Travel Diary 1995-96 - Part 1

I studied Russian language and literature at the University of St Andrews in Scotland from 1993‑98. In my third year I had the choice of taking a year abroad, thus making the course a five-year degree, or taking a semester abroad and finishing the course in four years. I went for the whole-year option, and, in August 1995, headed off to Odessa in Ukraine, starting with a short stop in Moscow.

I'm going to present excerpts from my diary of that experience. It was a life-changing experience in many ways and I am all the richer for it. In fact, as I write this, I'm listening to Akvarium, one of my favourite bands of all time. I was introduced to them while I was in Odessa and so began a life-long love!

Big shout out to my pal @barge as I'm basically copying his idea of making a travel blog from old diaries! Cheers Barge!

I was 23 when I left Scotland for Moscow...

27 August 1995

I'm just home after having spent the night with Maura. It was wonderful and saying goodbye was really tough. Still, I'm glad for the time we did have together, and hey, I'll be back!

I've plenty more goodbyes to go through before the day's out.

Graeme ran me to Glasgow along with Campbell, Heather and Anne Bone. All the troops came to see me off. It was a heavy thing to go through. Dom met me at Heathrow and we went for an Indian in Brick Lane. Off to Dagenham. Eeko can't make it. He's in Harrow. He's gonna meet me at Victoria tomorrow. I wrote to M. I miss her. Slept on Dom's living room floor. Most comfy!

^{At the bus stop in Dagenham}

28 August

Up at 8. Met Eeko as planned. Good on ye boy! Got the Express train to Gatwick. Met Becky. Bought a litre of Talisker whisky and the statutory Drum tobacco. The flight was about three and a half hours. I scored a Swatch. Bloody good move. Airport in Moscow was whitey! You think Midnight Express was bad! We met Sasha at the airport and had to get a taxi. 80 dollars. What a whitemare.

Moscow's mental. Sasha's gaff is pretty cool. Mod cons! We drank some nutty water with mushrooms growing on top. It was actually quite nice. Then some tea with jam in it. Nuts or what? It's made me realise how bad my Russian is. It's gonna take some getting used to, I can tell you. Becky's is shit hot. Looks like she's the spokesperson for the next few days. She's really nice. Looks like I had her figured out all wrong. She's in a room to herself. Dom and I are sharing and Sasha's in the kitchen. Oh aye, the taxi ride took about an hour and the driver was off his head.

29 August

^{View from our apartment block | Dom in the kitchen}
Up fairly early. Dom and Becky had kasha. I didn't. It looked horrible. Boiled eggs instead. Mmmmm.

Sasha took us out to change money then onto the bus to Prazhskaya metro station. We fired into the city, leaving Sasha at some other place. We wandered about a lot — Red Square and an excursion into Lenin's Mausoleum. There he was, the wee fella, just lying there with not a lot to say for himself. Went into the Kremlin. It was cool. Weather was bloody hot. Too hot for my liking. We were supposed to meet Bev at Pushkin Square. Turns out that she waited across the road from where we were. What a pisser. We headed off to the Novy Arbat for a beer in the Irish pub. 22,000 roubles for a beer, so we rubbered that and had one on the street for about the same. Mental or what. We bought some bevvy from a kiosk and headed back to Sasha's. The three of us sat and had a wee natter. Becky's nice! It was a good day. Not like I expected Moscow to be like at all. We eat in a McDonalds. It's the biggest one I've ever seen!

30 August

Slept in a bit. It's Becky's 20th today. Sasha went out so I phoned Maura. We headed out. Weather was hot again. Went to the aerovokzal to find out bus times to the airport tomorrow. We went to Gorky Park! It wasn't very good. Still, what d'you expect. Ate some blinchiki with apricot. They were yummy! Then we sat at Pushkin Square for a while and then went to Belorussckaya to meet Bev. This time we were successful! She really looks the part. She took us to Russkoe Bistro. The food was all right, but we had to queue for a while. Then back to Pushkin Square. Bev bought us a couple of beers and we chatted about uni. It made me realise once and for all how different the two worlds really are, and I belong to both. It's really good. Bev's earning a wad. $41 per day plus $875 per month and a clothes allowance and two flights home. Ha! Well done Bev! It must be quite a scary experience on her own. Some drunk freak started giving us grief so we headed off. We left Bev and then back to Sasha's. Got organised and crashed. Another good wee day.

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Stay tuned for part 2 when I head off to Odessa...

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