Couchsurfing Khabarovsk

Adam and I considered staying in Khabarovsk for just the day, and getting on another train the evening of the day we got in. Thank god we didn't; it would've been a miserable, tiring day.

Instead we reaped the benefits of Couchsurfing.org and took an early morning tram to meet Marjana. She speaks very good English and works at the American Corner, so we couldn't find anyone more suitable to host us.

We cleaned up and rested a bit. Adam nearly stayed in and just slept, but I thought that would've been a bad way to start things off with someone you just met and agreed to let strangers stay in her house. He got up and we headed out to town.

We got a nice tour around, it's a much more spacious and clean city than Vladivostok. A massive river runs along the side of the city near Marjana's workplace and next to a couple really impressive churches.

I really dig the gleaming Russian onion-dome look on churches here. We walked along the promenade after lunch, and walked around and around and around. I could tell Adam was dying, and I was pretty beat too.

We eventually got train tickets for the next day with Marjana's help. We would've been screwed without her, as we had to figure out our route: either straight to Irkutsk, or to Severobaikalsk, via Tynda and the Baikal-Amur Mainline. We decided on the direct to Irkutsk route.

The most bizarre aspect of our day and night in Khabarosk was the charity auction. Marjana has a Kiwi and/or Australian friend (it was strange, he never made clear where he was from, though he mentioned both places many times) who asked her to go with him to some charity event for orphans.

I've never done such a thing, and being guests we couldn't just say no, tired or not, so off we went when he came to pick us up at Marjana's work.

We drove to a super beat up and run down part of the city, to a derelict two or three story house with a bizarre playground outside of it. The jungle gym had logs hanging from it, and the fuselage of an old Soviet aircraft was just sitting there.

Up inside the house, there was a mini stage with chairs set up in front of it. A couple of Russian women were droning away about godknowswhat, the orphans, I assume. It nearly put Adam and me to sleep, but that would've looked real bad, as we were mentioned as being guest from America, and the orphanage recieved funds from the US government. They started auctioning off artwork and crafts made by the kids.

It's probably not right to insult the artwork of orphan children, but it was pretty undesirable stuff. A couple kind-hearted women were buying the things anyway though. I wanted to help, or buy something, but buying children's artwork to carry around didn't seem like a good idea.

There was an intermission, and various interludes of Turkish drums and Russian folk songs. I wound up paying 1000 rubles for a nice throw rug that I thought my mom would like. Keep your eyes on the mail, Mom. It's coming your way.

That evening, Marjana's husband Andrey cooked us spaghetti with meat sauce. For how simple the meal was, it was surprisingly delicious. Then he taught Adam and I how to play backgammon, which was perfect because I have a mini travel game set that has been entertaining us, and backgammon was the one game included we didn't know how to play.

In fact, it was a very good thing we learned, because the next day we got on a train and didn't get off for three days.