The other day I negotiated the metro to get a train ticket to St Petersburg. The old bag behind the counter couldnt speak a word of english and my russian is still pretty non existant. A babushka came out of the office and was interpreting for me. Her english was pretty bad but seemed to just do the job. I said "I want a ticket to St Petersburg on Sat night, plastkart." They produced a calendar and wanted a date. It looked like Sat was the 10th so I said the 10th. They then produced a ticket for me for the 10th. Perfect, it was just what I wanted and about 1/3 the price I was expecting. I went home and booked my accomodation on the net. Everything was sorted.Tonight I went to the train station early and got some dinner (I have no idea what it was) I waited patiently reading my book and when it was time to board I headed off. I show Vlad, the provodnitsa, my ticket and passport and say to him "good to go in seat 26" he gibbered something in russsian and indicated for me to get on the train. I found my bunk and made my bed and all I had to do now was wait for Vlad to collect part of my ticket (they always do that) then I can sleep all the way to St Petersburg. Vlad came and there is a problem. He was blabbering in russian and I was saying "engliski no ruski". The snotty chick next to me said "you have ticket for tomorrow" Beautiful!!! Vlad indicated for me to take my stuff to the naughty corner at the end of the train. I didnt know what was going to happen. Lucky there was a young guy named Ilya, who works for the State Department, who speaks perfect english. He spoke to Vlad and told me they were gonna put me off at the next station. I gave Vlad a mouth full, but it turned out he would have let me stay but the train was full. Ilya and I chatted about my options and I got him to write a note for me in russian. Basically I got on the wrong train and I want to swap this ticket for one for tonight. They indeed did put me off at the next station (I have no idea where I am), and I walked around showing my note to anyone who looked like they could help me. Eventually I got to a ticket window and showed my note to the woman, she called her supervisor and they chatted and soon she produced a new ticket for the next train at 2.20am. Then cos it is cheaper from here she gave me some change. Sweet!!
It will be sweet if I ever get to St Petersburg.

I think the station I got dumped at was Tver, but Im not actually sure.