ANTONINA

In July 2012, between Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk I met Antonina. One fine night, after visiting Irkutsk with its churches, walking like crazy and tired, we finally arrived to the train station and when the train arrived, I was among the first to climb in and was taken my place, as I had learned that this must be done as soon as possible and well before the other traveller(s) take too much of the available space. While settling down, the other traveller arrived, full of bags of all sizes and colours, plus her normal suitcase, of course. She was a not very young bottle blond and her clothes were about one or two sizes too small. However she had a kind face and first thing, of course was a “sdrazvoitie” or hello in Russian, to which I answered in my best Russian accent – best and only of course, “sdrazvoitie”. She wanted to continue talking but I had to quickly signal that my Russian was extremely limited, that being an exaggeration, as it is non existent really and other than “hello”, “good bye”, “thank you” and “excuse me, where is the wc”, it does not get much further.

However my very limited knowledge of her language, although obvious, was not a deterrent for Antonina, who continued talking like if I was Pushkin himself, while looking for things in her many bags, pulling out tea bags, a book, her reading glasses, and some other trinkets. Then we had to put away her bags if she was to sit on her side, as otherwise they were occupying all the free sitting space, by the way, my space. Finally we managed and she realized – I believe, that I did not speak Russian and that my silence had been due to lack of understanding, so in audiovisual language without audio, we introduced ourselves, me Antonina, you Mercedes and so we started a very pleasant one night stand. Fortunately my name has always helped me, who ignores the name of the car?? So after the signs for the “steering wheel” and “driving” all the rest is clear. Antonina started a monologue in Russian that I managed to semi-understand and mostly guess and thus I learned she has no companion or husband (could not say if she is a widow or divorced, but I guess that is totally irrelevant), she has two kids, one boy and one girl, three grandchildren, all in Moscow, and for all I understood she lives in Vladivostok. She got on in Irkutsk, and was going strait to Moscow (4 days) with a group of students, trainees or the like, travelling most certainly in second class or similarly uncomfortable accommodation. She indicated that at least one of them is a pain in the lowest part of the neck, and of course that is the one that showed up to talk to her about …. The description of the student being a pain in … was easily understood in the audiovisual without audio just as well as if she had spoken Spanish or English, it seems certain descriptions of human nature are universal!!!

At one point in our “conversation” I understood the word “pectopah” which in Russian means “Restaurant” and that is another one I never miss, I explained to her that my friends would come a bit later and we would go to the restaurant. In the meantime I had to go to the loo and when I returned I found in my place a fantastic dinner with salmon filet, pan-fried with rice, also as entrée some slices of smoked salmon with red caviar – the black caviar cannot be bought in Russian because it is kept for export only, and the production is very limited but the red one, one can have to your harts content, provided of course your purse also is sufficiently content, back to the dinner, bread, orange juice and mineral water. A perfect banquet. I of course has happily pleased and offered to pay for my dinner, receiving a very clear “niet!” from Antonina, and her signing to the fact that I should start before the fish got cold. It was soooo good that even cold it was really tasty, I would not have expected that in the Russian train, but again, I had not been with Antonina before and she was a perfect “open sesame” person for all matters concerning the Russian trains.

After the fantastic dinner my friends arrived to pick me up, and since I had already dinned, went on their own to the restaurant but came back shortly after just to let me know that the restaurant was closed for a private party and they would have to have the standard train dinner of hot instant noodles and a cup of tea or coffee and that is that. I guess the private party was the group of Antonina’s students, as they were all Russian train trainees of some kind. Meanwhile Antonina and I kept on “talking” about Russia, the country, the language, the landscape – at the time invisible since it was late at night, and also about Mexico and our music and other matters until I got tired of the audiovisual without audio and decided to be soo tired that Antonina told me to go to sleep and that the following day we could continue our conversation.

So it was and in the morning, after the minimalistic cleaning possible with cold water in the rather small confine of the wc, Antonina also woke up and the non-stop talking machine restarted. Concentration was essential as otherwise it could be considered rude to be there and eating breakfast but not paying attention to her words. Again I offered to pay but my offer was refused, so we kept on chatting about the difficulties of learning a foreign language being Russian for me or English for Antonina. At the end of the chapter we both offered to take classes so that in a year time, when we met again we could really converse “fluently” and communicate more than what we had done. I got an invitation from her to come to the Olympics in Socci, where she was going to be and I even got her address and telephone numbers, so I could keep in touch.

So far, three months later, I have not yet started with my Russian classes and possibly will never do it, but the illusion was nice and Antonina’s smile was good to see.

Finally we were getting closer to Krasnoyarsk, where I was alighting from the train and had to put all my things together and close my bags, and of course Antonina took them to the door of the train and then the steward seeing her carrying my stuff, took it from her, saying something like “you are not supposed to carry this”, and helped me to get down the train. My friend/guardian angel also got down and with a big hug and all, we departed, she to continue on the train to Moscow, another 3 days of train and I guess of imparting her blessing to unsuspecting passengers that shared the cabin with her, and me to visit a city that did not have much of interest and even less of charm, but sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t.

After my encounter with Antonina, every time I saw that logo of the Russian trains, I thought of her, her kindness towards me and her friendship and somehow made the long and sometimes tiring segments of train travel bearable and even interesting. Thanks Antonina, all the best and see you in Socci!