Quelques photos et nouvelles russes et mongoles

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Le premier novembre, jai quitte la Chine pour débuter l`un des périples les plus longs du monde.
En 30 jours exactement, j`ai quitte le bord de locean pacifique, en Asie, terre qui fut ma maison pour les 24 mois précédents et jai rejoins St-Petersbourg et le golfe de Finlande et la mer baltique! En chemin, jai passé une semaine fantastique en Mongolie, coup de coeur du voyage. Jai relaxe sur une ile magique sur le lac Baikal, le lac le plus profond du monde en Siberie, parcouru des milliers de kilometres en train a jouer aux cartes, boire de la vodka et de la biere, manger du saussisson, etc! Jai fait des rencontres avec des gens de tous les horizons, de toutes les cultures, de toutes les religions! Ce sont surtout les gens que je retiens de ce périple. Une générosité incroyable envers moi , étranger, et aussi une tres grande curiosite de leur part a essayer de comprendre le pourquoi de mon voyage!

Jai naturellement eu beaucoup de temps pour penser a moi, a la vie et a mon futur et bien que je nai pas trouvé toutes les solutions, je sens que jai appris beaucoup sur moi meme!

Jai aussi eu la chance de voir mon frere Philippe a Moscou et de passer une journée avec lui, chose que nous n`avions pas fait depuis plus de 3 ans!

donc je suis maintenant en suisse chez Jpp et Isa et je relaxe quelque peu avant de commencer la saison de ski. Je vais aller voir des amis a Paris et a Nantes ds les prochaines semaines et profiter des hautes montagnes au cours de l`hiver! Je crois aussi aller en Autriche en février enseigner le ski pour quelques semaines et découvrir de nouvelles montagnes (et une nouvelle langue)

Bref, comme vous pouvez le constater, la vie ne pourrait me sourire plus pour linstant et jespere que vous etes heureux , peu importe où vous etes! Gardez le sourire!

Francois

P.S. Ah joubliais, je sais que ca fait longtemps que je nai pas mis les pieds au Quebec et que je sais les Québécoises tres jolies, mais j`ai maintenant un faible pour les jolies Russes...


November first marked the beginning of my train journey that would take me all the way to Europe and St-petersbourg, where I arrived exactly 30 days later. The whole train trip costed me about 250 dollars canadian, a bargain if you look at all the agencies that charge sometimes up to several thousand dollars!

I stopped many times and the highlight has to be Mongolia and the gobi desert. I had never seen such hospitality from people. Everywhere I went, I was welcome with a big smile, a great meal and of course, some vodka or other drinks... It is such a beautiful country with all the animals in the wild. For 8 days, I didnt see a cloud and the contrast between the blue sky and the land was unique!

I continued my travel to Russia and stopped for another week at Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world. I was on the biggest island of the lake, Olkhon, but the population is only 1500, most of them fishermen. It snowed the first night I was there so when I woke up the next day, it was like X`mas, with a beautiful white coat, a huge lake to walk by. Magical!

Although I travelled on the transsiberian railway, I never rode the transsib from Vladivostok or Beijing, but took different trains that went a shorter way. I met so many kind people on the train with whom I shared food, stories and , mochiron, vodka! :) I met people from all classes, all religions and all occupations. I was so busy exchanging with all those people that I barely read a book in November. Of course, my russian was limited, but I made some efforts and a lot of theater so that people could understand me. In fact, what I remember the most from my journey are the people that did it with me, normal Russians travelling to visit friends or leaving home to go to the Army! They will be the main memory I will have from Russia.... and I have to add, the Russian women... I had never fell in love so many times in my life... and had so many broken hearts.... Unique!!!!

In Moscow, I had the chance to meet some friends from back home, secured a job in Austria in February to teach skiing ( although I know I will miss Hakkoda) and on my last day, slept one more time in a 5 stars hotel! No, I didnt pay it but my brother Phil was in town for the day on business and we stayed together for 24 hours. Since it was the first time in 3 years that we met, we had a lot to discuss and had a great time!

After spending 48 hours at a girl`s appartment that I met on the train and who hosted me for my time in St-petersburg, I took the plane to Paris and then Geneva where my friend Jp was waiting for me... to go to the pub and have some beers.

So I got here on Friday and will stay till Thursday when I will make a quick trip to Lyon to meet again my brother and to pick up my ski equipment. I will probably head off to Paris for a week or so and Normandie to visit some friends. In January, it will be skiing, skiing, skiing and February, I will go to Austria to teach ski for several weeks. Finally, I will take my bike in Rome somewhere in March and bike through eastern Europe for the spring!!!

Enjoy the pictures! I will try to update some of my thoughts about my travels on my blog soon.

J`espère que les photos vont vous plaire. Je vais essayer d`écrire un peu plus sur mon blog dans les jours qui viennent.

| écrit par Furansoa 20:56