Day 16: Vladimir to Nizhini Novgorod

Distance covered on Road : 150 Miles

Highlight of the day : The Russian Firefighters Acrobatic display Team … (Sleeping in a dorm with 100 Russian Girls… James and Dave Orders Highlights only of course!)

Low Point of the Day : The traffic in Rush Hour in Nizhini Novgorod and getting lost in town for 2 hours in 40 degree heat…. Sweaty Sweaty boys!!Blog…. James M

Russian roads don’t muck about, they are straight to the point that you beg for a corner sometimes or even just a small bump that might make you do something with the big wheel in front of you. Although I must confess Stage 2 are already tired of Ross` constant shout of “ Snakey Snakey” when the back of Martha moves by about a millimetre.

Highlights of our journey on the road were our fantastic use of the “point it” book to order 5 Chicken and rice meals at a road side café!  Who needs Russian when you have your fingers!!

On a more sombre note we drove within sight of the massive wild fires that have been plaguing Moscow and much of western Russia. The fires have left a cloud of thick smog along our journey now for days and a lot of Locals are starting to Panic here! The sight of The Russians wearing Face Masks is still odd to me but also brings home how real this problem is with the Authorities practically given up on controlling the fires.

Upon arriving in the city limits of Nizhini Novgorod I was met by a traffic system completely unknown to me which was, if you see a gap, move into it a fast as you can. Martha had her first official “scrape” by yours truly although I still insist it wasn’t my fault, (a cash offer from us made the issue disappear… Quietly… Ahem..)  Then the really low point of the day, getting stuck in 5 lanes of solid traffic in the town and without any sat nav we were completely lost. It was a painful 2 hours but as so often is the way with FTFE there is always something that comes along to pull you up from any down situation!!

When we did manage to find our hotel for the night we were greeted by 50 female smiling happy faces from Russian Girl Linguistic students all studying English and all looking for “help” with their studies after dinner. Now,  Id like to think of myself as a helpful man and so I couldn’t say no to such an offer!

One of the Girls “Ulya” (what a star!)  acted as a translator for us as we found a local fire station by chance and were shown around by the very excited local firefighters!! They also treated us to an amazing display of climbing a tower in seconds with just a ladder, honestly spider man and the Moscow state circus have no thing on these guys… wait for the video and you`ll be amazed!

Life is all good again.. despite our sore heads this morning!!

James

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