The other day Thursday, August 9, I had a very strange, but kool experience that I thought I might share with you all. Another experience that has really shown me how small our world has become.
My day started as usual & I went to the office as usual. Arriving at the office I was presented with a form from the Post Office that a parcel had arrived & was waiting for me to retrieve it. Things being slow I decided to go get it as I already knew it was what I was waiting for & I wanted to pick it up & things being a little slow at the office for me, off I went.
Arriving at the post office I noticed a fellow standing outside beside to bicycles packed with saddle bags & such everywhere. Obviously somebody on a long trip. I paid little heed at that point & went inside to get my package.
When exiting the Post Office I found him still there I decided to have a chat with him & find out what they were up to. Imagine my surprise when he replied in perfect English!!!
After chatting for some time his partner came out, he had been using the phone in the post office, & I met him as well. Their names were Zack & Damien, Canadians doing a cross country bike tour of Russia. You can read about their adventures here
http://www.russiacrossing.org/ They were trying to find some place to fix Damien’s bike & I gave them directions to a couple of places I knew & I also gave them my card in case they had any problems. They had related how all the hotels were full & they had to wait in Tver for another member of their group to meet up with them. I told them that as Valya was out of town for a week that if the really got stuck I could offer them a place on our foldout couch but only for one night as I had to meet Valya in Moscow on Friday & we were going to our friend’s dacha for the weekend on the other side of Moscow.
As it turned out they could not get a room & so they called me, as I was home by then, & I gave them directions to my place. They stopped & bought some beers & came over. They got a chance to shower & clean up some & I made a dinner for them & helped them drink the beer & we had a mini Canadian reunion.
They managed to hook up with their friend the next day & proceeded on their way to Moscow.
It just goes to show that the world is not as big as it once was & when someone asks you why you chose a woman from the FSU, why not just say exactly that.
My neighborhood is a whole lot bigger than it used to be but the world is a whole lot smaller than it used to be.
