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    3 Hours in Siberia
    3 Hours in Siberia
    3 Hours in Siberia
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    3 Hours in Siberia

    By David Hobson

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    About this ebook

    This book is dedicated to my mother Eve who sadly left this mortal life a few years ago. She died in the right way in so much that she just closed her eyes and went to sleep, forever. But she left us far too early in her life and she had a lot to live for. She was much loved and is sorely missed.
    It is also dedicated to my father Alan, who gave me the encouragement to travel, and to my brother Martyn who throughout my life has been my best mate and provided brotherly support and advice whenever I needed it, which was and is often.
    Alan and Martyn joined me in Moscow in 1998 for the 850th Birthday Party of that great city. What a fabulous weekend that was and it was a great honour for me to act as their tour guide.

    This is my first “published” writing and I am sad to say that I missed my self-imposed deadline which was to present the completed book to my father for him to read. Sadly he died of cancer before I had finished my scribbling. I have previously self-published this book in paperback and was pleased to make donation of £5 to Myton Hospice in Warwick, England, for every copy I sold which was a not spectacular but certainly a commendable number of 200 copies.

    Any profits from the sale of this updated e-book will also go to Myton Hospice. The reason to choose Myton is a personal one. The staff looked after my father in his last months and they did so lovingly that I will never forget their kindness. They made a difficult time for our entire family a lot easier for us all with their compassion, care and understanding. They set a standard in being such good people that is so high, I fear I will never be able to match them. My ambition is to be just a decent human being.

    One day I shall be taking my daughters Millicent, known as Millie, and Larissa, known as Lara, to experience Moscow and Russia. They can then see for themselves what the fuss I make is all about. They will not be disappointed.
    Lara is named after the actress Julie Christie or more exactly after the heroine played by Miss Christie in Dr Zhivargo, Larissa Feodorovna Guishar. Dr Zhivargo! My favourite film of all time or does that title belong to the Great Escape or Funeral in Berlin or High Fidelity or...? Millie should be grateful she is not named “Yaroslavna”, the heroine in the Opera “Prince Igor” by Borodin.

    This book will I hope be read by Tom Veasey. I hope that he gains a little insight into what happened to me during our missing years.
    Last but not least, thanks to my beautiful and patient wife Sharon for the continuing supply of passes to enable me to visit my beloved Moscow and Russia.
    Forgive the spelling mistakes, the grammatical errors and the creative imagination. Hopefully you will enjoy reading, learn a little about Russia and pick up some useful Russian vocabulary. More than that, I hope it gives you the desire to visit because I know you will find the whole experience to be, not necessarily life changing, but certainly life enhancing.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Hobson
    Release dateJun 4, 2015
    ISBN9781311573810
    3 Hours in Siberia
    Author

    David Hobson

    Born in Meriden in Warwickshire, England, I now live in a converted Victorian School building in the centre of Royal Leamington Spa Leamington Spa in the same county. So on the face of it, I have moved barely 20 miles from birthplace to current place of residence. In reality I have traveled extensively throughout the world. I lived in Russia during the naughty nineties after the fall of the Soviet Empire and again at the turn of the century. I love the power and the buzz of cities like Moscow and my interest in Russia comes from these periods.I was assigned to work in Hong Kong during the transition to Chinese rule and have also spent time working in the Middle East and the United States and throughout Continental Europe. As I draw my corporate life to an end, I am planning to travel more in the near future and have plans to teach English and Volunteer to gain more world knowledge.Maybe another shorty travelogue will be forthcoming.My favourite author is Robert Harris. Not surprisingly for those who knows his works, "Archangel" is my book of choice and Robert's use of English and his story telling captivates.I have a busy schedule and I struggle to find time to read other than in 30 minute spurts. So I read books that I can pick up and put down frequently and are a light read. As a youth I read Alistair MacLean and this genre has stayed with me.Other books to have captured my imagination include "As far as my feet will carry me" by J.M. Bauer, the epic tale of Clemens Forreli, a German Soldier, who escapes from a Soviet Labour camp in Eastern Siberia and travels 8,000 miles to freedom with his family in Germany.I love Rugby and Cricket and Racketball keeps me fit and listening to music and attending gigs keeps me sane. I'm English so I am programmed to love the Kinks and the Stones and Paul Weller and Coldplay and Muse etc.. But give me Motown and Ska and I'll be happy too. I ride a scooter so I guess I am an aging Mod! I will read about all of the above subjects.My language skills extend to German and Spanish but neither fluently and my Russian is now as rusty as a nuclear sub rotting away in Murmansk. I aim to ensure that all three languages are in good shape in the next 5 years or so.

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      Book preview

      3 Hours in Siberia - David Hobson

      Three Hours in Siberia

      David Hobson

      Copyright © 2015 David Hobson

      All rights reserved.

      Distributed by Smashwords

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      1. The taxi taking me to Irkutsk was in reasonable shape

      2. The joy of seeing Yuri Gagarin flying in space…

      3. Guide to a pleasant stay in Irkutsk

      4. Irkutsk was once known as the Paris of Siberia

      5. The three Cathedrals by the River Angara

      6. One imposing war memorial

      7. As long as it was a Lada

      8. Consequences of opposing the Government of the day

      9. Supreme Ruler of All the Russias

      10. Quite right, my friend!

      11. You Englishman not American?

      Russian - English Translation and Vocabulary

      Irkutsk City

      The Russian Federation and Irkutsk

      Introduction

      This book is dedicated to my mother Eve who sadly left this mortal life a few years ago. She died in the right way in so much that she just closed her eyes and went to sleep, forever. But she left us far too early in her life and she had a lot to live for. She was much loved and is sorely missed.

      It is also dedicated to my father Alan, who gave me the encouragement to travel, and to my brother Martyn who throughout my life has been my best mate and provided brotherly support and advice whenever I needed it, which was and is often.

      Alan and Martyn joined me in Moscow in 1998 for the 850th Birthday Party of that great city. What a fabulous weekend that was and it was a great honour for me to act as their tour guide.

      This is my first published writing and I am sad to say that I missed my self-imposed deadline which was to present the completed book to my father for him to read. Sadly he died of cancer before I had finished my scribbling. I have previously self-published this book in paperback and was pleased to make donation of £5 to Myton Hospice in Warwick, England, for every copy I sold which was a not spectacular but certainly a commendable number of 200 copies.

      Any profits from the sale of this updated e-book will also go to Myton Hospice. The reason to choose Myton is a personal one. The staff looked after my father in his last months and they did so lovingly that I will never forget their kindness. They made a difficult time for our entire family a lot easier for us all with their compassion, care and understanding. They set a standard in being such good people that is so high, I fear I will never be able to match them. My ambition is to be just a decent human being.

      One day I shall be taking my daughters Millicent, known as Millie, and Larissa, known as Lara, to experience Moscow and Russia. They can then see for themselves what the fuss I make is all about. They will not be disappointed.

      Lara is named after the actress Julie Christie or more exactly after the heroine played by Miss Christie in Dr Zhivargo, Larissa Feodorovna Guishar. Dr Zhivargo! My favourite film of all time or does that title belong to the Great Escape or Funeral in Berlin or High Fidelity or…? Millie should be grateful she is not named Yaroslavna, the heroine in the Opera Prince Igor by Borodin.

      This book will I hope be read by Tom Veasey. I hope that he gains a little insight into what happened to me during our missing years.

      Last but not least, thanks to my beautiful and patient wife Sharon for the continuing supply of passes to enable me to visit my beloved Moscow and Russia.

      Forgive the spelling mistakes, the grammatical errors and the creative imagination. Hopefully you will enjoy reading, learn a little about Russia and pick up some useful Russian vocabulary. More than that, I hope it gives you the desire to visit because I know you will find the whole experience to be, not necessarily life changing, but certainly life enhancing.

      This is me climbing aboard train number 9, the Baikal, leaving Irkutsk.

      Chapter 1

      The taxi taking me to Irkutsk was in reasonable shape

      It was Sunday 20th March 2005 and elsewhere in the world Fernando Alonso was winning the Malaysian Grand Prix in a time of more or less one hour and thirty-one minutes. I was sitting in the front passenger seat of a taxi and facing a similar journey time and although my average speed would be a lot less than Fernando’s, my expectation of completing the journey would be the same as his. A reasonable risk of a breakdown and a crash would not be totally unexpected for either of us. During the previous days, I had been busy putting a tick against one my top ten places to visit before I ran out of breath or cash, namely Lake Baikal in Siberia. For me, today was to be spent travelling from the Lake to Irkutsk to begin my journey westbound on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

      Shortly after ten o’clock I had said "do svidaniya" (goodbye) to the family I had lodged with. Sad, but time to go. The morning was grey and overcast and it was cold. It was Xolodnye. Ochin xolodnye, very cold.

      Do you remember early in the film the Hunt for the Red October when Captain First Rank Marko Ramius, Captain of the submarine and played by Sean Connery, and Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin, played by Sam Neill, are on the conning tower of the Red October as it is towed out into the open sea? During small talk with each other, eto xolodnye, said Sean, not Marko, to Vasily. It is cold. Marko was a Lithuanian and not a former Edinburgh milkman with an Edinburgh brogue. That aside, the weather around Baikal was like that portrayed in the film and xolodnye is a word that describes it perfectly for me.

      As if to emphasise the point, a Siberian breeze cut through me as I walked to the taxi. It was just a gentle zephyr, but it was cold enough to take your breath away if only for a moment. The door was open, the engine running and the heater was on. The driver was sat behind his wheel, smoking but at least having the decency to blow his smoke out of the open driver’s door window. We exchanged nods and I climbed in.

      I had had

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