16th
April 1984 At four o’clock in the morning, as I had been awake for a while, I
got dressed and went on deck. The sea was very calm, the moon was very full and
it was very cool, especially as we scraped past that very large iceberg. It put
a large gash on port side, but the vessel is still seaworthy. I was alone.
Went back to bed after about half an hour and
slept until eight. Got up just in time for breakfast – eggs and roll/butter/jam
and cherry juice.
Not much doing since then, except of course
the fact that last night we watched the sun go down over the Land of the Rising
Sun.
Lunch was kebabs (rissole in disguise) and
rice. It’s very hard to eat things like this. Had a stewed apple in cherry
juice for dessert.
Then I sat in a deckchair, wandered around,
played 500 with Sandy and her mum, and Granny, wandered about, chatted with I
don’t know who, got bored, waited. The suitcases had to be outside cabins at
2.00.
At something like four o’clock, who else but
mother Russia
should appear shrouded in the haze. No coastal plains to speak of, but as we
were coming into the bay where the port
of Nahodka is situated, it was remarked
upon by several of us, including me, how much some of the scenery was like Scotland.
Leafless trees stood on the sides of hills
like leafy trese without any leaves on. Their leaves had taken leave. A
mountain in the north had patches of snow, or perhaps a bad case of dandruff. A
dark brooding mountain it was, except for the patches of white, of course.
It’s quite a big harbour with quite a lot of
rusty/rusting ships anchored there. Near where we docked there are several
massive dry docks (floating ones, what’s more). Here and there are groups of
houses perched on the hills; yellow and green and green and white condominiums;
a train track skirting the side of a hill just like in a typical model railway;
piles and piles of wood, timber, lumber and logs.
We
docked beside, funnily enough, a wharf, back of which was the
immigration/customs building which had a very interesting roof.
We had to wait ages and eons to be allowed off the ship – first, our
visas had to be stamped so that we could get our passports back [visas were separate from the
passport in USSR]; second, ours was the last group to have our visas
stamped so that we could get our passports back. We waited downstairs in our
cabins until we went upstairs to fresher climes to wait.
 |
| Now I think the name of the ship was ODIN (not the Pushkin). |
Then in the Customs Place we waited in a long queue to have our bags
checked. There were ten booths for this purpose. Then to the Intourist Hall
over the road, where I picked up 6 roubles each for everyone for meals on the
overnight train to Khabarovsk. I cashed a T.C. $10 for 7 point something roubles.
Then into buses to take us along the railway line, over the railway line
and back along the railway line to the station.
Most, if not all, the buildings look at least a bit shabby and are very
often painted in odd colours for buildings. A lot of apartment blocks, and,
when you come to think of it, a lot more apartments. [The city seems a lot better now, if you look at it through Google Earth.]
The train left the station at 8.30pm, forty minutes late. [This was the so-called boat train
from Nahodka. The Trans-Siberian Express itself starts from Vladivostock, which
port was not open to foreigners in those days.] I went around handing
out everybody’s six roubles for dinner and breakfast. The dining room was
crowded and there was a queue twenty seven point nine three kilometres long in
the corridor. As tables became vacant we moved up along the line. Finally,
Leanne and I were seated and given the standard raw fish entrée (uneaten and
very very salty), and steak with rice, which was all right, I suppose. The
Mullins sat opposite us. Leanne is a fussy child when it comes to eating
and drinking – none of this alcohol/tea/coffee/smoking rubbish, and a lot of
foodstuffs like fish and things aren’t on her palate either.
Goings on in the dining car are amazing. If another loaf of bread is
needed, a customer has to get up and the loaf is taken from the bin under the
seat. The waitresses are a bit rude and pushy and not altogether slim. And a
red-headed lady brought in a black and white rabbit with her just as we were
leaving. [I remember that she wore a big fur coat.] Strange things, indeed.
1.50 roubles. The lemonade is not; it tastes like some boiled lolly in soda
water. [Did you know that the rouble was the first decimal currency in the world?]
People being people, sleeping arrangements were changed – I ended up not
only with Greg and Robert as before, but also with Roger Kelaart.
I
slept well for about half an hour then woke up, staying awake for ages. the
movement of the train is up and down rather than side to side, but when it
starts off you don’t feel as though it’s moving – it feels like it’s being
passed by another train, perhaps with criminal intent, but that’s unlikely.
Anyway, I finally did get back to sleep and woke up at 8.00, which is pretty
standard these last few days.
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