The Russian Winter
Russia has a unique winter. Usually it begins from October and it was still snowing a few days ago, in June. In the winter, It is so cold, so relentlessly gray. You could only see a few pedestrians pass along the street, wearing their black coats. Sometimes, you could see a little dogs, shunted along impatiently, wears a thermal coats and offended expressions. But to see the real Russian winter, you should jump on a train and go somewhere far from the big city, where you could see snow, mountain of it. The winter mountains blanketed in snow are incredibly beautiful. The temperature may drop down to minus 30 or 40 degree when you go out of the city. From the window of the train, you could see the trees, cling to the rail road and run all the way up to the peak of the high mountain, all of them, from shrubs to some very big trees, scrawny and grumpy like some old man, naked and drunk, and dancing together in the ocean of snow. Sometimes, you would pass by an old fashion wooden house, stays hidden in the forest. Those log cabin may belong to some hunters. People say that those houses are fill with vodka, cheese and cigars. Russian drink vodka before going outside to the cold dark night for their hunting.
The train goes from forests to forests, mountain to mountain. You cannot tell where it would end. It is like you lost into a fairy world, and ready to meet the snow queen in the end of the trip.
- Excuse me sir? Would you like some tea?
The conductor’s voice wake me up. Before me standing an old guy with an samovar on his hand, I smile back and nod my head a little.
(On a trip from Saint Peterburg to Tula, winter 2011)
