record, is it the Yaroslavsky station?" Shown it to the girl with the jingling bracelets and pointed at the building 10 meters away, front of the restaurant. She read my phone thoroughly, while had a big bite of her kebab then shown an expression like she shouldn't have bitten it, she just didn't realize that I'm asking something relevant. Few seconds later she started to talk in English:

 -Do you speak English? Yes? I mean yes! You typed in English! Give me a few seconds I collect my friend.

She run out from the restaurant and  went crazy waving at the crowd.

An other girl at the same time didn't see her, so just put her baggages down on the ground and start looking at her phone.

The one from the restaurant was just a few degrees out of her sight, but she decided to go 280° around her and tap her shoulder. They get back to the restaurant and turned towards me:

 - Let me finish my food and I take you to the train station.

She finished the Kebab jumped up:

 - I am ready. You got your stuff? You ready?

I nodded.

She grabbed my arm and run out from the restaurant. We run about literally three meters when we stopped, it was a bit sudden I almost bumped into her:

 - that one over there - she pointed at an other station - is the one with the local or short distance trains. And this one... - she stopped, wrinkled her forehead. - where are you traveling by the way?

 - Vladivostok. - I answered.

 -weeeeeell.... , I think it isn't the short distance one. You will need this one - pointed at the exact same building that I shown her for the first time. What she could just shown from the restaurant as it was the closest man made thing around or just say 'Da' or anything with less effort. In that case I probably wouldn't mention her. I was thankful for the experience.

I got in. Like in every train station in Russia where I have been I had to send my packages through some security scanner and walk through a security frame.

In the station the escalator was... Fucked. I' would like to swear less, but the expression "out of service" wouldn't describe it's condition properly. They'd really be better to get a new one than fixing it. Only a 4 people elevator took us to upstairs where the trains were departing from. People were pushing eachother for the places. I hate intrusion so I decided to go for a walk checking the shops downstairs and come back when the crowd is gone. It actually turned out to be a good decision because in a souvenir shop I could buy a new metal mug. It was smaller than the one I left in Helsinki, but it had some Moscow graphic on the side. I also bought some water and first time in my life I found apple taste Fanta. I really like this about Russia. I think the first place I've ever visited that provided the variety and range of products that I was happy with. It's not just I love shopping that much(I like it a lot) but I don't like to pay for something just because I have no other options. I'd rather go for things I find 100% satisfying. Anyways! It was just a can of Fanta and my satisfactory requirements were just a tiny bit above of having some liquid with sugar.

I felt ready af, but the crowd just grown bigger around the elevator. What I really hate about intrusion is that people are uncomfortably close and sometimes they even touch me. That stuff is not for the strangers sorry. I wasn't gonna be a dick but people were way too cheeky. If I let a few inches of place just for not getting too intimate in a queue some took that place so I had to use my own tricks. I get my thumbs under the straps of my backpack so my elbows were same level as most people's head. Noone wants an elbow in the face, so I had my place and my priority elevator.

I got to the stairs found a sit and some free WiFi, put some music on and experimentally turned tinder on. I'm saying experimentally, because meet someone online really doesn't suit me. But sometimes I just turn the app on when I'm really bored and want to be distracted. To see what given cities females are like. The striking difference between Moscow girls and the girls from England, Hungary or Sweden was that they had significantly fewer group photos. It is mostly interesting, because that is my second most reliable match indicator. The first is individualism. I have never had a match with a girl who had a bio like "❤️food, travel❤️". (There's no problem if someone likes to travel and eat delicious stuff, it just doesn't tell too much about a person and 3 out of 4 has that bio.)

After a few minutes seemly my theory turned out to be proven; I don't know if the Moscow senoritas had something for me or for Google translate, but the same profile that had two matches in a whole day in Stockholm almost made my phone crash because of the amount of notifications.(okay my phone is over it's pride and it is a bit exaggerated, but still) The only difference was what I put in my bio:

"Love doesn't have borders, but I have Google translate just in case." - It is probably just the Google translate... but

the scientific conclusion of the experiment is that Russia is ace. Although I liked the feed back, and how science was working, I quickly got concerned about the devushki(girls) who might hope that their black haired Hungarian/Chinese/Chestrian Google translate knight will text and ride them away on a roadbike's handlebar towards the horizon(when I surely won't), so I turned the heartbreaker application off and tried to download some music. I couldn't find a torrent file for the one I was looking for and the magnet was not working so I run out of ideas what to do with my internet access, I already said goodbye to everyone. So I was about getting lost in my thoughts when the platform number appeared on the time table.

End of chapter 3

Indeed I didn't take the the wrong subway but it was going to the wrong direction. "Ne problema" just walked to the one opposite where I got off. Guess what! In Moscow opposite subway lines are usually not the same lines to opposite direction. I was on the brown line. I realized this in one stop so I took off and tried to replan my journey:

Brown line Kurskaya to Koltsevaya, what for some uncertain reason only called Koltsevaya on the brown line, same stop is Marksistkaya on yellow line.

And from there to Aviamotornaya. I took the brown one and got to Masrkistkaya. I saw the yellow subway departing so I had to make a quick decision. Peeped in, by the little LEDs under the stops I thought it is mine. I was wrong... Took the wrong one again. At least it was fuck up proof from there, the next stop was the final destination of the yellow line. I found the one to the right direction that took me to Aviamotornaya. There I wasn't brave enough to cross a TEN(!) lanes road so I tried to get to the other side underground. It took me 3 attempts to find the right exit. From there it was a straight walk to the hostel.

There were boxes at the hostel's reception for the shoes and nobody was allowed to wear them inside the hostel. After I took the shoes off and got my flip-flops on I've been guided around the hostel. The receptionist shown me the bathroom, the kitchen, my room, my bed, and also got me a locker. Possibly the best customer service I have ever received in a hostel and the first time when I had a proper locker.

I really needed a good rest. Next day I woke up around midday. I remembered that on my way to the hostel there were several shops and food places so I start walking back to Aviamotornaya. Few hundreds of meters from the hostel I found a place where they sold Chicken kebabs. When I walked in with no russian I had a bit too much of unwanted attention. I asked if they have an English menu. They were a bit unfriendly about that. So I told them that I cannot read Russian and smiled. I love to be a tourist and interact with people who I won't ever see again. After a few seconds of laughter most of them usually feel bad about laughing at me and starts being nice. It didn't happen differently this time. I start getting smiles and everyone found their phones with Google translate.

It was raining outside so I decided to take the rest of the day off. As I got back to the hostel I just met three guys from Uzbekistan. They were working in Moscow. Google translate made the bridge again. I didn't even try to show off, but they were so impressed by things that I'd find really basic. I only answered questions and asked mines. There was one guy, Otabek who was really interested in everything. He wanted to hear about England, Hungary, everything. He asked how much I saw from Russia so far. I said I only saw the train station and the subway. He asked if I want to see Moscow.

 - why not?

We went to a place before a gate. There were nothing special, but he stopped grabbed my two shoulders turned me towards him to make sure I pay attention and said something like "centerrr Moskwah", and turned me towards some square shaped thing on the pavement with a circle in it's middle. I was really thankful, but I felt the same as others might feel when I tell them that Chester has the second most photographed clock in England. "Okey."

After that we went towards that really colourful building that I have seen so many times on photos, but on the way he  stopped and explained that there's that building where Russian Presidents are buried. There was a barrier. "Now we can start talking!"

 - what happens if I cross the barriers - I asked.

 - They shout you. - he answered like it was so obvious like gravity or something.

 I still consider Keti's poker face the number one when she said that she has 5 kids and I believed her(you can never know in Georgia), but Otabek was quite good too and you can never know it in Russia either.

He looked at his watch, Google translate:

 - we are just in the best time. They change guards. Come!

I really not the kind of person who takes photos and then upload them to social media and later wonder why the government bullies with taxation, but I wanted to get one photo of that colorful thingy to my family to show that I was in Moscow.

You can do it later!

It was the same like in the videos, but I was lucky enough to capture as one of the guards almost fell on his face because of the slippery ground. Those guys were still lucky with that light showers, because as soon as they changed it start pissing the hell down so I wanted to take a photo even more. I quietly mention here that I was missing England and it made me feel that it isn't about the photo anymore, but about the "work" taking the photo.

Otabek flaked out and waited by the sheltered market.

There was a guy who was taking selfies by the building, I asked him if we could take pictures of eachother instead of the forever alone selfies. He agreed. I don't know how happy he was with the ones I took but I wasn't with the ones he made so shoot a few selfies anyways. (For most people it is good to be photographed from a lower angel so they look taller and leaner, but when someone is actually tall and lean it just makes us look like a spaghetti.)

We spent some time in the market to dry out. In the way back Otabek invited me to an Uzbek restaurant where he ordered and didn't let me pay for my own meal. Firstly we got some bakeries with lamb and onion inside. Then he had a soup and I had the Uzbek national food the Pilov. It was rice with carrots, onions, sheep and also with some salad. It was a bit oily for the first time, but as I ate more I enjoyed it more.

It was the 26th and my train on the 29th departed at 0:35 so I only had the 27th as a full day. For that time I was already nervous as fuck so I had no intention of leaving my comfort zone or the hostel. I was mentally preparing for the type two fun.

For the new ones: type two fun is that we don't really enjoy when happens, but latter we can have some confidence from it why we could get through it.

I stayed in the hostel and finished the Swedish and Finnish post.(inception! blogging about blogging) I really thought that my eyes were bigger than my stomach with this travel and I shouldn't have planned for more than two weeks. I gave myself a little push. I went to buy some food and also stopped by my chicken kebab place. I took some challenge and tried to order an other plate. They remembered me and were extremely kind, but I decided to stay miserable. Sometimes I really need a push, but at that point it wasn't the case so I wasn't gonna take pressure of taking the most out of my staying, it never works. Went back to the hostel.

I wanted to do something useful so I have downloaded the confirmations of tickets and renamed/organized them.

Next day I went to the Auchan, or as we used to called it in Hungary; the bird tesco. It was in an even comparing to Russian architecture big ass building. And it wasn't an inverse version of Hermione's bag. It was probably the largest store I've ever been to. And by having a closer look on all products I just kept having my mind blown. They had 0.5 litre of vodka for about £2.7. And big boxes with different types of sugars and the customer could portion them. Most of the products cost more or less 80% of the UK prices. I didn't buy vodka, but asked for stuff that I could eat a week later. The best sellers for the Trans-Siberian Express were sandwiches. And previously I also find out that there's infinite boiled water supplie on the train so noodles came second.

Went back to the hostel got even more emotional, texted people who I would miss and started to get my life together for the trip.

On the train before Russia the Finns checked the passports and visas. They also gave a  migration form to fill. It had two sheets. They were almost identical but one had written arrival and the other one had departure or leaving or something like that. I filled the arrival page only as I saw that there was a line in the middle for tearing them apart. So I thought they'd take only that part. When we crossed the border we had to reconnect to the WiFi providing more details and soon we got checked by the Russians. There are professions that for some reason attract the good looking ladies. In England it's the police, in Russia I thought it's the border control.
Their uniform was forest green, they had badges and they had stars on their epaulet. They just asked if I had anything to declare.
Few minutes later a guy came and asked for the same thing in a less friendly manner. He also asked for my migration card. I start looking for my passport, because there was where I kept the card. He poked my upper arm and show a picture of the form. He was a bit impatient. I find the document and handled to him. When he noticed that I only filled one page he wasn't too happy for that. He was shaking his head and looking at me like I fucked up my own name on the form or something. I said I thought I can fill the other page latter, because the train was shaking. He said I have to fill it right then. I asked for a pen. I filled the form and gave it to him. He torn it apart took the arrival page and gave the other one back. (Facepalm).

Shortly we arrived to Saint Petersburg finnlainsky train station. My next train was departing from Moscowskij station. Checked it on Google maps few blocks on the other side of a small river, perfect.
I get of from the station everyone was smoking. I mean smoking for real... Good old killer beccies not that E fake ass vapor pacifier. I get to the closest bus stop for calibrating my direction. Some guy who parked on the pavement and was blocked by a taxi played the Swam lake from Tchaikovsky on his honk. The other guy didn't give a fuck so after he kept going on with the Nut Cracker. Still no reaction so he get off from the car. I'd expect something like "excuse me sir, could you move please?" He was shouting from 2 inches of the other guys face. The other guy was significantly bigger so he remained calm and was like "okey okey no need for trouble I am moving!" Our protagonist get back to the car and the other guy just kept doing his thing. The honk rhapsody was started again.

I start walking towards the river but on my way there was a really large square that was not shown on the map. And the river was nowhere near. In theory I was going to the right direction so I was going to check if I can see more on the other side of the square. I went there and I realized that it was indeed on the map I just didn't zoom in enough.
Probably because of the offline mode I couldn't properly use the route planner, I just had the map with the streets and saw my location. I just realized that in Russia everything is larger so a few blocks meant 40 minutes of walking. On my way I saw a tram and it looked so old, I didn't understand how it can operate without horses. Then I start seeing stars everywhere. So stereotypical. Then the 'mare: crossing the road. As someone who lives in the traffic I was kinda up to date with this kind of preconceptions. And seemly they were right. I was staying by the pedestrian's crossing for 3 good minutes when some guy who looked like some army officer just stepped down on the road and the cars just stopped. I followed him, but for the cars were like I had been invisible, even I was only a few meters behind, they would've hit me If I hadn't hurried up. That uniform gotta have some sort of respect. I followed the guy. Some young guy in an army uniform came from the opposite direction and he saluted to my guy. I almost felt on my face, it was so fluently natural to them like I say "alright mate".
Everyone who I passed had a glance on me. The big ass buildings, the traffic, the saluting army people, the attention. It was just way too intense.

The train station was a bit confusing. It was one building but there were multiple stations inside. I asked someone for direction. "Ne Angoliyskiy." Happens, next one please! No English either. I have to be a bit more specific. I went to talk to someone in a shop. In the heart of Saint Petersburg I expected people in shops to speak English, otherwise how could they rip tourists off? I was wandering for a good half an hour when I realized it is easier the decode the Russian alphabet. I found it. "Московский" Comparing to the amount of people on the station, the trains were quite infrequent. Like one in every 20-30 minutes. The departure time of the train seemed to be a good indicator, but the one that had the same time as mine had a different destination. Fortunately there was a train map on the wall Moscow was between Saint Petersburg and the town that was the destination of the train with the same departure time, but I wasn't gonna risk it so I asked the most hippie/traveller looking guy who I suspected to speak English.
Say once more not to judge someone by the look. He spoke English. He told me that I bought the wrong train ticket and that train goes to south to the see. But if I want to go to Moscow and I hurry up I have 10 minutes to catch the next fast one. I shook his hand saying thank you very much and start running towards the ticket sales. There was a queue for the tickets and people had queue numbers. Typed in Google translate: "I bought the wrong ticket and my train departures in 10 minutes, please" and when one sale person were free I run there shown her the phone and said "Mosskwaaah". She was shaking her head. Meanwhile two girls turned up. They were the next in the queue. I shown them my phone. It was probably to high for them, one took my hand and pulled it closer to her face. Few seconds later she looked at me smiled and nodded her head. Then gave me a sign to go to the guy who gave the queue numbers. I was like thank you very much for the nothing. And get a number. I got seated and realized I have no chance to get the next train departures to Moscow.
I was in my phone editing a text that I would show in Russian to the ticket sales person when I have my number called. Someone stand above me. I looked up the girls were there. They were just a little bit taller standing than me sitting. The one who had blonde hair and took my hand too read my phone asked me to show the wrong ticket I bought. I shown her. She took my arm start pulling me and talked to her friend who had black hair. I followed. The one with the black hair start typing to her phone and after a few second shown it to me. It was a bit low so I took her hand and pulled it closer to see it. In Google translate: "you have the right ticket, just come with us." - I kept following. After a half minute of walk we got to the platforms where I realized why trains are so infrequent. The train had 20 coaches. The blond girl who was still pulling me by my arm said something to the black haired girl. They swapped. The one with black hair grabbed my arm and pulled me. The blonde girl typed. "We take you to your coach." They slowed down. There was no number or anything on the train, they swapped again and the black haired girl typed: we are almost there. We stopped by a coach typed something to the phone looked at eachother smiled and with surprisingly clear accent read from the phone: this is your coach. Good luck to your journey!
- Spasibo... A lot! - I was so use to receive the "go ahead take the second right turn left go 50 yards, there will be a small alleyway go in, move the 42nd brick on the wall it will open a secret door. Go in, play a chess game against the guard if you win keep going to the next roundabout take the forth exit, run to the wall between platform 9 and 10 and you're there. You gonna find it! Have a nice day!" Kinda helps that when somebody actually took some effort for me I even felt a bit uncomfortable.
They barely just disappeared in the crowd when they suddenly turned and run back. On their way they typed and read: this is not your coach! Come with us! They both grabbed one of my hand and start running. They got me to the right one. I thanked about five times again and said goodbye.
My ticket was somewhat in English, I find out that my coach is number 7 and my cabin is number 2.
I got in cabin 2. Some guy was already there with his wife and with like seven kids. He was pushing me out from the cabin the people on the corridor were impatiently shouting and I was pushing my phone to the guys face so he could tell me which is my cabin if not that one. He turned his face away like it was a leaked nude of Donald Trump. Peace is not for the ignorant ones, I just marched in. The guy was freaking the fuck out shouting not at me just for the universe punishing him with me. Her wife tried to calm him. So she had a look on my phone. She start saying something in Russian and just keep repeating it. She was really concerned how we will overcome this problem. Some guy from the corridor tapped my shoulder and shown seven on his hands and pointed to the other end of the wagon.
Thank you very much for not being a cunt but taking 2 seconds of your life to sort out a problem in a civilized way.
My cabin was 7 and my seat was 2. I still don't know where the coach number was shown.
I get in my cabin. There were a lady probably same age as my mother and a girl probably my age wearing a flower patterned dress. I was still uncomfortable to interact because of the previous incident, but I google translated how to say "I don't speak Russian" so, they wouldn't freak out if I tried to listen their conversation to pick up the frequent words. It was a sleeping cabin but I didn't expect people actually sleep on a 9 and half hour journey. The lady start making the beds. I wasn't gonna be in her way so I went to the toilet. When I got back the girl was wearing an other dress with dots. I was a bit confused for a few seconds till her identical twin sister in the flower dress shown up. I was struggling not to laugh. I was in a chatty mood again. Typed on my phone: this is my first day in Russia and I have never seen a train with beds. Shown it to both three. They chuckled. They have never seen someone who's never seen a train with beds. After a second they realised that it might not be too polite to laugh at someone, they blushed. We started to have a conversation. The lady was Galina the twins' mother. The girl in the flower dress was Liyena and her sister is Natasha. We were talking by typing stuff in Google translate and showing it to eachother. When I asked how to turn my bed down, Galina just took the whole task from me and made my bed. Not even after the young girls help I could believe what's happening. I wasn't gonna be rude so I just kept saying "thanks" and followed. 15-20 minutes after departure they went to sleep. I hadn't had a proper sleep in the past days so it wasn't difficult to pass out. One and a half hour later I woke up. Galina brought two mugs of tea in her hands and was kicking the cabin's door trying to open it. The guy who checked the tickets followed her with two other mugs. They put the mugs on the table. The girls woke up too and came down for the chay. Galina also get some croissants for everyone.
I would consider myself as a black belt blagger. I probably had more free stuff in the UK than paid, but in that scenario I felt a bit cheeky abusing the tourist card, even it wasn't intentional. I get my bag. The only thing I had is the chocolate I bought in Helsinki the previous day. I tried to share it, but they barely had any.
While I was eating the girl's were taking turns to show me questions on their phones. They were showing genuine interest about my most casual things. I really enjoyed their company. They were in Saint Petersburg for sight seeing but didn't like it as much as they expected. We talked about traveling, Russia, Europe and all sorts of stuff before we slept again. Next I awoke for the twins' voice as they were talking to eachother. It was about one and half hour before Moscow. They asked if I know where to get off.
- Of course I do, in Moscow - I tried to pronounce it from my phone.
They were laughing.
- Is my pronunciation this horrible? - I asked.
- it isn't that simple - they showed it in Google translate. - what is your station?
I shown my ticket.
- we get off here too, we will take you off from the train.
It was really obvious when we arrived to Moscow, high buildings everywhere a proper city. But from our entrance it took at least an other 40 minutes to arrive to the proper station. I couldn't guess witch one it was.
When we get off they took me to the ticket office. If I didn't watch out they'd even purchase my ticket. I was there hesitating if I should buy a Troika card and top up or a three days ticket. A girl who witnessed the whole Google translate thing just approached us and started to talk in English explaining how the public transport works. I wanted the Troika so I could keep the plastic card as a souvenir but she convinced me to get the three days pass. It cost me the same as a 1 hour ticket in Amsterdam. They made me to take a photo of the train map and took me to the green line. It was one stop to the change where I had to take the yellow line. They also got off. I just realized that they were traveling with me to make sure I get the right transport. I was really thankful, and it felt really good, but told them I'm fine, because I wasn't gonna waste their time. We said goodbye, I took the wrong subway and smirked why women told me to be careful traveling alone in Russia.

There were two numbers on my Viking Line ferry ticket. One is the departure and  I didn't pay too much attention to the other one. I thought the only two information I need are the departure and when they close the gates. With smaller letters it was written they open 90 and they close 30 minutes before departure. So I shown up about an hour before departure. They wanted to make the ticket stupid proof for the ones who can't calculate 90 minutes. So when I get there I find out that the first number was when they open the gates and the second one was the departure(I thought that would be the arrival) That's how I arrived 2h 30m before outbound.

I had my own sleeping cabin, with bathroom and toilet for the same price that I paid for the hostels in Amsterdam and Helsinki. After I moved in I wanted to go to the top deck, but on my way my documentary film making self awoke again and wanted to cover the life of the ferry. In the next cabin a Russian group were drinking and playing some card game. I asked them If I could take a photo of them while they are playing. None of them spoke English. I put it in Google translate and shown my phone. The guy was squinching like he had struggles reading my phone then get it from my hand and slowly read it loud holding it 3 inches from his face.

Four years before I had a period when I always asked girls for explicit pictures. But not even that time I had such a reaction for a photo request like they gave. They were really against the idea and gave me a strong why would you even think about this look. After I read the first chapters of Mr. Nice(incidentally left the book in Amsterdam, before I finished it) it was easier to put my ego aside and handle problems smart instead of tough. I get my friendliest voice and look and said something like "nei ma problema" and smilled. I felt as the public mood changed, they might have regretted being a bit harsh.

"Okey, okey niet probyiem" - an older one made a motion to the one who still had my phone(he was the youngest probably around 35-40). He had a slice of bread and salami in one hand, got some spirit in a plastic cup in the other one and gave both to me and kinda signed it that he gives my phone back if I drink with them.

"Nazderovje!" And drank it all up.

They found it funny that I didn't even know how to say hi in Russian, but it is almost impossible not to know what Russians say when they drink.

They gave the phone back and were ready to let me go. I quickly get Google translate:

"Spasibo!"

My first ever encounter with Russians. I liked how they changed their mood. I really hate this about the west that people are always the same. Low risk no outcome. If you are friendly they answer with cold politeness if you're rude they answer with cold politeness. I like when people show themselves whether they are mad or happy.

After I mapped the ferry I went back to my cabin to sleep. It was a thirteen hours trip. For half midnight I set an alarm to see the sky with minimal light pollution. The sun was just behind the horizon reflecting on the water. No stars for me. Took a few photos and went back to my cabin to sleep. I was tired af.

The ferry was in  Mariehamn'sport at 7:15. I get my life together for 7:40 or something. At that time everyone's left.

I get off, sit on a bench and start browsing my phone for things to do in Åland. I don't know what I expected, but I was disappointed by the only thing I found. It was a ship museum. I mean only one ship with a museum inside. It was closed. Most shops and restaurants in Åland opened at 10 or 11. It was 8ish. A girl sat to the next bench. She was from Germany and spent a week on the island. When I asked what she did, she was like "just chilling". She wasn't too talkative so I left her for going to explore the city. It was really quiet and slow. For the first time on my trip I felt no need for doing stuff. During a travel it is easy to fall for the pressure of taking the most out of the time, the fear of missing out. In Åland this pressure was off from my shoulders. It is quite a recent experience how I pick up the mood of a place. I mean probably we all have this, but without frequently changing locations it isn't that obvious.

I didn't do too much, just walked through a park, went to the bay then for some shopping. I bought some bread sat on an other bench and fed some strange birds. They were black and gray with bright goofy gray eyes and the friendliness of a labrador. I also went to a souvenir shop. They sold everything for like 0.5€. For the bread, grapes, pate and a can of russchian tonic I paid 7.2 so I had absolutely no idea how a shop like that can keep running.

The shops radio played some really smooth jazz music. I asked for the radio station. It was Ålands radio (https://alandsradio.ax/lyssna), my reminder for the place I still listen it in the background.

On my way to the Mariehamn Turku ferry I spot a girl with a backpack and sleeping bag attached to the backpack. She spent a week on the island. When I asked how she spent the week she said : "just chilling." She explained that it is allowed to camp anywhere at least 400 meter away from the nearest house for two nights and then have to move to a new camp place. Also said that there are no bears on the island but there are moose.

The ferry was quite casual, I just wrote and eat.

As I get off from the ferry I felt good. Just walked a few hundreds of meters from the ferry to the train station and noticed that the people were not afraid of me or eachother they looked at eachother made eye contact smiled. People were like in Hungary before they started to be wannabe westerners. It had a childhood feeling, before I've been taught not to say hi to random strangers and I thought anyone could be my friend. On the train from Turku port to Turku there was some confusion, probably a lady took the wrong coach and we had the same seat number. I quadra checked it before, so I'm sure I was at the right place, but it wasn't a big deal, just agreed that she takes the window seat. I told her how I made a mistake with the booking: booked the ticket from Turku port to Turku and from Turku to Helsinki on the same train. People were laughing when I said that one stop later I'll have to change seat. She asked where I'm coming from. I told her. And she also asked where I'm going to. I told her Helsinki.

- and from there, you go back to England? - she asked.

- no, I continue my journey to Saint Petersburg. - I said.

- and from there?

- Moscow

- and from there?

- Vladivostok

- you?

- yes - I smiled, cus I know that finally I met someone who actually knows what the Trans-Siberian is.

- take the Trans-Siberian? - she finished the sentence.

- hopefully.

She talked a little about that she and her her husband are planning it for years, but they couldn't have the time. And then kept asking "and from there?"

And I told her the full itinerary and she were paying a really high quality attention. It really made me feel good about what I was saying. After the first stop she got off in Turku.

I got distracted when someone started to talk in finish. I thought I can understand the conversation just didn't pay enough attention. So creepyly I start listening others conversations, but nothing. The way people were talking their voices, the articulation, the space, the tonality and everything was so similar to Hungarian, but I didn't understand a single word.

I took a little risk in Helsinki and get off from the train one stop early. It paid off, it was closer to the hostel, and  it was less busy than the central station. I followed the map to get out from the train stop, but when I saw the city I just had a last long look at my phone and just start going. When I'm in Hungary, I always feel how much it changed, so in that moment in Helsinki, that city reminded me my childhood in Budapest more than Budapest. The buildings were really similar, but the streets were less busy. On my way I bought some premade hamburgers a pack of Chrisps(anyone who's not from England: Chips) and a chocolate bar. I don't think it was that much more expensive than in the UK, but for that time my brain was really scrambled by the different currencies and I got really anxious when I spent money.

When I thought I'm close to the hostel I had a look on the phone. I was right it was just on the other side, the next building from the corner. The one on the corner was a jazz club, I was really regretting not spending more time around.

The hostel a little bit reminded me to Alma Porto hostel, just the Finnish version. Staff was young and friendly, so do most of the guests.

I microwaved my hamburgers. Even that nostalgic crap tasted like the Hungarian ones before there were quality controls.

The guy sitting next to me didn't really looked Asian, but ate raw fish and talked Japanese to an Asian girl. Good old always working question:

So  are you guys from Japan?

The girl was, and the guy was from Alabama, but spoke Chinese, Japanese and I wouldn't be surprised if some other languages as well. His name was Artur. When everyone in our quickly formed gathering introduced themselves he was like "uhh increasing lengths of names! Ben three letters, Sadi four letters, Artur five letters and Miwako six letters. Very fascinating!" He was in Helsinki to play music. It was some Finnish style music that we didn't know so he explained that it is some kind of psychedelic trance subgenre. It is funny that most of the time when I don't know a type of music it turns out to be some sort of psychedelic trance, just like the one that a year before the Alma hostel's Russian volunteer receptionist mentioned.

Sadi was from Algeria, but lives in Malta. When I mentioned my blog he instantly checked it out. He's working on the field of marketing so instantly noticed some advertising options on it what I wasn't aware of. He joined in when we talked about homesickness. He also seemed to be a really good multitasker. Eventhough he was doing stuff on his laptop never lost the conversation. He also spent a good week in Helsinki.

Miwako was taking things very easy, she could be positive even about that her passport got stolen on the her first day in Finland. She was really keen to talk about Japan but I wasn't gonna kill the conversation with my stream of questions so I only asked if it is easy to bump into bears in Japan and if people in Japan really consider certain personality traits to blood types.

The conversation could possibly go on till next morning with these three, but it was already around half midnight and I was intending to wake up at 6 to catch my train to Saint Petersburg at 7:20.

I made it I was on my way towards Russia.

The end of the second chapter.