Dreams die in times of war

Around 2017, One of my closest friends and I planned a road trip. The idea was to fly to Vladivostok on the east coast of Russia, buy a car, and drive from there largely following the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway across to Moscow. We would then sell the vehicle in Moscow and fly back home.

The Trans-Siberian is one of the great rail journeys of the modern world, if not the greatest. It’s up there with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express , and Rovos Rail’s Pride of Africa from Cape Town to Dar es Salaam. You’ll find an abundance of videos documenting the journey by rail enthusiasts. So why not simply take the train, you might ask?

Well, the train doesn’t allow one to easily get off and on at places of interest en route, and there’s much to be seen.

For example, Lake Baikal near Irkutsk. It’s the largest freshwater lake in the world containing more water than north America’s great lakes combined. It’s the world’s deepest lake, the world’s oldest lake, and more than 2500 species of animal; most of them endemic.

Problem for me: In Russia, I will be functionally illiterate.

The Greek alphabet, which emerged in 1000–900 BC, developed two branches.

One of these branches was used by the ancient civilization of Etruria which was at its zenith circa 500BC. The Etruscans had a civilizing influence on Rome, and the Romans thanked the Etruscans by overthrowing their monarchs and assimilating their people. As a result, we have the Roman Alphabet with which I am typing these words.

The other branch of the Greek alphabet came from Saint Cyril, a Greek missionary born 826 or thereabouts. Given that he was on a mission to spread the orthodox church, his script was adopted by the people who follow that church, among them Bulgaria, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

That’s why I would be functionally illiterate; I would not be able to read a map or road signs or know whether I was buying vodka or drain cleaner.

Here are some examples:

Russia	Россия
Vladivostok	Владивосток
Moscow	Москва
Vodka	водка
Drain cleaner	водка

(Just kidding about the last one; apparently vodka and drain cleaner are different things in Russia too,)

The question of when to travel became open ended. 2018 was out of the question because of the World Cup. 2019 suddenly ended up being out of the question because elections became a part of my life. 2020 seemed to be the time to do it. In preparation for doing so, I began to learn how to read Cyrillic.

Thanks, 2020, I see what you did there.

The bombs are now flying once again. The world is already a different place since last week. Let’s see where this goes before I revisit this dream.