trip report (temporary post)
As promised I’m writing the “cold on the heels” reports of my travels. The text volume seems to be extremely huge so I’ve decided to split it into two logical parts: EPT and RPT. The will be some hand descriptions in the second one.
In Berlin I felt a bit uncomfortable because of the language barrier. Of course, I know English words but it was not that easy for me to recognize them when heard. On the third day I finally got used to it and in the evening I actively played the “alligator game” (similar to charades but with only 1 person explaining) on the reception trying to explain something with gestures if I did not know the appropriate words.
I got a brief chance to see the city only the day before my departure. I was accompanied with some “hooligan” who has been living there for a long time.
I took some pictures, travelled by the local train. Hooligan told me that we should go as stowaways since it was Sunday. I didn’t catch why we should do that and asked him about it. He said that Germans are very law-abiding citizens and they ALWAYS pay when they travel. But on weekends the ticket collectors prefer to screw that stuff and not to waste their time on checking the tickets that everyone has. But I really really wanted to be a “good guy” and buy the ticket!
It seems to be somehow connected with that in Hitler times all stowaways have been simply shot. And nowadays that fear remained in depth of their subconsciousness and their blood (probably, that sounds a bit awkward but makes total sense to me).
The local train has the same size as the one in Moscow subway. You have the feeling as if you travel from Textilschiki to Volgograd avenue)). And Berlin subway itself is approximately 1.2345678987654321 times smaller than ours. By the way, in subway a group of crazy Italian girls entered our car crying and shouting "......", ".....!!!!!!!!!" and something like ".....!!!!!! oooh...". Just in case I stretched my feet because I had Italian flags on the sides of my boots ;).
Hooligan told me that the stores in Berlin get closed extremely early. And previously they got closed unbelievably early. I mean: clothing store is closed at 6 PM and doesn’t work on weekends at all!!! Lol! It looks like they don’t care about money at all. Aren’t there any people working there?
By the way, there are approximately 100,000 Russians in Berlin (as far as I remember, probably, mistaken). When I was leaving my hotel I got a Russian taxi driver. Our dialog:
-To the railway station.
-What?
-Train! Too-Too!
-Shprehen zi Rusish?
-Aga.
-(in Russian) So where should we go?
-TO THE RAILWAY STATION, mlya!!
Once hooligan showed me a high-rise building and said that it has been purchased by GazProm in order to remove it and build some very cool-modern-hightech-huge building on its place. And some papers commented on this as “these Russians are getting really insolent”.
Moreover, I realized that they don’t celebrate the International Women’s Day in Germany. Well, actually they do, but only lesbians. So I’d better hold my tongue tomorrow and avoid congratulating all the Fraus with the 8-th of March - otherwise, that might cause trouble)).
In the end of the day we burst into the commentary studio where there were at least 10 guys commenting in different world languages on the Main Event Final Table. So the nearest couple of hours I spent with pleasure in the company of Ilya Gorodetskiy, luckily I’m pretty good in “saying yes” in the right time.
From Berlin I departed to Kiev. As you might have realized already - not by the plane. There were almost nobody in my car (as I’ve already mentioned: trains are not that popular for travels on such distances since plane is 18 times faster and even cheaper). So I made myself comfortable and started hamstering a verrrrrry tasty sandwich.
It was pretty warm in my compartment this time. First of all I finished reading the book by Akunin. Then I tried to plug in my laptop into the socket with the razor picture nearby but was unsuccessful. Anyways, I got enough battery for 3 series of LOST and then the German-Ukrainian night would be approaching slowly.
Right before going to bed I went through the hassle and with the help of my friends opened the book by Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) “The Gun Seller” on my iPhone. However, I was really tired and fall asleep pretty soon.
I was awakened by the polish Pan the Customs Officer)). He’s been checking my passport for a long time, then finally asked something in his dialect and showed me the expiration date of my visa: March 8. The point is that it was already March 9, 5 AM and so according to my documents I was not allowed to enter the territory of Poland. If I would have to get out of the train at that moment I swear the God that I’d never ever even think about going anywhere by train in my life.
Here’s our dialog:
-Vitaliy?
-Yes.
-Mumbo-jumbo mumbo-jumbo?
-I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
-Not understand? Mumbo-jumbo mumbo-jumbo tratatambo. (pointing into expiration date again)
-I don’t understand.
Finally, Pan the Lord of the Boarders sighed and stamped my passport. (Ha-ha, that reminded me on the university exams when you know only the name of the course and even here you’re not really sure!) Wow, he didn’t even ask me for a bribe. I was really happy and I fall into sleep once again.
In the morning I warmed up one of my yesterdays sandwiches on the radiator (easy hidden +EV spot, concealed microwave)) and decided to read the book from iPhone...
And now the terrible thing happened. I’m starting the browser… See the text that has been downloaded yesterday… but the stupid Apple product is trying to renew the page!! Damn!!! There’s no internet here, no network. And that’s it. Zvezdets. The old text vanished and there’s no way to get the new one. That was really cruel. I could hardly imagine what else I should do for the remaining 4.5 hours.
I bothered the conductor, got some news paper and started reading it all over. Oh, yeah, I remember going once for the boiled water to put it in Doshirak (sort of fast food noodles). On the way back to my compartment, I remembered the Berlin robbery, and realized one more time that nobody in this world is insured from sudden badbeats… The reason was that the doors could be opened only outwards but not inwards! And the corridor was extremely narrow. So if somebody would decide to get out of their compartments (for instance, to go to the bathroom) at that particular time when I was carrying the boiled water through the corridor, one of us would get scalded and almost surely that would be me.
I have to say, that in half an hour my guardian angel finally came back to help me. Being bored I tried to charge my laptop one more time and, wow! It worked! So I watched 3 more series of LOST and arrived to Kiev at 4:50 PM. And exactly in 10 minutes there was a 6-max RPT $550 tourney starting. So I took my bags, sat down in the taxi and in a good mood rushed to the Rus Hotel.