Post-Russia

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 04:20:18 GMT

Well after being acclimated back into American society following my trip to Russia, I have gotten to the point of pointless media where I create a Blogging site. Don't let my bitter tone give you the wrong impression. I love America. Unprovable US Patriotic arrogance aside, America really is towards the top of the "Greatest Countries" list. Exhibit A: Running Water. Exhibit B: Roosevelt's creation of National and State Funded Parks. Exhibit C: Government Mandated Food Inspection. The list goes on.

My Trip to Russia was nothing less than incredible. Three students from my university and myself got in contact with a missionary in Russia, raised money, stuffed 3 weeks worth of neccesities in our backpacks, made our bikes fit in a box Continental would approve, and were were on our way.

A picture of our arrival is a great illustration of our entire trip. We step off the plane in Moscow and everyone is herded down a flight of stairs to passport control. We take a second at the top of the stairs to double check papers and try to prevent any upcoming trouble. We then proceed down the stairs. Now there are two things you must understand. 1) Russia is a very dull, depressed country 2) WE are American college students. So we come barrelling down these stairs. The scene we are walking into is a kind of people that wear mute colors, have stone-cold faces, and are born waiting in lines. The four Americans are wearing bright colors, laughing, and pushing each other. AWKWARD. The clothes can be overlooked, the laughter just makes them think we're weird, but the pushing each other (Horseplay, if you will) is just foreign.

The time in Russia was spent tuning bikes, serving the missionary, experiencing the culture, or on a adventure. We took a trip with five students from a university outside of Krasnodar. It was less of a bike trip and more of a trek adventure. 10 miles of biking backroads evolved into hiking and pushing our bikes, then into hiking up with our bikes on our backs. This was no state park trail, this was a trail paved by Russian footprints. They don't believe in switchbacks, so it was straight up the mountain, no american zig-zag. What took us to about half a day to hike up, took us about 12 minutes to fly down the other side. After camping for the night, we woke and started hiking a boulder-infested riverbed. We then hit logging truck trails and crossed a shallow river over 30 times. We spent the night on the rocks and awoke to finish off the trail and finally hit pavement. About 10 miles of pavement later we reached the Black Sea. That trek was completely awesome.

The next bike trip was 8 hours east of Krasnodar based out of a town named Nalchik. We took eight students from the university in Nalchik. We rode about 30 miles of road through small towns. Towns side by side couldn't speak the same language. The next 20 miles were up a dirt, rocky road. The entire 50 miles was uphill through the Russia/Georgia DMZ checkpoint, to the campsite. The next day was 50 miles downhill...glorious downhill.

With no amount of effort could I ever fit ever amazing detail of the trip into a blog. All you need to really know is that 4 men went to Russia to make friends, ride bikes, and talk about living for something greater than ourselves

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Post-Russia