2017/08/01

Day 03: Luzda - Border to Russia - Stepankovo (not far to Moscow)

I had a very restless night in anticipation of what will going on at the Russian border. My hosts had reported that people have already been rejected. 

Very delicious breakfast with omelette, yoghurt and juice. Happy about it, because I had nothing for dinner last night. After saying good-bye to the host, I'm heading to the border.

First I have to cross two Latvian border posts, which is no problem, but at the second station I assume it's already the Russian one and I get out my filled out form. But I'm sent further on. At the Russian border I first get a border card, a kind of control slip, and all officials (and even car drivers in the queue) sent me kindly to the front, passing by cars in the queue up to the control station. More forms to fill (most of them as original and copy!) with the same questions by name etc. Then the officials wave me into the customs control station. I don'tt know what to do. My hosts told me, there there's still another form to fill, but nobody hands it to me. There's a queue in front of the customs booths. There is a problem with a young Russian-originated family from Ingolstadt. Years ago he had imported a car to Russia according to the customs information, but there are no documents about the export and now they have to pay the customs (which is quite much money) and are otherwise not able to travel to Russia with the car. Finally I get fthe mentioned additional customs form: I fill in the required informations as good as I can, returning to the customs official. He points out some more informations I have to fill in and I have to sign it here and there and there again. And another try. "My" customs official now already calls me Wolfgang and sends me to the front of the queue and suddenly the form is completed and ok. Now follows the customs check. I only have to open two of the panniers. Back to the booth again, some stamps on the forms and into my passport and more computer input. After two and a half hours I'm ready - the car drivers probably need five to six hours. Free travel to Russia!

After the border nothing more than fuel stations. So I'm doing a detour to the next town which is located very nicely at a lake (Sebesch). It needs three attempts until I'm luckily able to get money from an ATM. Coming to town, I already saw a mobile shop, which is now my next station to buy a SIM card. The store girl is talking outside to the girl from the hairdresser's shop next door and she's looking at me when I'm approaching. I can see her thinking - "Oh, this will be a difficult customer!" But she understands English a bit and I know exactly - thanks to my Russian friend Dimi - exactly what I want. A Russian guy enters the shop. He is fluent in German and tells me he's living in Germany and is just on the way to visit his family in Russia - a perfect interpreter. In the excitement, however, I'm confused about the exchange rate and so put a deposit on the SIM card (6,000 rubles / 90 €), which seems too much. By the way: the deposit can only be paid in cash in the store. But it is also quite easy to transfer money to the SIM card with most ATMs. Next time then!

Then take the M9 towards Moscow. At first I'm rather anxious about speed controls, but after a lot of cars and even trucks overtake me, I speed up more and more.

Insertion: Refueling is not as problematic than I thought. Full refueling works here with credit card. This will not be the case everywhere. Very useful is a tip I got from Klaus. To use a booklet, in which I write the number of the pump, then the octane (95) I like to fuel up (you also can get 92 octane), and finally the word "FULL", which I relate to a hand sign. I was successful with that in quite often.

Choosing food is more difficult, because I can't read the Russian menu card (Cyrillic!). In the afternoon a service woman puts a dictionary on her desk with food terms. If I would translate the whole menu with it, order would last a few days. I asked for some salad and just point on one of the list, not knowing, what I will get. I'm getting a salad with tuna, quite ok.

Unfortunately, where the place choosen for my lunch break hasn't a good internet connection, so I'm not able to make a reservation of the hotel. Have to do it later at the road side.

The entrance gate of the accommodation (Eco Hotel Konovalovo) looks like it's the gate to a industrial area or to a workshop. I ring the bell, nothing matters. Suddenly a few guys come out of door in the a gate (one only in underwear). The don't care about me until I ask them about the hotel. The guy in the underwear returns back into the door and calls someone to open the gate to me. The hotel aera is very nice. The receptionist speaks uninhibitedly in Russian to me and Google Translate, but thanks to the latter we're are somehow able clearify the conditions. I can still get something to eat and I can pay with Visa. Finally she calls a guy called Denis, who can speak German and confirms everything. Basically, the people try their very best.