Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Videos: Christer Lundstedt



Tuesday 11th of July

08.30 We've woken up in our room at OK Hotel & Hostel in Samara. Today we slept longer than usual. We do not mind that but now it is time to act. We will later today leave this room and also the city.

09.30 Now it is time to leave the comfort of our room and arrange with breakfast, lunch, trip snacks and something to eat in the evening.

10.17 We took a walk to the railway station, hoping to find a coffee shop or a cafe. It all ended with buying pastries and instant coffee in a small kiosk. It was instant coffee for sure. My mug almost instantly fell and the precious drink was spilled on the floor. I have now, after wiping up the worst, bought a new cup from a vending machine. The station feels new and fresh.

10.47 Instead of doing more purchases inside the station we went to the small store where Christer was yesterday. Now we are back in our room again and try to plan for what remains of our stay here. We have three hours left here in Samara.

11.50 Right now we find ourselves sitting in a leather sofa in the lobby. We are checked out and are waiting to get our visa registrations. They are documents that prove where we've been and where we stayed for a certain date. It is our hosts' responsibility to register us but the documents are important to us. Our upcoming hotels might want to see them.

11.56 Right now things are just odd and strange. We were just informed that we might get our visa registrations at 14.00 or not at all. At 14.00 we are already on the train away from here.

12.01 We just received new information. We should go back and wait in the room we just left and wait until the paperwork is done. All conversation with the lady here takes place via mobiles and translation functions.

12.48 If nothing has happened within twenty minutes, we will leave this place. We can't wait any longer. We will travel further.

13.07 We are back in the lobby and have been asked to wait a few minutes. Now the phone at the check-in counter just rang. Does the call has something to do with us? No, it does not seem so. She went outside.

13.10 The lady came back with our papers. Backpacks on, to the station we go. Were the papers brought here by a courier?

Time for a train trip again.

An unknown Russian man without a head and A Danish crime novel.

Christer sleeps and can´t see the trees outside of the window.

Peter is killing some time with literature.

13.38 A little to eat was bought in haste inside the station. Now we are also inside the passenger compartment of the train 132y. Christer's heated pirogue has attracted a dog that passed out in the hallway. It would much rather stay with us, or in all cases with the pirogue, than to continue.

13.56 Our matter of transportation accelerates out from the station in Samara. Now awaits an eight-hour long train trip to the east.

14.29 A visit to the carriage attendant has given me a cup of coffee. I borrowed a cup, poured in the purchased instant coffee and filled up with water from the modern samovar.

15.32 If we are running according the time table, we have just reached Bogatoye. We are in any case at a station. We read in our books by Arne Dahl and Jussi Adler-Olsen.

16.01 It has become time for me to leave our compartment. I want to see more of what the train has to offer and stretch my legs.

16.18 My excursion didn't give much. The train set seems to consist of a long series of compartment wagons. I have not found any bistro wagon.

16.34 We just had a visit in our compartment. It was the dog that previously was so interested in Christer's pirogue. Did it pop in to say hi or did it have hopes of getting some food?

17.14 We have stopped in the city of Buzuluk. It seems as if some police officers and soldiers have submitted a few chained prisoners to the train. I wonder if the gangsters might try to take the train. We do not share cart with the criminals. The police looked quite satisfied after the men were delivered.

It´s evening and we remain in our train.

Our room at Park Hotel.

We received a business card at the reception.

18.59 The time has come time to set the watches for another time zone. Everything should be brought forward one hour. The landscape we travel through is green, flat and bushy.

CHANGING TIME ZONE

21.38 We are now in a new time zone, the time in the mobiles changed automatically. It is time for the sun to sink below the horizon. Just over an hour left of today's train ride. It has been dull. Nothing special to watch through the train window either.

22.40 Now we will stop the train traveling for today. We will take what we brought with us here and go out in the evening darkness.

22.46 The train continues further on, to Orsk at the border to Kazakhstan, but most of the passengers got off here in Orenburg, a city on the river Ural on the border between Europe and Asia. It has around 560 000 inhabitants. Orenburg sounds German and it is absolutely correct. When the city was founded in the 1700's it was the Germans from Kurland (today's Latvia) who had a lot of power in Russian government. We knew we would arrive late here and therefore have pre-booked a hotel, which is located right next to the railway station. It was also the hotel booking which gave us the documents we needed when we applied for Russian visas.

23.00 Orenburg, Park Hotel (http://parkhotel56.ru) and room 214. It is our new position. To find the hotel building right next to the station was easy. To find the reception was harder. We first ended up in the restaurant. We had completely missed the door to the upper floor and the front desk. We are now in our next home. My shorts are taking a bath on their own.

23.45 We have no internet connection via the WiFi. It is not good. The internet access is of particular importance to us. We have to cancel the next accommodation if we fail go by bus from here. In addition, we want to know more about the range of restaurants and other stuff in the city. Orenburg is not exactly well documented in the travel literature we have brought with us.


Wednesday 12th of July

08.17 Good morning from Park Hotel! Today, we hope that some things should go well. We would like to have some form of breakfast, then arrange with the purchase of bus tickets for the journey from here tomorrow and also get a working WiFi-connection so that we will be in contact with the internet and the outside world again. This is, by the way, with reservation for possible errors on behalf of my counting, the 1000th day that I write a journal on the trips we´ve made through the years. Orenburg is in addition the 400th place we´ve slept in.

09.03 We have written a note for the bus tomorrow. Christer has written down the destination and other information with Russian letters. We intend to hand over the note in one of the counters at the bus station and hope to get to buy tickets. We believe that there is a shuttle bus from 07.00. This is all we managed to find out on the internet before we came here. There are, possibly and hopefully, other buses. The next mission will be to find out about breakfast. There is still no internet here in our room.

09.22 We have talked to the girl in the reception. The internet is down, kaputt. We are also down but not kaputt. We have gone down stairs for breakfast. For 170 rubles, about US$3, we bought some food over the counter with the help of some pointing. We got sweetened black coffee, pelmeni, a kind of dumpling and a large pirogue. The pelmeni was filled with meat, and the pirogue with ground beef. This is hardly any breakfast buffet. It is a place where various people are looking for a morning meal.

09.52 We had barely returned to the room as there was a knock on the door. It was Viktoria, the young lady in the reception. With the help of the translation program on her phone, she announced that the registration of the visa is down today. We'll inform her when our bus leaves tomorrow so that we have time to get our documents before check-out.

10.04 It is time to get things going. It always feels reassuring to have a ticket that brings us further before we continue to other adventures and activities.

Christer consumes a spontaneous breakfast.

Peter in our breakfast restaurant.

Orenburg railway station.

We have just started a long walk towards the city center.

Peter on a blue bench in Orenburg.

The crossing Parkovyy Prospekt/Rybakovskaya Ulitsa.

10.30 We left the hotel and thought that one of the mini bus drivers outside stood and cried out, "Gulag, Gulag!". Would he take us there? Hopefully it was something else that he cried out. We went without much problem to the bus station, автовокзал (Avtovokzal). We managed first go into the back of the building where a strict old lady told us that we had gone wrong. We handed over the note as we got it right and we discussed about the time of departure. We decided for the ten o'clock bus. It gives us time for a breakfast before departure. As usual, a huge variety in the matter of transport was offered once we arrived on site. It is all the more difficult to obtain information about it when looking for information in advance. Now we are going to bring us to the more central parts.

10.47 There will be a short stop at home in hotel room. We have told Viktoria about when we check out tomorrow morning. The actual information was given as Christer talked into it in her phone and it translated it nicely to Russian.

11.21 We are out in the fresh air again. We are resting on a blue bench with a beautiful flower bed around us. Everything feels freer, happier and better now that we have tickets from here. Nothing wrong with Orenburg but we had not planned to stay here forever. We had purchased several tickets in advance in Sweden but we lacked tickets from here and to the next destination. Overnight train of 15 hours with one change of trains did not feel that good. Then we´ll rather take the bus for seven hours.

11.39 We preferred to stay close to the railway station and bus station here in Orenburg. The backside of it is that we have quite a long walk before we reach the centre of the city. We have walked through various parks, past a theatre, the Cosmos, and some form of amusement park for children. We are now in the 4th of April Park where you can see The Heroes' Alley. They remember heroes from the city that perished in the war. There are also photographs here of the city's local politicians.

11.48 It is nice with a bench break in the sunny weather. A short distance away is a statue of Lenin. We are in the park Skver U Doma Sovetov and here is also a fountain.

12.04 As soon as we are moving again we´ll look for a restaurant for lunch and proceed towards a bridge that spans between Europe and Asia.

12.36 The strolling has taken us into the pedestrian street Sovetskaya and a park with a statue of Lenin. This is, however, a very small Lenin. We have seen a few options but not yet designated restaurant for lunch. Now we are in a small square, an open area. Here is a statue of young woman and some children. She is supposed to have been the town's first female teacher. She stands in the vicinity of the pedagogical university here in the city.

Karavan Saray mosque.

The alley of the heroes.

The Musa Cälil monument (Памятник М. Джалилю). He was a Tatar poet.

The Orenburg city symbol.

Lenin is still standing.

The fountain at Skver U Doma Sovetov.

12.48 The sun fries and we stand and look out over Europe's third longest river, the Ural. It is also the border between Europe and Asia. We have now seen the three longest rivers in Europe. A bridge spans over the river. At the moment we do not know how we are going to take us up on the bridge. The paths, stairs we've seen are all blocked because of some sort of renovation. Over the river is also a cable car. But what now!? There are people up there on the bridge! How did they get there? Is it open from the Asian side?

13.03 There was a way, a flight of stairs at the bridge that we had missed. Right now I stand with left foot in Asia and the right foot in Europe. Last year, we stood across the Equator, what will be the next "line" we stand across? This railing has padlocks. It is, as usual padlock with couples name on it. Wonder if they had Ural sex afterwards?

13.16 The bridge was crossed and we once again put our feet on Asian soil. Now, we have definitely wandered between Europe and Asia. It is, I think, the first time we have crossed such a border on foot. In addition to the river Ural are the Ural Mountains, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, the Black sea and the Bosporus the boundaries between Europe and Asia, but there are different opinions about it. We have after all seen most of them. At the river there is a sand beach and some swimming. When you live this far from the ocean you get to enjoy the water that is available.

13.37 We are back in Europe again. The first thing we did was to get back into the city centre and to the Ege Cafe in Lenin Park. They offer in addition to the food and drink a Wi-Fi connection, according to a sign. We just need a code.

13.52 You can totally forget all about the WiFi, said the waitress, when she arrived with the beer. I don't know exactly if she said that but there was something in her voice that made us believe that. The hunt for the internet in this city goes on. In any case we ordered Lula kebab for lunch. A white cat is sitting next to us and wants to help us to eat our food.

The pedestrian street Sovetskaya Ulitsa.

A smaller Lenin on his own square (Ленинский сквер).

A bridge between Europe and Asia.

A passenger boat on Ural river.

You can cross this river in many ways.

Beach without a sea.

14.28 We are wondering what just happened. On the bill from the lunch, it said 858 rubles and Christer left a 1000 rubles banknote. The waitress did not look pleased. She pointed at the bill and said something. I put a hundred rubles banknote and things went better. The waitress came back with 150 rubles. Why did I have to pay? Also, why the extra 92 rubles?

14.50 It is time for afternoon coffee at the coffee chain Traveler's Coffee (https://www.travelerscoffee.ru). We ordered at the counter and got our coffee in the paper cups. Apparently you can go there if you want to go coffee. You sit down by a table and order if you wish to stay. It is not easy to know and master the routines in each coffee chain we visit. Everyone has their own ritual. We do not care about this and drink from our cardboard mugs sitting at a table. They also have internet, hooray!

15.36 On our way home, we once again stopped at the Heroes' Alley. It is more accurately a twenty stone monuments with stone paintings. On the stone tablets are one to four names. A common factor can be the great patriotic war, better known as the Second World War. We suspect that it is some of the city's fallen boys.

16.14 Waah! said Christer and pulled off his sweaty shirt. It was really hot this afternoon, +25°C. On the road between the avenue and the hotel room where we are now, we bought American soft drinks and Russian beer. From the reception we got two registration papers for our visas and also our key to the room.

18.23 This can be called a siesta, some rest, a nap or simply relax. The fact is that it's nice to slip away for a while without really falling asleep.

On the pedestrian bridge from Europe to Asia.

Peter is in both Europe and Asia.

Peter is having lunch at Ege Café.

Lula kebab.

An interesting perspective.

Walking through central Orenburg.

20.13 We have been thinking about tonight's dinner. We stay far from the city centre where all the interesting restaurants are. Close to us are the hotel's own restaurant, some small shops and the railway station, not much else.

20.30 It is time to slip down one floor to solve this with food. There is much information on the internet about the barbecue in the hotel restaurant but there is no trace of it so far during our stay here.

21.09 We went down one floor, talked to two women who seemed surprised to see us. We asked about dinner and one of the women pointed at a plate of beef burger and fried potatoes. They offer pre-cooked food that can be heated in the microwave oven in the hotel's bar. We said dva, two. The lady behind the counter micro waved the dishes and served us. For the food and a beer in addition, we paid 210 rubles, US$3 each. We got food but no greater enjoyment. The highlight was the two beers we had to drink. It was, after all, cheap.

23.43 We are, after literary trips to Amsterdam and Copenhagen, now back in our room in Orenburg. A disgusting chemical smell penetrates through the mosquito net, possibly from some freight trains on the rails near here. It is time to open the evening beer. For Christer it will be a Bashkirian beer, Shikhan (brewed in Sterlitamak) and for me a beer from Saint Petersburg, Okhota Krepkoe. Speaking of Bashkirian, tomorrow we´ll go to the republic of Bashkiria (Bashkortostan), one of the many parts of Russia, with its own flag, language and culture.

The worst dinner on this trip? Most likely.


Thursday 13th of July

07.15 Morning dawns here in Orenburg. After a night of bad sleep for both of us here at the Park Hotel, we are now ready to face another 13th of July. This is a date during which we have encountered various less pleasant surprises over the years. We have been affected by bad hotels, demanding trips, hassle of health, vehicles which stopped working, power outages and much more just on this date.

08.27 In the breakfast dining room (same as yesterday) there were some gentlemen in the "wide load" category , men with a long line of X's before the L when it comes to the size of the pants. At least we got some pelmeni each. A man with a moustache behind the counter was cheerful, helpful, and placed a red-orange mess on our food and made a thumbs-up. We don't know what it was, perhaps, strong ketchup, chilli sauce or something like that.

09.02 Christer just asked me to hand him the guide book over Russia. Involuntarily I glanced at the bedside table, despite the fact that I knew that the book was in my small backpack. Soon we will leave room, key and hotel. In about an hour starts a bus trip of 7-8 hours. This is assuming it runs as it should. Last year we were stranded and had to wait for a new vehicle when we went by bus in Uganda on this date.

09.18 At the check-out from the Park Hotel a room inspection of our rooms was made by the staff. Everything was green and OK. I am writing this outside the bus station while Christer is buying something for the trip. It is just silly to go in and drag the heavy backpacks past the security control.

09.39 There are two buses with destination Ufa here at the bus station in Orenburg. There are a regular big bus and a minibus. Both vehicles have a geezer behind the wheel. I have an insect in my hair. Which is our bus? I must, whichever bus it is, remove the insect before we board the bus. We don't have any ticket for the bug.

10.09 It was the minibus. The small luggage trunk is full and we had to take our backpacks inside the vehicle. Christer has his in front of him and my backpack is next to me.

10.57 We travel to the north on a flat road. The surrounding landscape is free from any dramatic differences in heights.

12.05 The flat landscape has become a little bit hillier. I don't know about the remaining time and distance, Actually it is not that much we know about this trip more than that it started in Orenburg and will hopefully end in Ufa, the capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan (Bashkiria).

12.28 We have reached Bashkiria. We are now standing still in the town of Kumertau. Passengers stretch the legs, eat something and many do visit in individual booths under the ground.

12.40 Russia is a huge country and contains many different ethnic groups and cultures. Some of these have their own small republics with their own flag and some autonomy. Bashkortostan (Bashkiria) is the most populous of these areas and has approximately 4 million inhabitants. Bashkirians are a Turkic people.

The Bashkortostan flag.

12.54 We are, after the break and ticket control, now ready to continue our journey. OK, it seems that the vehicle refuse start. What day is it today? Yes that's right, July 13th!

13.09 The driver has made a call a little while ago and made various attempts to start the mini bus again. Now a local older gentleman has joined in. They both have looked under the hood. A new attempt is being made. Yes, the engine is running, brilliant!

13.48 Our mini bus continues to roll. 200 kilometres remain of today's journey, if you believe the road signs. Christer has noticed that they (the road signs) are bilingual. One language is Russian. The second is Bashkir.

14.24 We have made a new stop and a few of our fellow passengers have gone out. Other, we are among them, remains seated. Now it is only 160 kilometres left. We hope that the car will start again here in Salavat. The town which received its name from the Bashkirian national hero Salavat Yulaev has also given its name to an oil company. The republic's top ice hockey team has also got its name from the same hero.

14.53 Everything went well and we are once again on the road. Only three hours remain, as long as nothing goes wrong.

Peter is walking through Ufa.

Our room at Mini Hotel Bristol.

Ufa Arena, home for the icehockey team Salavat Yulaev.

After the rain.

16.59 We have passed the city of Sterlitamak and have travelled 319 kilometres today. 49 kilometres remain. I'm fed up going by mini bus.

18.01 We finally arrived in Ufa and got out of the bus. Christer followed our journey through the city with the help of our dear "Blaupunkt function" on Google Maps so we knew exactly where in the city we were when we got out. The remaining distance will be covered on foot. It is really hot here.

18.18 It is, as mentioned, really hot today. We first walked along a roadside, before we finally came to the real sidewalk along the street Parkhomenko Ulitsa. We are now taking a temporary break on a wall in order to lower the body temperature and catch our breaths.

19.09 We have now checked in at the Mini Hotel Bristol (http://hotel-ab.ru/bristol) in Ufa. We are staying in room 7. Something went wrong with the payment but we have internet and breakfast will be served. They offer coffee, rice pudding and pancakes to mention some. The nice front desk girl asked if we wanted milk and/or sugar in the coffee. We answered no. I asked if vodka was included. She laughed and replied, no, not for breakfast. We wondered also if she is the first Bashkir we talked to in our lives. Who knows, maybe?

20.13 Outside the weather has deteriorated. The heat was probably a precursor to this. There are thunder and lightning with howling car alarms. Now we go out and eat. We have here in Ufa once again broken our east record in Europe.

20.35 We walked past the city's hockey arena, Ufa Arena. It is located a stones throw from the hotel. This is yet another country where we have seen an ice hockey arena. Here the junior world cup of ice hockey was played in 2013 and it is also the home of a successful team in the KHL, the Russian ice hockey league. The team became champions in 2011 and is named as mentioned earlier, Salavat Yulaev Ufa (http://hcsalavat.ru). The rain increased and we have sought shelter in a shopping mall, Tsentralnyy. The mall has a food court. We will dine here unless we find another place.

Hot fresh bread while waiting for the main dishes.

Lemonade from Georgia was served to the food.

Christer is having a Turkish dinner at Café Mangal.

This evening´s dinner restaurant.

Mini Hotel Bristol, Ufa.

21.04 The rain eventually calmed down. We continued our walk and went to the restaurant Mangal (http://cafemangal.ru). We got a table and were instructed to press a button as we wanted to order. Said and done, we decided what to eat and drink. The menu was a letter combination of the Russian and Bashkir letters. According to the internet, this is a Turkish restaurant, but the difference between Turkish and Bashkirian food is probably marginal.

21.50 Delicious, really delicious food! This is the place to go to eat. It was also the excellent service.

22.22 On the way home stopped for Christer at a small kiosk to buy a soda. The beverages were behind a sliding glass door in a classic beverage fridge that stood outside the kiosk. A lady who was standing inside the kiosk pushed a button and the door opened. Once home, we paid for one room and two beers. The reverse had only been foolish. We smiled and said good night to the young lady in the reception. She smiled back and wished us a good night. It was then that it hit me; a key would be great to have. The young lady got a good laugh. Linus Omark and Niklas Svedberg don't live here at the hotel but they are two Swedes play in the city's ice hockey team. We are wondering where in the city they live.

23.53 There isn't much taste in our evening and balcony beer. Östersund football club won at home against Galatasaray in the second leg in the qualifying to the Europa League. It was one of the news we took part of with the help of the internet before this day passes into a new one. We have, given the fact that it's been 13th of July today, managed it pretty well.


VIDEOS


You can see 9 photos from July 11 in this photoalbum.
You can see 65 photos from July 12 in this photoalbum.
You can see 14 photos from July 13 in this photoalbum.


CONTINUE


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