I Was a Young Boy Who Had Big Plans...

Now I'm just another shitty old man...

I'm currently in Bryansk, look south-west of Moscow along the M3.  To be honest its been a pretty rough few days since I left Moscow. Long distances, not much to break up the day, shedloads of rain and to top it all off in my attempt to get 'down with the locals' I got food poisining off a dried fish I bought off an old guy by the side of the road. Hilarious.

 Here is a picture of me in the pouring rain, trying very hard not to be violently sick. Just so you guys at home know its not all giggles and rainbows.

On the plus side I've met a few pretty cool people, the first was a Russian guy who actually pulled over on the motorway to check that I was ok and gave me a bottle of ice cold water. This was just outside Moscow where the motorway still resembled a main road you'd find in the UK, 3 lanes and a nice big hard shoulder to cycle on. By the time your about 40kms outside of Moscow the 'motorway' is the size of the A41 but with more traffic.

 Did I mention it was raining?

At about 10 o'clock on tuesday morning I rolled into a truck stop just outside Obninsk to get some food,  I was well surprised when the girl behind the counter spoke fluent English to me, she even came and sat with me while I was eating. She was from Kazakhstan (former Soviet republic) and had come to Russia to work to support her kids, apparently the situation in Kazakh is pretty dire.

 Think I'll let Tony the Tiger tackle this one...

Later I saw a moose munching on some leaves by the side of the road, god damn easy life; just eating leaves and shitting in the woods all day. Bet that moose couldn't cycle 80 miles a day in the rain.

Stopped that night near the village of Sukhinichi, managed to get a room in a cheap motel.

Woke up yesterday to more torrential rain, decided to soldier on. Think its just one of those weeks where its dead hard to get going. This road also has markers every KM to let you know how far you are from Moscow, its a pain in the ass cause it makes it harder to 'switch off' and just spin the milage. Anyway I did 130kms yesterday to Bryansk. Quite a lot of war history around here which is very interesting.

 The battele of Bryansk was a 19 day conflict beginning in September 1941. The German troops of XXXXV11 Armeekorps crossed the Densa river in the region south-west of Moscow. During the attack German troops broke through the Bryansk front on the 30th of September 1941 and were able to capture the town of Karachev. They were then able to advance to the east of Bryansk on the 6th of October, trying to meet up with XXXX111 corps coming from the opposite direction.

The Red Army was forced to withdraw the 50th and 13th armies to avoid being encircled by the Germans. Bryansk was then evacuated without significant fighting although the city did suffer heavy air and artillery bombardment. As part of the Orel-Bryansk defensive operation which ran from the 30th Sept 1941 to 23rd Oct 1941 the Red army lost 80,000 men killed in and around the city and a further 50,000 taken prisoner.

Now for the interesting bit...

A young man called Mikhail Kalashnikov was a tank commander in the Battle of Brynansk. During the battle his T-34 was disabled and he was wounded. He walked to the nearest field hospital to recieve medical treatment. While he was recovering he started experiencing flashbacks of the fighting prompting him to become "obsessed with designing a sub-machine gun that would drive the Germans from his homeland".

Hence the 'Automatic Kalashnikov - 47' was born...

 Lenin square in Bryansk, 

"There was an old Marxist called Lenin,
Who did two or three million men in.
That's a lot to have done in,
But where he did one in,
A Marxist called Stalin did ten in."

Why are there still statues in this country of a man who is known to have started one of the most brutal regimes in history? Seriously I don't understand it, maybe from a historical perspective but the guy was at least partly responsible for 70 years of misery under the communist regime.

Serious question, if any Russian readers (I know I've got quite a few) want to answer please leave me a comment or e-mail 'ralph.butler13@hotmail.com'. 

Got chatting to a local man aswell yesterday, turned out he had worked in London and Portsmouth as a doctor, small world.

Also found this little gem in Bryansk.

Had a quick look on the net and can't find any history on it . Awesome building though.

 My next blog will be from Kiev, I'm going to spend a day in the city. Had a look at the map last night. I'm committed to be in Holland in 5 weeks to meet up with a few friends who are going there on hoilday. Should be pretty cool ;). 

So the return trip is looking like Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France with maybe a dip into Czech and Romania (really want to go to Romania cause it was the only country to violently overthrow its communist goverment, apparently Romanians dont piss about ;)).

So watch out Tamsin and Fabrice, might get a knock on the door in a few weeks haha.

 I'm pretty sad to be leaving Russia, and a return trip is definatly on the cards. Made a lot of new friends and had some fantastic experiences. I'll leave you with a quote from an e-mail I got from one of my friends, Eugene from Saint Petersburg.

"I noticed that you understood the main thing, despite bureaucracy, oligarchy, bad laws and such stuff the most valueable treasure of my country is not oil and gas, but people, always ready to help you and offer their friendship."

Too right.

Edit, a few pictures of me leaving St. Petersburg. Thank you Eugene.

http://vk.com/album200317091_173420141