Day 67 Wednesday September 3rd Vladivostok

Last night we met the two other people staying in our dorm. One is a young girl (20-25) who is called Nicetya and the other is a young man who has what looks like a police uniform. We haven't talked to him so we don't know his name. Here are some pictures of the hostel.











There is an American woman (50-60) called Arlene who is travelling around the world without using an airplane. She says she is not afraid of flying but just wanted to see if it could be done! She is I'm afraid a bit like lots of Americans in that once she starts talking it s difficult to end the conversation and get away!

We have received an email response from Denis Panferov who is suggesting we buy Shinko road tyres for the journey back as he says they are cheap, handle well and last well on tarmac which seems to fulfil all the requirements we would want.

At 11:00 we duly went around to the train station to sort out all the paperwork for shipping the bikes back to Moscow. The bikes had all been prepared and were crated and wrapped in cling film.













The nice baggage man whose name we know know is Sergay then took us into the train company offices to sort out the paperwork and pay.



The cost for shipping the bikes was just 10,000 rubles each (about £160).

After completing the shipping details we stopped for a coffee at the harbour side right next to the train station.



We also saw an old steam train on display at the station.



Next it was off to a bank to change more US dollars into rubles. This time the cashier accepted the notes that the last cashier had rejected!

We returned to the hostel and checked that we knew the exact location in Moscow where we would pick up the bikes, then we booked a hostel not too far away from there for the nights of 10,11,12, and 13th September.

Now we just have to wait for the bikes to go and then we set off on our very long ( seven day) train journey. We are all wondering how we will keep ourselves occupied on the journey because all we will see most of the time is trees, trees, and more trees!!

Dave wants to buy a chess set, and I think we will also buy a pack of cards.

In the evening the weather was awful, still raining heavily and so we just walked a short way up the street and returned to the nice "bohemian" restaurant where we had another wonderful meal.

More later
RRs


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