Russia

Für alle, die den Quatsch hier gerne auf Deutsch lesen möchten, rate ich http://translate.google.com zu besuchen, die Internetadresse ‘www.platschi.tk’ ins Feld dort einzutrag & auf übersetzen zu klicken. Natürlich vorher Englisch zu Deutsch auswählen.

Here we are. Packed as a donkey, afraid of the cold, but brave enough to face it. -13 °C something in the morning in Kaunas, Lithuania. It’s only getting colder now, all the way up north-east. Three long thermo-proof warmers, two pairs of wool socks, lovely huge boots (promised to be warm till -40 °C), two t-shirts, a warm pullover, two fleece jackets and a rain/winter jacket on top of it, good pair of gloves, my Syrian Kufiya around the neck and a Nepalese sherpa hat to keep the ears warm. Let’s face it!

Starting at the MEGA mall in Kaunas, it takes me no more than a minute for the first truck to stop. Russian truck, going all the way via Vilnius and Minsk far east to Chelyabinsk. Chelyabinsk? Yes, look it up, far behind Ufa and the Ural mountains! Anyway, I don’t have a Belorussian visa, so after four kilometres I have to say goodbye again and go for the road northbound towards Daugavpils and Latvia. Same spot as been here with Kruopa in summer, but this time it takes me nearly thirty minutes until a car stops. Going to Jonava, warming up my hands as good as I can during this thirty kilometres ride. Left out at some huge bridge next to the town, half of the river already frozen into mystic white rings of ice.  I hear no cars, only some trucks engine roaring far behind me. Eventually five minutes later a car drives by and picks me up to Ukmerge. The driver speaks fluent German and shares his stories about his sailing trip from South Africa to Australia this summer. Something about the 1000 year celebration of Lithuania, pretty awesome stuff. Keeps me thinking of the hot summer sun of the Caribbean sea, sailing, hitchhiking boats. Seems to be like thoughts from another planet if you can barely look outside due to the frozen windows which are covered with ice. His thermometer shows -15 °C already. Behind Ukmerge we say good-bye.

In Ukmerge the wind blows pretty strong, which is not really nice. An attempt to get off my gloves for a minute results in hurting red hands. Bad idea, just keep everything where it is and stay calm. Somebody will stop, for sure. This takes me twenty minutes here, but the next ride is a funny Lithuanian who even drove back after riding along me. His van is not so warm, but anyway we go quite a long way until the crossing just before Zarasai, not even twenty km before Latvia. I make good time, it’s maybe one a clock now. Time to make a picture due to rare traffic along the road. A frozen lake to my left, an old man sitting there in the middle of it, fishing out of a small hole. I wonder how he stands the cold, while I’m walking in circles trying to keep my circulation warm. It works, at some point I’m even sweating because of too much clothes on. Thumb and face still frozen, though. But who is complaining here?

It takes a short and fast ride to Zarasai, unfortunately to the beginning of town. Walking for some meters results in a truck to stop for me, just bringing me 2 km further. A short walk, and I’m at the end of town. Some kilometers and there’s Latvia. Eventually half an hour of waiting later a couple stops. Going to Daugavpils, the driver seems to be a truck driver by himself. Calling his company, but unfortunately the last truck to Moscow left just an hour ago. Who cares, this time  I want to try the ring around Daugavpils anyway, as hitchhiking through the city pretty much sucked last summer. And, who would doubt it, it worked just perfectly! Two minutes maybe at the crossing, a lowered BMW with two chicks and a Latvian gigolo pick me up. Wondering why the hell I’m here along the road to Riga, when I want to go to Rezekne. Having a hard time explaining them the idea of a highway-ring around a town, they leave me off eight kilometers later, where I see a turn right for the road northwards to the city mentioned earlier. They might think I’m some freaked out German dude totally out of his mind, and eventually after assuring them that I know what I’m doing, they leave me there. And indeed, I wished they could see what happened next. The first truck to pass the road stops. Great air-condition, 23 °C hot cabin, Sergey and me are driving north soon, into the dark that surrounds us already while passing the village of Malta. He’s going to St. Petersburg, which is a great ride though, but unfortunately I have to leave in Rezekne to catch the road eastwards to Moscow. We try the CB-radio, and indeed at a roundabout in the north of town we switch cars. A truck going towards the border, great!  It’s worth to mention that the road around Rezekne is amazing, three (or even more?) roundabouts with huge light instalments and bus bays at it’s end, perfect for night-hitchhiking going all possible directions (Riga, Lithuania, Moscow, St. Petersburg).

Anyway, my new driver is pretty much into silence, and the only conversation is about my passenger door which is constantly opening itself during the ride. Hold on for dear life, don’t let the cold in, it’s -20 °C already on his board computer!

At 6 pm we arrive at the border, or let’s say: 8 kilometres before the border. He leaves me at some other roundabout which is highly lighted. It’s unbelievable cold already if you’re never ever been used to such weather in your life. Fortunately another trucks stops pretty fast, but driving for 500m it’s an end again. We reached the end of the traffic jam of waiting trucks at the border. Happy Birthday. I have 6 hours to wait until the visa starts anyway, way to early, so Dimitry and me are preparing sandwiches, drinking lots of tea and watch an amazing collection of the ‘Top 100 Pop Classics Music Videos’ on his laptop. Good times, lots of laughs, good old music and a fantastic English learning book for children later it’s 11 pm and I decide to walk over to the border checkpoints. It’s some weird feeling, walking in total dark along a kilometer-long line of trucks, all engines on to keep up the drivers warm in their cabins, no lights, dirty fumes around you, the sticking cold. Even the snot in your nose transforms itself into icicles. It’s just awesome, and during this moment of walking I know I enjoy this trip to it’s best. This is awesome. I want more. Russia, here I come.