15 March 2007

Episode Recap #2

Before I start with a recap of Day 2 of our journey to get Monchichi, I need to comment on the events of The Amazing Race on Sunday night.

Bye,Bye Rob and Amber!
They did have a strong showing in the first three episodes and it must have been so disheartening to come in last. I think the worst part was that we clearly saw what was wrong with their task and they just couldn't see the spelling error in their sign. I wonder how they felt when they realized what went wrong. Anyway, I was especially happy to see that Charla and Mirna managed to hang in there. However, what was up with Mirna yelling at Charla like that--it seemed so unlike her! Till next week!

Day 2 of our journey began with waking up early in the morning to go down and meet our facilitator who would take us to the train station for our trip to our region. On our last trip, we took the overnight train back and forth to Moscow. But, this was a day train. It was actually a lot of fun and we loved the experience. Rob and I both love trains and the two person cabin is very comfortable. Here's a picture of the cabin from our first trip.
One of the things we loved about the train is that they come and offer you tea and coffee at the start of the trip. The tea is so good and very inexpensive. They made it super sweet for us with lots of sugar and lemon. Yum-O!
For anyone who takes the journey on the train, here are some tips.
--The attendants do not speak English so it's helpful to have a cheat sheet of words to help with ordering a meal or asking a question.
--You pay for your tea/coffee at the end of the trip right before you get to your station.
--The blue covers on the couches come off and there are sheets underneath where you can sleep and get comfortable.
--The cabin has a tv mounted on the wall. They play Russian DVDs on it throughout the trip. We saw Air Force One, The Thorn Birds, and A Good Year in Russian.

That's about all the tips I can think of for now but feel free to ask questions or post your own tips in the comments if you have experienced the overnight train.

Back to our journey....
After sleeping for a couple of hours on the train to our region, we woke up and spent the rest of the time enjoying the scenery passing by us. We arrived in our region and were picked up by our facilitator and the driver. They took us to our hotel where we met up with our friends from Trip One. We were told we had 30 minutes to get ready and be back down in the lobby to go to dinner with our friends, the translator, and the facilitator so we could discuss court proceedings in Russia.
We had a lovely dinner at our facilitator's home and we felt very well informed about what to expect in court at the end of the evening.
After we arrived back at the hotel, Rob and I sat in the lobby bar and had a yummy dessert! Our hotel was so nice and we really enjoyed spending time in the lobby relaxing with teas, lattes, and desserts.
We ended up the evening unpacking and watching the Academy Awards in Russian. I didn't really mind because I still enjoyed seeing all the dresses!
And that was Day Two!

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