Once I took a train from Moscow to Venice. In those days, there suddenly happened a war in Yugoslavia and the train was rerouted via Vienna. The Austrians requested transit visas from train passengers, so practically very few travelers were accepted on board. I turned out in a compartment with a young secretary girl alone. She had sort of a bonus vacation to Venice from her company. Fortunately her name was Lena, so we went in town in Budapest to take a breath and missed our train with all our stuff in the car. As I know some practical Hungarian, we managed to take the next train towards Vienna. We recovered our our baggage at the border crossing station. Everything was intact but a couple of bottles of vodka were missing from my travel bag. Then we got to Vienna, a city I know well. The train we had tickets for was gone and we had to take a local train to Venice next day. Actually I was going not to Venice but to a small village on the Lake north of Milano. It was quite a problem booking a new ticket to that station as nobody in Vienna could find it on the railroad map. In Venice I kissed Lena goodbye and continued to Milano. Milano, you should know, has a grandioso fascist style central station. I admire that station better than the Grand Central in NYC. And there, in Milano I had a real adventure! I like walking in strange places in new towns. Once - it was in Rotterdam - I even had met the people I could not speak with - they spoke neither German, nor French and even English. I understand the Dutch after having six pints of beer but cannot speak it. This time, it was the lunch time and I could not find a different place to eat than Wendy's! In Milano!!! Yet I made a discovery. I went in a bookstore and there was an artist's album that touched all the string of my soul at once. I had never heard of this artist. I decided to buy a better album of his back in Vienna but when I came to Vienna, nobody in the bookstores had ever heard his name!!! Otto Dix turned out to be a German.
So this is it about traveling the Russian Railroads.
Hey, there was one adventure more! On the train back to Moscow, as we crossed the border with Poland, I met an immigrant into Russia! The passport control police would not believe their eyes either. But he was emigrating from Poland to Russia permanently.
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As I know some practical Hungarian, we managed to take the next train towards Vienna. We recovered our our baggage at the border crossing station. Everything was intact but a couple of bottles of vodka were missing from my travel bag.
Then we got to Vienna, a city I know well. The train we had tickets for was gone and we had to take a local train to Venice next day. Actually I was going not to Venice but to a small village on the Lake north of Milano. It was quite a problem booking a new ticket to that station as nobody in Vienna could find it on the railroad map. In Venice I kissed Lena goodbye and continued to Milano.
Milano, you should know, has a grandioso fascist style central station. I admire that station better than the Grand Central in NYC. And there, in Milano I had a real adventure! I like walking in strange places in new towns. Once - it was in Rotterdam - I even had met the people I could not speak with - they spoke neither German, nor French and even English. I understand the Dutch after having six pints of beer but cannot speak it. This time, it was the lunch time and I could not find a different place to eat than Wendy's! In Milano!!! Yet I made a discovery. I went in a bookstore and there was an artist's album that touched all the string of my soul at once. I had never heard of this artist. I decided to buy a better album of his back in Vienna but when I came to Vienna, nobody in the bookstores had ever heard his name!!! Otto Dix turned out to be a German.
So this is it about traveling the Russian Railroads.
Hey, there was one adventure more! On the train back to Moscow, as we crossed the border with Poland, I met an immigrant into Russia! The passport control police would not believe their eyes either. But he was emigrating from Poland to Russia permanently.