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I woke up on and off throughout the morning in the girls room having spent the night there not wanting to wake Alio and Gala since all the Westerners had been up late chatting. They’d warned me they slept late but by 11am, at the stop where Polina was getting off, I decided to leave while they slept on. I was too late to catch Polina, and stopped in their newly anglified cabin, occupied now, only by Richard and Ed.
Gala was surprised to see me there, having ‘not come home’ the night before.
As she patted my head, she seemed to say ‘I was worried’ but it was in Russian.
Later we picked up ingredients for a lunch time feast at a passing station. The best selection by far, we chose from chicken, cooked potatoes, salad vegetables, stuffed pancakes, beef paddies and more. Rendezvousing back in my compartment, we attempted to force Gala and Alio to join our feast so that we could return their hospitality. They partially accepted our food and we ate enough to last us most of the rest of the day. I saved the giant fish head and some strips of the meat for Kaori, the Japanese girl on her honeymoon with her English husband bound for Japan, slowly.
We dispanded for naps and reading, only to reconvene at our last station stop before nightfall. We were all too groggy or hungover for more beer and instead took to biscuits, green tea and 3 rounds of old maid. Time moved on and soon it was 11 and I said goodbyes to all the English speakers, all of whom were getting off at Irkutsk at 5 in the morning. Hopefully I would see Richard and Ed again Mongolia in 2 days time, and Kaori and Edgar in Japan. All the exciting adventures that were laid out before us returned to me again and again that night and I couldn’t sleep for a long time. I’d barely drifted off when Provodnitsa came into my room and plonked my flask on the table which I’d left next door after old maid. This was soon followed by the new passengers boarding, loudly. English, Mongolian & Japanese floated around from all directions and it was some time before I was asleep again.

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