Thoughts from a midnight train

18 hours on a train. Very limited internet access. No books to read. A bit hangover. Well, at least this will be the first time in Russia I'll sleep in a bed, gotta look at the bright side, right?

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I'm not complaining, in the past I've slept in way more uncomfortable circumstances like in a park in Portugal, in a grassy area right outside a gas station in Spain, under a bridge in Nicaragua, in a hammock in an island of Belize, and some others which I can't recall right now.

But here in Russia I haven't slept properly since I got here 7 days ago, and to top that, the two days before I got here I took four planes and slept in weird benches in the airport or tried to sleep in the tiny plane seats. In Moscow I've only slept in sofa-beds or shared a bed so I didn't really slept.

Oh well, just a small price to pay for being in Russia right?

But hell, after 6 nights of watching the sun down at 10 pm and rise at 4 am, this little bed comes as a blessing. Oh yeah it's quite little, I can barely fit and I'm 1.77 m (5’11 ft for you USA) and I have no space to move around.

It's funny, I was chatting with someone here about Russia being a third world country but in reality and from what I've seen, Moscow resembles more to a European city rather than to a central american City, so I would categorize Russia as a second world country. But I've only been to Moscow, I've yet to visit the countryside to really form a good judgement about this country.

Gosh this country. I think I've seen the most beautiful girls in my life and I've traveled to a few other countries. It's funny though, men in general are average, below average or plain ugly, but around 80% of the women are model material. How weird is that? But yeah, I think I've fallen in love like 31,582 times, just to fall out of love because ten seconds later I saw the next girl.

Oh no, I'm not shallow and I don't mind - only - the physical aspect but, I'm a brown skinned Latino dude walking along tall blonde and sexy speaking Russian girls acting as if it was normal being that beautiful. So yeah, I had to mention this part.

The world cup is amazing. It's everything I expected and more, so much more I could say that I want to stay in Russia after it finishes but who knows, can't make plans so far in advance.

Everything is quite expensive compared to what I thought it would be, but I'm pretty sure prices will drop down once tourism goes back to non-world cup normal.

I need to eat properly. It's very easy to eat crap while being here, especially because proper food but for locals is hard to find if you only visit touristic venues, but my body is already asking me for nutrients and to take care of myself. I'll start tomorrow, today I could only buy a chocolate and a sandwich for the road.

Damn this road, I'm eleven hours down, seven to go, but I can't seem to get sleepy. Two kids were playing and shouting all afternoon and their babushka (grandma) didn't control them at all. Of course they are asleep now and now I'm the one who can't sleep. I want my revenge.

I don't like babies nor kids, but only because I hate the irresponsible parents who do nothing to control them. I hate babies in an airplane, little kids in the cinema, crying toddlers in public spaces, Rugrats nagging everyone with their loud noises etc. I remember my mom used to control me perfectly; I wasn't just some brat doing whatever I pleased and being a monster all the time. I knew when to behave and when to go crazy, thanks Mom.

So yeah girls don't worry, I'm still husband material. I do like kids, I just hate the parents who don't give two craps about what their kids do in public spaces.

Ahhh public spaces, that reminds me, I'm smoking again. I mean what did you expected? I'm drinking beer everyday and meeting people and partying at night some days, of course u was going to smoke. I'll stop again when this ends. You know me, I stop for seasons and I go back to smoking for another season.

I really like freewriting, I never know where it will take me but I always enjoy the ride and most of the times I like the outcome when I just vomit all my ideas however they are coming.

This trip has been weird for me. I'm used to traveling on my own and now I'm sharing experiences with two friends and even though we're good friends, it's still hard for me to adapt to a three men schedule instead of doing whatever the hell I want, whenever the crap I feel like, however the heck I wanna do it. It's a new experience and there is always something to learn out of everything. I'm learning, or at least I'm trying to.

Something I didn't achieve before coming to Russia. Learning that is. I wanted to learn a bit of Russian before arriving here but I just simply couldn't do it. The language is hard but not impossible and I have some skills to learn languages but meh, this time I couldn't. I always say “if you can flirt in a language, then you are set” but right now I can barely say hello. Oh well, I might stay here with the excuse of finishing what I started, the excuse of learning Russian just for the sake of flirting in Russian.

I was looking forward to use these hours to answer all the comments I've gotten in the past few days but my internet signal is practically non existent, which I really hate because I owe you guys so many replies.

Thanks for always commenting, believe me I read them all and I remember who did them. That's one good thing about me, I have an amazing memory, so please don't feel like I'm ignoring you, I'm still reading you and voting some of the comments.

I hope you liked this freewriting session!