Rolling rolling rolling

Wednesday 22nd September

After an initial period of panic at Perm II train station, caused once again by a complete and utter lack of understanding Russian, we managed to successfully identify and navigate onto the correct train. Train number 340 bound for Irkusk looked as though it had seen better days and has long since passed it's prime but this in no way diminished our enthusiasm.  

At last we would once again have our own space to be ourselves and not have to worry about waking up early or having to vacate our space when needed. So you can imagine our surprise when we slid open the door to find a half naked young man looking as if he had just seen a ghost.

 Alexander was to be our comrade for the next 2 days and true to form he didn't speak a word of English. At first this proved to be a little uncomfortable for all involved (with the exception of Tyler who never let's a little thing like a language barrier stop him from incessantly shooting questions at whoever is unfortunate enough to be within earshot) however if music is the language of love then beer is definitely the language of inhibition. 

After perhaps our 4th or 5th Efes Pilsner we were getting along like a house on fire, so much so that Alexander brought out a bottle of vintage Cognac which we proceeded to destroy. At the end of the evening I am not entirely sure any of us knew what language we were speaking but it just seemed to make sense, here is the information we managed to glean from our inebriated exchanges:

Full name: Alexander Kylogin
Age: 24  
Occupation: Railway worker for Belarus railways
Marital status: Engaged or seeing someone
Music taste: Trance & Dance (although he first selected take that on the laptop which was a little disconcerting)
Recent holiday destination: Egypt

I think we can all be proud of ourselves for such an achievement although the hangover and stunned silence this morning may mean that we have to try this approach again this evening!