Sep 22, 2010
Yaroslavl: First Impressions
Maybe because it was a nice day or perhaps it was the way people greeted me or maybe it was the comfortable rest I had after a 12-hour train ride or a combination of it all but my first impression of Yaroslavl was a great one. The young people on the street are quite fashionable with their own sense of style. The city is peppered with onion-dome churches and colorful pastel buildings. As a matter of fact there is color everywhere. It's interesting to see the changing colors of the leaves which is a sign of autumn with the colors of blooming flowers which I associate with spring and summer. I feel a good vibe here.
On The 12-hour Fast Train to Yaroslavl
One might get a bit nervous at the thought of sharing close quarters on a train with a stranger for 12 hours especially in a foreign country. Although I have traveled by train in Russia before, this would be my longest ride and the first time sharing a sleeper cabin with a stranger. I wondered how people were paired. Was it random? I later found out that when making reservations people had the option of selecting the sex of the person with whom they would want share a cabin. I was surprised to find out that most men preferred to share with other men but for women it was 50/50 choice.
Anyway, I lucked out. My cabin mate was a 26 year old man who worked for Johnson & Johnson and was on his way to Yaroslavl on business. He spoke perfect English and was an all around nice guy. He has a daughter with another one on the way and was planning their first family trip to the US via South America in a few months. Our conversations dispelled many myths we had about each others culture, religion and way of life. He was particularly interested in the Baptist Church and why the Black people dance during the services. Having grown up in a similar religion I was able to provide some insight. I on the other hand wanted to know why there weren't any seats in the Russian churches. Most of his knowledge about the States came from movies and stories he'd heard so I was able to fill in the blanks and clear up some untruths.
As the hours sailed by, the vodka flowed. And although I kept saying no, he kept pouring. I wasn't about to get drunk on a rocking train with a 5:30 am arrival time in a city that I have never been to to meet people that I have to work with for the next 2 weeks. Not a good first impression. But I also didn't want to jeopardize the good vibe that we were having so I employed a trick that I learned from the movie Coyote Ugly. In the movie the sexy female bartenders would seduce the patrons into buying them shots vodka or tequila. The girls would pretend to chase their shots with a swig of beer from a dark bottle but they didn't actually swallow the shot. Instead they would spit it back into the bottle and no one would be the wiser. In my case it was a juice box. By the end of the night that juice box was full but I was still sober.
A trip to the snack/bar car made it evident that vodka swigging was the thing to do on this long trip. When we entered, everyone stared for a minute until one of the drunk men broke the silence by declaring that I looked like Pushkin. The others agreed and wanted to pose with me and take pictures with their phones. I was offered more vodka but my now drunk cabin mate thought I had had enough.
At 5:50 on the dot the train arrived in Yaroslavl. It took some aggressive shaking to wake up my cabin mate but I had arrived safely and sober and was greeted Nat and Victor. Welcome to Yaroslavl.
Anyway, I lucked out. My cabin mate was a 26 year old man who worked for Johnson & Johnson and was on his way to Yaroslavl on business. He spoke perfect English and was an all around nice guy. He has a daughter with another one on the way and was planning their first family trip to the US via South America in a few months. Our conversations dispelled many myths we had about each others culture, religion and way of life. He was particularly interested in the Baptist Church and why the Black people dance during the services. Having grown up in a similar religion I was able to provide some insight. I on the other hand wanted to know why there weren't any seats in the Russian churches. Most of his knowledge about the States came from movies and stories he'd heard so I was able to fill in the blanks and clear up some untruths.
As the hours sailed by, the vodka flowed. And although I kept saying no, he kept pouring. I wasn't about to get drunk on a rocking train with a 5:30 am arrival time in a city that I have never been to to meet people that I have to work with for the next 2 weeks. Not a good first impression. But I also didn't want to jeopardize the good vibe that we were having so I employed a trick that I learned from the movie Coyote Ugly. In the movie the sexy female bartenders would seduce the patrons into buying them shots vodka or tequila. The girls would pretend to chase their shots with a swig of beer from a dark bottle but they didn't actually swallow the shot. Instead they would spit it back into the bottle and no one would be the wiser. In my case it was a juice box. By the end of the night that juice box was full but I was still sober.
A trip to the snack/bar car made it evident that vodka swigging was the thing to do on this long trip. When we entered, everyone stared for a minute until one of the drunk men broke the silence by declaring that I looked like Pushkin. The others agreed and wanted to pose with me and take pictures with their phones. I was offered more vodka but my now drunk cabin mate thought I had had enough.
At 5:50 on the dot the train arrived in Yaroslavl. It took some aggressive shaking to wake up my cabin mate but I had arrived safely and sober and was greeted Nat and Victor. Welcome to Yaroslavl.
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