MOSCOW, 5 September 2004

ENCOUNTER WITH AN AFRICAN

I met Gavin at the men's room entrance at the station, Komsomolskaya. (No, it's not like that!)

I had just asked the attendant how much it cost to enter and Gavin, who was waiting behind me, echoed her response of 10 rubles. Maybe my hesitation gave him the impression that I was economically challenged (which I am) and he offered to pay for me. But I paid and we entered.

While peeing, we struck up a conversation. Gavin is from Johannesburg and was taking the train before mine to St. Petersburg. We hoped we'd see each other again, you know the usual stuff, and said farewell.

Three days ago, I am trying to get my money's worth at The Hermitage, one of the most spectacular museums on the planet, when, who do I see approaching but Gavin.

We chat for a while, during which the female guard approaches from quite some distance to tell us to remove our stuff off what may have been Catherine the Great's cabinet. Just looked like an OK place to put stuff.

He has been on the road for eleven months! My longest outing was three months and I was pretty glad to return to the US, so that I could take off my shoes, tam and loosen my belt so that the woman at the airport could be assured I had no intent to bring down The Evil Empire!

Like myself, Gavin seems to be travelling alone, since I saw him alone twice. Travelling alone definitely has its advantages but one certainly misses a lot of camaraderie as well. I believe the solitude leads me to blog as much as I do, but if I wait around for somebody who wishes to take off for a few months with, in my present case, no defined route from Moscow to Venice, I'd never leave home.

I still don't know if I will go to Copenhagen after Helsinki, or I will just head south to Estonia, through Latvia and Estonia to Warsaw. Or, if I go to Copenhagen, I will just stay on that side of Europe.

Time will tell ... as it always does.

Patrick Barry B.