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.