You win some, you lose some

We've had bouts of luck on this trip, both good and bad. Examples:

• We didn't know that May 2 was a huge holiday here and were unable to get train tickets out of Moscow or a hotel at our destination. So we took a commuter train (seats like a school bus, took 4 hours instead of 2) to Vladimir. We stayed in Vladimir instead of in Suzdal where we wanted to be. Both are ancient towns (around 1100's). Suzdal is small and charming with more churches than people, it seemed. Vladimir is larger and very industrial, but at least we had a bed to sleep in. We did Suzdal as a day trip on the bus (after the 4h train ride). Again, because of the holiday, the return bus trip had 52 people on a 25 seater. We were standing! The good luck - hotel in Vladimir was cheap, good and had a huge buffet!
• The next train we had to book was slightly better than the commuter train. It is called "plascartny" and doesn't have private compartments. We did not intend to travel in this class, but rather one class up, called "kupe", with 4 bunks per compartment. In plascartny, you share a pod-like cluster of 6 bunks. We shared with 4 Russian women and one baby. Them immediately hated us because we got on at a stop after them. They surely thought the space would remain empty and had filled it with their stuff. Our luggage area was filled and they had all of their vitamins on our table. They were very annoyed that Paul re-arranged their stuff in our compartment. I was still confident we could make friends. I thought the baby would be our ticket to friendship with them. Nope! The baby was the only one who smiled at us the entire time. I think I glimpsed a smile when we got off 18 hours later!
• Perm is highly recommended by the Lonely Planet (LP) guide book as a great place from which to tour Perm-36, an out-of-use Russian gulog. Gulogs were work camps, compared to concentration camps, in use for much of the 20th century. We found out yesterday that the 36 hours we alotted for the trip would not be enough. Sadly the LP doesn't make clear that you need 3 hours on a bus to get to Perm-36 from Perm. With the bus schedule as it is, you would get there, have an hour at the gulog if all went as planned, then have to catch the return bus back. Or take a taxi for about $250 USD. So, we found ourselves in Perm with nothing much to do. Perm is a large, industrial city with no tourist appeal. Or so we thought! We found a great blini (like crepes) place where we have already made 3 visits, eaten at least 10 blinis and drunk 20 cups of tea. After we had an early dinner, we decided to check out the local theatre, which is supposed to have great performances in opera, music and dance. Paul was hoping for a symphony and I was hoping for ballet. What we got was a Russian opera. Good news? Free tickets! When we found ourselves at the theatre at 5:55 to inquire about shows for the night, we were told one was starting in 5 minutes. When we said "nyet bilyeti" (no tickets) to everyone we saw, we kept getting ushered further and further into the building. Finally we were shown to what looked like a reserved box of great seats! What a treat. Of course, we understood nothing, but the experience was wonderful.

You do meet some really nice people. The ladies at the opera who gave us free seats at the ladies at the Perm bus station who did their best to get us there and back in the time alotted, even painstakingly writing us directions in English.

Well, now we're off on a 60+ hour train ride. Next stop - Irkutsk! I will be entering Asia for my first time along the way. Very exciting! And, kupe class at that! Life is good!