Woke at 5.30 to bright sunshine (no Russian hotel seems to have curtains at the windows).Unfortunately it was too good to last, and by 8.00 the rain had set in. I just checked the weather forecast for the next week, and it looks as if we can expect almost constant rain, and cold weather. Seb may be trying to buy a jumper this morning before we set off.
We're now starting to rise into the Urals, and I do hope the Mossies thin out. I got 9 bites on my bottom in 1 very quick pee stop!
Only about 235 miles to Perm today, to our next stop, so we're having a leisurely start - makes a change from getting on the road for 6.30 as we've been doing for the last few days.
We've entirely run out of Roubles, so Seb and Kip have gone to the bank to change some dollars. We're wishing we'd brought a little less cash. ATMs are pretty ubiquitous, and available 24 hours a day, but to change dollars you have to find a bank that's open, and go through a long-winded process.
Another thing that we didn't predict was the almost total lack of English language here. I tend to assume that American TV, films and music leads to a little bit of the language getting everywhere, but Siberia seems to have resisted and even words like 'yes', 'no', 'English' and 'hotel' get completely blank looks. Most people assume we're German - in fact, a couple of days ago someone drew a swastika in the earth to ask the question. He seemed very pleased with the answer, when he understood it.
Evening: Sun and downpours today. The road was full of car breaking pot holes, but we've now successfully crossed the Urals, which means we are officially in Europe. Perm is an attractive affluent city, despite ugly industrial suburbs.
1 comment:
Hope the weather is merciful - crossing fingers for you. We're all loving the pics and anecdotes. Good luck, you heroes!
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