Killing a day
Our hotel in Birobidzhan included breakfast, served in a box probably from its sister hotel nearby.
We have a day to kill before an evening departure from Birobidzhan on the overnight train to Blagoveshchensk. D joined me for a walk to the outskirts of town to look at another synagogue before dropping in at a bank to change some more money.
Banks here are open half-day on Saturdays but closed on Sundays, so we were lucky to get some extra money even though the rate at that bank was bad. It didn’t matter for the small amount that we need to tide us over till the end of our stay. It was the usual Russian hassle with the notes being not good enough and we tried to use our worst ones first.
With the money situation sorted, we wandered around the bazaars and found a shop with friendly migrant Chinese who were keen to chat. It was interesting to learn a bit about their lives, moving to a strange country to make a living.
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- Birobidzhan’s other synagogue.
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- Typical Siberian house.
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- The bazaar area.
We took lunch around 1130 at the town’s biggest canteen and then rested till 1800 when we checked out. Our hotel appeared completely empty apart from us, so we were able to pay for a late-check out till then.
We had a slow dinner at the Chinese restaurant behind the hotel. Not realising how big the portions were, we ordered a dish each and ended up having about double the quantity we actually needed. Regardless, D polished up everything!
Night train to Blagoveshchensk
We headed to the station around 2000 to wait for the 2059 train to Blagoveshchensk. The mosquitoes feasted on us and seemingly everyone else too.
The train arrived and left on time. The second-class cabin seemed a little narrower than on our last train. I put it down to one of the toilets having been expanded to accommodate a shower.
The cabin, like many things in Russia (e.g. joinery on doors and windows), were very well-engineered with good fit. It kinda goes against the image that one has in the west of Russia suffering in the face of sanctions.
The sheets provided in the plastic bag packages were still hot from the laundry. As it was already late, I set myself up for bed more or less straight away.