The Soviet bureaucracy is still very much alive and kicking at the Church of the Spilled Blood in St Petersburg! We had already experienced "Red" tape on our trip ... for example, our whole experience of applying for the visa, getting the official invitation, and registering the visas when we arrived..... and our latest example of this bureaucracy came at the Russian/Mongolian border last night on the train when it took us SIX hours to get through customs.
It's great to be an American in Siberia on the 4th of July!
We heard that we got the best train in all of Russia. Our car is a pleasant pastel green, moderately comfortable to sleep in with 4 bunks. Our fourth bunkmate, Alec speaks some German. Aaron also speaks some German, though both speak very little. Even so, this made the awkwardness of such a small space MUCH more pleasant. Also, Alec had a friend, Alex who spoke some English as well and told us much about the "real Russia.";
