 |
| ooh it's cold |
Two days together again – afraid no wi-fi yesterday
Day 16
4,039 Miles GMT +6hrs Temp -22
I’ve had a quiet day today, the furthest I’ve been
is the Banya – to dry the washing, don’t get excited.
Lena and Anya have been into the city this morning,
but I stayed here to give my face a rest from the cold.
I’ve not mentioned the weather so far. What’s it
like at –20? I’m using total sun block on my face to stop the glare from the
snow burning my face, as well as stopping my balaclava from freezing to my
face. I’ve been getting through one stick of lipsalve a day to stop my mouth
freezing shut. I had been wearing sunglasses up to Perm for the glare but then
I had to swap to snow goggles, as the wind was making my eyes water and then
freeze. I can only talk outside without covering my face for a couple of
sentences, as it feels like I’m chewing and swallowing razor blades. Apart from
that I’m fine, my various layers of thermal clothing are keeping the rest of me
warm.
Galina came round this afternoon and has been just a
joy to behold. She went through all of the photos very carefully, asking
Lena lots of questions. I have a few on my laptop from home of Tynemouth and
northern England, so I showed Galina those too. She was fascinated by the sea
and beach. She asked me what it felt like to stand on sand, which took a bit of
doing, I’ve not thought it about it before.
I made shepherd’s pie and cherry crumble, with some
of the bottled cherries, form the orchard, carefully shadowed by Galina, who
asked Lena to write down the recipe for the crumble. She's going to entertain
her friends with "continental" food. We offered to take her home
after dinner tonight, but Galina was having none of it. “I’ve been coming here
for over 70 years, save your energy, my feet know the way home.”
Lena as written about her experience of growing up in
closed city during the Soviet era:
I was nervous about bringing Gail here to the Dacha.
I have not shared this place with anyone out side of my family. That summarizes
my suspicious nature and this is where I was taught to be suspicious. Not to
trust anyone outside of my own family.
I was suspicious of the blog too but maybe this is
true Glasnost (openness).
I was born in this city. We did not live here in
this Dacha full time, this was our escape from the grey city of factories and
everything Soviet. We had an apartment that none of us liked, but that is where
we were allocated to live. Our previous family home which had also been built
by my ancestors was demolished along with others to make way for concrete
apartments. This place is far enough out of town not to be disturbed.
From Easter to September my mother would see us off
to school and then come here and we would come here after school for a few
hours. On Fridays we would stay here for most weekends. In winter we came
for the day occasionally, as it can become inaccessible in bad Siberian winter
(bad Siberian weather is beyond –30)
The city in 1970's and 1980's was more like a
military camp than a city. The parks and playgrounds had tanks and rockets in.
We had lessons at school in first aid and what to do if the city was attacked.
There were bomb shelters all around. Looking back the whole city was a bomb. If
there had been a war and ours had been hit no amount of shelters would have
saved anyone. There was a system of sirens which would have been used in the
event of an attack. They were so loud. Most times we were warned it was a drill
but sometimes there was no warning. It was frightening to be child then. The
threat of the cold war felt very real, even though my mother did her best to
reassure us it would not happen. My father was in the army so not home much,
not that it mattered he live by my mothers Manifesto not the party one.
In 1979 there were a lot of deaths in the city suddenly
in one week. We were told it was food poisoning. My mother did not believe it.
She moved us here for a few weeks until there were no more. She was afraid the
water was poisoned in the city and we have a well close to here. Years later I
found out she was partly right. It was not the food, it had been an anthrax
leak from a chemical plant. If the wind had been blowing in a different
direction things would have been very much worse.
When I left Yekaterinburg in 1982 to study and go to
the officers academy, I swapped one closed city for another. I was fortunate to
have that opportunity. I had friends at school who wanted it too but they were
not accepted. The long nights of reading and learning with my mother helped me.
They didn’t have that opportunity. Their parents were not educated and worked
in factories.
I was at the academy for four years where I studied
Russian history and literature and I was trained to be an officer.
I come back here when I can, this is my home. It is
still my escape although last time was almost two years ago. Galina takes
care of the Dacha for me when I am elsewhere. Coming back here puts me back in
touch with myself. It reminds me of where I came from and the journey I started
when I left. I have seen lots of things in that time, some good some not
so good. There have been a lot of changes in Russia, but not enough for most
people and some too late for others.
 |
| The dog sledders: Nicholai, Lena, Oleg, Pavel, Grigor, Me, Urie |
 |
| Convoy |
 |
| Coffee break |
Day 17 - Off to the Urals for some snow fun
We were up early and on a local train before 7am this morning. We have arrived at Volchika – Wolf Mountain, which is one of the many winter sports resorts in the Urals. We’ve spent today on a Dog sledding trip, along with a few others. It was fabulous. Tonight I know where Wolf Mountain gets its name from, we heard them calling. It is an astonishing sound floating in the night air.
 |
| Night approaches and so do the wolves |
No comments:
Post a Comment