Two Minnows.....

We arrived back from our last trip (4 days, 5 nights) to Siberia around noon today, and glad we were to be "home" again. It is quite a round of bus trips with an overnight train both going and coming. The train is much better than trying to sleep on a bus, but still not the best rest. Both Olga and Nadezhda hugged me good-bye, extending thanks and "welcome" and pleading that I would come again. Parting is hard.
The weather was unusually nice until Sunday afternoon, when a cold front must have moved in. It was pretty "chilly" waiting for the bus in the early morning darkness, and plenty "cool" on the bus, too. It makes several stops to pick up more people - standing, waiting, in the bitter cold - and every time the door opens more cold air comes in with the people. Everyone waits quietly while the driver collects the fare and logs whatever information...and FINALLY the bus goes on.
It was -17C in Omck, and we waited at least an hour for the right city bus to Nadezhda's. So, we were really chilled through. Late in the evening when we went back to the train station it was down to -20C. That is about as cold as it gets in Nebraska. Not sure the exact degrees, but it is below zero Fahrenheit. For some reason, the train, which is usually too hot, wasn't warm either, so we tried to sleep in our jackets with our coats on top of the blanket. We were glad when we got back to Ekaterinburg that it is not nearly so cold here.
Now we have only a few more days here, as next week we leave Wednesday on the long train trip back to Moscow.
Thanks again to all who have written, or even thought of us. Thinking of the saying, "a big frog in a little puddle"...here, we are like two minnows in a big ocean!