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4 and a half months on the road... wow! And I'm sure to all those reading this, it seems like 14 weeks of non-stop excitment and discoveries... well, that's true for a large part of it. But there's also the parts in between. The 6 hour drives, days holed up somewhere just waiting for the next step, the inevitable sick days, and search for a salad that's made without mayonnaise or meat. This blog post is about those moments.
Such as Fintan's epiphany that being a sheep in Central Asia is a bit rubbish - "For one thing, you're really hot because of all your wool, then, you know, you're a sheep! So you can't just go off on your own and cool off in the stream" - amazing! Other such observations as "Why is Central Asia so big?!" continue to entertain.
Over the last few months our driving music selection has been a careful selection of my music (not all to Fintan's taste), his music (not super abundant) and a cd that we bought in a garage in Italy - one of those SuperPopHits Now things... Skipping over Emelie Sande's Heaven (not to Fintan's taste) and my efforts to contain my rage at a horrible version of Seven Nation Army, Katy Perry's Firework, Jennifer Lopez, o... you can imagine... Especially Michelle (from Lumwana), who used to really like Firework until my rant something along the lines of "lyrical genius - Boom, boom, boom even brighter than the moon, moon, moon - seriously Boom and Moon! That doesn't make sense or rhyme!!" So that now she can never listen to that song without thinking about a line she never paid attention to before... So - you get the point, we are in a bit of a cultural rut. So in Bishkek I bought the No Doubt Greatest Hits, Biophilia (Bjork), Soldier of Love (Sade - don't judge if you haven't heard it), and my fav Elton John vs Pnau! Unfortunately, this had led to a non-stop playing of No Doubt, punctuated with Elton and Pnau, with Sade and Bjork generally getting skipped over - but you have to try don't you...
One of the highlights of Bishkek was getting a bag of sweets from the family we helped on a mountain pass. We then found these caramel worthers original type sweets in the local supermarket and they have become part of our staple diet.
One thing we have been able to do is to read. A lot of reading. In a lot of places the iGlow emitted from Fintan's iPhone as he reads the paper in bed has been a constant. As has his complaints about the standard of journalism in the Irish Independent, and the phrase "that's not a story, that's celebrity gossip". Prompting me to ask why he continues to read said paper... well, he has to keep up with the news. Interestingly, he's also been managing to get weekly text messages from the Irish Farmers Association about the price of sheep/feed/farming paraphenalia.
Filling up at fuel stations is always something of a trial. Firstly, the shocked look on people's faces when they see that the car is diesel... then the gradual build up of a queue of annoyed minibus drivers as they wait for us to fill the gigantic tanks at a painfully slow pace with everyone watching the dial ticking over... and in Kazakhstan this involves Fintan propping open the tank valve with a stick, because the pump nozzle is slightly too big. But at 46 Euro cent a litre, who's complaining??
Laundry is now beginning to be somewhat problematic, seeing as the weather has turned. In Azerbaijan the guesthouse tried to get $100 out of us to do a couple of loads of laundry - Phah! Whereas at Nomad's it was 100 Som ($2). Now on the way to Mongolia (where its already snowing!!) keeping ourselves in clean underwear, let alone the rest, is going to get more difficult.
I've had a cold this week, and although all I want to do is curl up, read a book, eat my mum's lasagne or a really spicy curry, we had to go off organising our visa registration and looking for motor insurance for Russia. Boo.
All things considered, our version of everyday life has its own challenges, but most of all we are craving another border crossing, another country...
- comments
mum Love your blog. It's a bit like being there with you. Even in the 3 weeks we were in California, we had the doing days and the organising and getting there days. The "lemsip" photo indicated that one of you had a cold, hope it's gone now. xxx
Michael Richards Great to hear about the daily grind of you two trans central Asian travellers. Standing still just seems so exotic when your in aplace with a Stan on the end! By the way nothing wrong with Sade she's so cool. Hope the price of fat lambs is maintaing it's luster and that the butter price is strong Fintan. Cant wait until the next installment. best wishes Mike and Shaunna
FionaE Love this one! Feel like I'm with ye drinking tea with only a drop of powdered milk in it from a tin cup with a random kyrgyk politicians face on it :)