The Big Blue Marble Newsletter: Sample Article

Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.
Nikos Kazantzakis

We Drink,?We Smoke, No?

Sometimes it pays to take a risk on the road.? One time, I was transporting a lot of?baggage on a night train from Saint Petersburg, Russia to Riga, Latvia.? Riga was a short half way stop for me on my way from studying Russian in Saint Petersburg to teaching English in Kaliningrad, Russia.? Upon entering my train compartment, a large, gregarious Russian man named?Dmitry started to talk to me. He asked me in Russian where I was from.? I replied the United States.? He said in English, ?we drink, we smoke, no??? He brought out a bottle of vodka, a large slab of sala (uncooked, smoked bacon), fresh tomatoes, brown bread, cucumbers, and a pack of cigarettes.

I noticed that the other two people in the compartment took advantage of Dmitry?s hospitality.? So even though I?d read several admonitions against accepting food on Russian trains, I joined in.? After a little while, Dmitry and I started to talk in Russian.? He had been a captain in the Soviet army who settled down in a small beach town near Riga after his tour of duty.? Every ten minutes or so, he would repeat in his gravely voice in English, ?We drink, we smoke, no??? We talked most of the trip away.

When we got to Riga, he carried most of my luggage to a baggage storage place, helped me buy my bus ticket for Kaliningrad, and even assisted me?in finding and registering for a hotel room.? He is not the first person to share food with me on the road.? I have never had a problem.? In fact, accepting food has helped me meet several people like Dmitry who took time out of their lives to help make my stay in their country more pleasant.