By Lydia Bell , July 2001

dear jack
hope you're doing the trade in irkutsk. thankyou for a lovely few days in siberia. if i appeared only partially conscious for some of it (and indeed i was), it wasn't because i wasn't enjoying myself. i had a lovely time. the train journey was amusing, especially with your last words ringing in my ears when i left irkutsk. remember when i asked you why you wouldn't just leave me to my fate in the train station and bugger off home? and you replied -"what if some bastard tries to speak to you in russian?" that, unsurprisingly, turned out to be an occupational hazard of travelling in russia. for a start, noone in the train
spoke a word of english so i spent the 4 days trying to learn some russian and that continued for the rest of my time in russia of course. in fact i'm going to learn russian. i think it would be fun. and probably quite useful. the train was hot, sweaty, claustrophobic and i made the mistake of drinking vodka on the first afternoon with this strange bloke called maxim and his fat hairy leery tattoed friend whose name fortunately escapes me but the memory of his putrid alcoholic breath doesn't and they (literally) followed me about for the rest of the time. remind me never to spend 4 days on a train in russia again. notions of
reading tolstoy whilst gazing out whimsically at a snow covered landscape were cruelly dashed by shellsuits, sweaty bodies and cheap beer.
but i loved russia. especially the country parts - managed to get up to karelia and really loved that. good luck in america, i hope your ship comes in.
love, lydia x