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Siberian Bus Rides Getting Funky With Your Bad Self
iving in Siberia for a march in February. Walking really
year allowed me to isn't the right word since
experience things I never everything was covered in ice. To
would have in San Diego. Getting get from point "A" to point "B",
funky with your bad self on one more or less just tried to
Siberian bus rides was one such fall repeatedly in the right
thing. direction and hope for a good
slide. After a few trips, a
Slip Sliding Away sprained ankle, sore butt,
incredibly sore elbows and a bit
The only real disadvantage to too much medicinal vodka, it was
living in the Siberian city of time to explore public
Chita was the lack of personal transportation.
transportation. This was
particularly true during the And The Wheels Go Round and Round
winter when the temperature
dropped as low as 40 degrees
below zero. That may sound a bit In Chita, overhead electrical
nippy, but any negative lines powered most of the buses.
temperature is relative. You The buses were you basic city
really can't tell the difference buses, which is to say they were
between 15 or 40 below. It's just large with massive tires and
cold. cheesy advertisements on the
side. The Gillette shaving cream
My problem concerned the ads on the side reminded me of
proximity of my apartment and home. Ah, sweet capitalism.
place of work. Put another way,
there wasn't any. It was a health Anyway, I wasn't the only person
40-minute walk during warmer in Chita that felt walking to and
months, but a frozen baton death fro on sheets of ice was a bad
strategy. The buses were packed the person in front of you in a
morning, noon and night. We are rather compromising position. I
talking sardine packed with no often felt as though I should at
one able to move and lots of least buy flowers for the women
grunting involved in getting on who happened to stand in front of
or off. This condition gave rise me. Back and forth you would go
to the "Get Funky with Your Bad until the bottom of the hill was
Self" Siberian bus dance. reached.
Six days a week, I would pile on On occasion, Mother Nature and
to a bus every morning with a few the bus driver would conspire to
hundred other Russians. The first create a more aggressive dance
mile was flat and we would all step. If the bus gained too much
surreptitiously try to position speed going down the hill, it
ourselves for the hills. As we would slide towards the curb and
waited at a light to turn down lose contact with the overhead
the first hill, you could cut the electrical wires. No electricity
tension in the air. The dance was meant no power and no control. As
about to start. the bus hit and jumped the street
curb, the mass of people would be
The bus would slow down to about slammed forwards and to one side
five miles an hour and just creep before being whipped the other
over the crest of the hill. Then way as the bus stopped.
it would begin to slide. Everyone
would involuntarily lean This particular dance was
backwards so the person in front commonly known as the rib crusher
of you was more or less lying on since one tended to smash one's
your chest. Then the wheels would ribs on the edge of the seat
catch and everyone would lurch backs. There was no need for
forward so you were now bent over flowers after a rib crusher
dance, unless they were for your good way to meet people. If you
funeral. managed to get off at the right
stop, everyone had something to
Riding the winter bus did have chat about.
one thing going for it. It was a
About the Author:
Rick Chapo is with http://www.nomadjournals.com - makers of writing journals. Travel journals are great travel accessories and travel gifts for student travel, family vacations and adventure travel. Visit http://www.nomadjournaltrips.com for more travel articles, travelogues and travel stories.
Source: www.isnare.com
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