On the Train Again

Yesterday evening we said our good-byes at camp and drove to Lugansk to catch our train. We had 5 tickets; 4 in one kupa and the other ticket in the kupa next door. Our plan was to all squeeze in one kupa. There are only 4 bunks but Roman/Eli is not that big so we figured we'd squeeze him in some how. Well, we got our luggage stashed away and sat down. Eli sat in a corner and after a few mintes we noticed he was not a happy camper. "What's wrong?" I ask. And in his deep serious Russian he barks out "where am I going to sleep?" It took a while to convince him he did not have to worry; that he would have a bed. As it turned out, Vitalik took the 5th bed, mattresses stacked up between the two sets of bunks. But I'll never forget the little guy's indignation as he summed up the situation: "only four beds and I'm the smallest". Five years in an orphanage had taught him what that meant. But, my dear son, we're not in an orphanage anymore.

One point of clarifacation from an earlier blog. I noted that the toilets on the train were not all that bad. Please understand this is coming from someone who has attended many a motocross race with her sons and who has used more than her share of port-o-potties. So, in a relative sense, the toilets on the train are not all that bad. People do get a little testy in the mornings waiting in line to use them. One morning, Vitalik was in there and another passenger simply got tired of waiting, I suppose. She got the train attendant to come unlock the door. Gabe and Alexandra were also waiting in line and Gabe was yelling (in English) "There's somebody in there! There's somebody in there!" His jibberish was ignored. The attendant proceeds to unlock the door and Vitalik is fighting for his life on the other side to keep the door closed. She finally realized there was someone in there and gave up the fight. Miss Impatient then cut in line in front of Gabe and Alexandra to go next and Gabe once again gave her the riot act (In English). He was completely ignored again. Alexandra heard her later marching into her kupa complaining about some rude American man in line for the toilet. Can you believe?

And Gabe swears that people bring these special nozzles they screw onto the sinks in there and take showers. He says these business men come out of there smelling nice and clean with a wet towel wrapped around their shoulders and leave the walls and floor covered with water. Its true that even the toilet paper is soaking wet in the mornings. Weird. Gabe says if he ever has to go to Lugansk again, he's taking a bus. A tour bus. With "Dolly Parton" writtn on the side. Of course, he did say this near the end of the 16-hour train ride, this time with no air conditioning and little sleep and with 5 of us squeezed in there. So maybe his tour bus won't have "Dolly Parton" written on the side.