Where to start????

That is the question??? The train? Seven days without taking a shower? Mashed potatos and top ramen every night? Trying to pee (and poo) standing up in a train going about 60 mph? Okay...first things first.

The night we are supposed to leave I, deni d, get DEHLI BELLY!!!!! You guys may know it as Montezuma's Revenge and boy was he pissed at me! I cannot think of anything that was so painful in my life. NO JOKE! It is not so much the potty time I invested but the stomach cramping. It was horrible!!!! And only to think, "HEY...I am about to get on a train for 7 days! YIPPEE!!!!". Not. I lie in bed all day long and at about 6ish we start getting ready to head to the train station thinking that if we get there early we can check in early. 90 degree heat, no A/C in the station, and did you know that homeless people do not take showers OR clean there socks??? The smell in the joint was outrageous!!! The heat only made it worse. I am not one to pick on homeless people but the guy could have kept his shoes on! So we actually do not check into the train till about 15 minutes before departure time. We get on and had a "what have we gotten ourselves into" moment. You know in the movies were they both look at each other at the same time in complete fear. All i could think was i was going to have to be sick on this thing for 7 days. Again, no A/C at least until the train started moving. I saw the look on some of the other english speaking people faces as well and they were just as terrified. I plopped my butt down on our little bench/bed and sulked in my own pitiful sickness. Did I mention departure time was 23:55...11:55 pm? So the minute we got on the thing we were to go to bed. For a moment I think we both thought, " you know, flyin' ain't a bad idea?" but the money was already spent. Honestly, we both knew that when we went to sleep that we were one day down so that was a good thing.

So, the only thing free on the train was hot water. No bread, no "hello's", no smiles. We pretty much knew to expect that. We were told by another lady who spoke Russian that they were quite nice, but when someone constantly has that "sh*t smell" on their face you really start to question that. Luckily Bill and I invested money into tons of tiny little top ramens and mashed potato cups. DELICIOUS!!!! No joke. I would never eat it at home but the stuff here is awesome. And the potatos??? Everyone needs to write their senator and get these little babies. Instant mashed potatos have never been so good. We bought a couple bottles of wine, vodka, and some tea and coffee. We were set. Just ready to sit on the train...for 6 more days...and sleep...and sit...read a book...sit again...for 6 more days...

So lets get to the part I know a lot of you want to know about...THE BATHROOM SITUATION. What bathroom? It was more like a room full of urine all over the place. No joke. Porta potts at rock concerts have been cleaner. Trying to use the bathroom was like trying to pee during an earthquake. Toilet paper? Why? Your in Russia! NO one uses it! Just use...nothing? It was truly a good thing that we had brought our own because out of the 6 days on the train there was TP only three. I also do not think I have gone without a shower in 6 days since I was a kid and somehow got away with it. Just a rag. There was a bar of soap in the RR, but too many short and curlies were on it if you get my drift.

Now, this might be sounding a bit pessimistic. I am only giving you the truth. I could say it was the best experience of my life and some parts of this were. I also want you all to know the not so good parts too. Bill would agree with me so far...

B: Yes, she's telling the truth everybody. In fact, when you "flush" a little door opens in the bottom of the toilet and it goes out onto the tracks. You can see all the way to the rails. They lock the doors when the train is in station so at least people aren't "flushing" in the railyard. Dad said they used to do this America until some train crew was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Maybe this is why Russia is not the most pleasent smelling place? Well, it is a start. So, the good part...we got to China? No. There were good things. There were 6 other people that we met that suffered along with us. "The Spainards", Mareia and Rueben. "The Aussies", Jenny and Gary. Then Rita and her daughter Alexandra "The lifesavers". So we were not the only English speaking people that were a bit scared. We all had an idea in our heads but it was not quite what we expected and we chatted about it everday over some wine, vodka, and some delicous little eats we bought from the babushkas at every train stop. This really helped us all keep our sanity. I think we were all a bit worried but a few drinks and a few eat always makes everyone a bit more at ease. At every train stop, which was only about 15-25 minutes, you had the option to get off and explore a bit. This usually made me worry when Bill got off by himself because if you know Bill...well, lets just say that I do not think they have airports in the middle of Siberia and will not hesitate to leave you! The babushkas swarmed us!!! This is their livliehood and they knew our train schedule better than us. They has delicious eats and drinks native to their part of Russia. Anything from perogis to fried bread filled with mincemeat, to boiled peanuts and fresh fruits and vegitables. On hot days there were ladies selling yummy ice pops. Bill and I were always looking forward to a new stop because we wanted to see what the babs. were selling. So what we have enough dried food to feed an army? I want fried bread and blinys! We always got better food than the others because we did a bit more exploring. We looked like vultures at times because when we got the food we started devouring it on the spot. We had this thought in mind...If it was good, buy more! When is the next time we will ever be over here? Ummmm, NEVER, so buy another one!

B: It was all super cheap, never more than a couple bucks.

D: Oh yeah, not only was the food good but the scenery was as well. We saw some absoutely amazing parts of Russia that we felt like we were the only people who had ever seen it. It was breathtaking. It started out very barren and turned into lush green mountains speckled with little houses and huges gardens. Some houses were grand and a lot more were shanties. We thought every once in a mile, "how do they live like that?" But to them it was home and i am sure they think the same thing. It made us miss home every once in a mile too.

B: When we hit the Russian border we hopped off the train with the rest of the English speakers and went for a good meal. With Rita and Alexandra at our side speaking Russian, we were actually able to find out where the best place to eat in the border town. We had Uzbekistan food for my birthday and it was awesome.

We had time to kill because the rails Russian trains go on are wider than the Chinese ones. So we were killing time while they lifted the cars up and placed them on different sized wheels. Once they let us back on we had to talk to the customs guys who came on the train and crawled all over it. Finally, on our way to China.

I knew that China would be a lot better than Russia as soon as we crossed the border. Their customs officials were polite, well groomed and spoke decent English. We got to wander around the station for a couple hours and the guards there actually smiled (something we'd not seen at all in Russia). However, we still had a day and a half till we would arrive in Beijing.

We arrived at 6am at the main train station. We hopped off and practically ran for a taxi. We negotiated a price (negotiate for everything here) and went straight to the Holiday Inn bed that Mom booked us for my birthday present (thanks Mom!).

China's great by the way. We're having a lot of fun here riding our bikes around the little neighboorhoods and checking out the usual sights like the Forbidden City and all that. We only booked four nights at first and then we added four more. We'll probably go ahead and do a whole two weeks before finally getting on south to Xi'an. We'll keep ya'll posted and get back in the groove of blogging.