I found Rick asleep under a tree after I'd taken so long to catch up with him after leaving lake Baikal with Geoff patently following me. That was the toughest ride of my life and I was annoyed with myself for not being able to enjoy it like they could.
Rick wanted us to join him at Bolshoi Calais, an old Soviet holiday camp he had discovered 'couch surfing'. It was very hot in the busy traffic back in Irkutsk, and the road to the holiday site was very bad from my point of view, but I made it and got a strange sense of pleasure from riding successfully on such a bad road and was quite proud of myself! After much negotiating with the park security, Rick was let in to find the young English teacher 'Spike' at the 'Happy School'. Our room was dank but interesting. The whole site had changed little over the years and I was surprised the Soviets even had holiday parks. Maybe it was so they could keep an eye on the holidaymakers if they were all in the same place. Groups of mostly girls played volleyball, tennis, or had lessons of English, art or even mime. The whole place was overgrown and run down but nobody seemed to notice, they we just glad to be there. English had to be spoken at all times, a few songs such as YMCA, Robbie Williams or other joyful songs were sung.
An example from their guidebook was, "It is up to me to be happy, events or circumstances cannot change this" or, "My stomach may be hungry but I will eat when it is time to eat, I am not an eating machine" It seemed like brainwashing to me but they were all very happy and who am I to judge. Geoff entertained a crowd with travelling stories, explaining to one girl how impressed he was to see people dancing in a cafe in Volgograd, as the English need to get drunk before they dance as we are too self conscious. She replied, "Why don't English people just dance?"
Rick wanted us to join him at Bolshoi Calais, an old Soviet holiday camp he had discovered 'couch surfing'. It was very hot in the busy traffic back in Irkutsk, and the road to the holiday site was very bad from my point of view, but I made it and got a strange sense of pleasure from riding successfully on such a bad road and was quite proud of myself! After much negotiating with the park security, Rick was let in to find the young English teacher 'Spike' at the 'Happy School'. Our room was dank but interesting. The whole site had changed little over the years and I was surprised the Soviets even had holiday parks. Maybe it was so they could keep an eye on the holidaymakers if they were all in the same place. Groups of mostly girls played volleyball, tennis, or had lessons of English, art or even mime. The whole place was overgrown and run down but nobody seemed to notice, they we just glad to be there. English had to be spoken at all times, a few songs such as YMCA, Robbie Williams or other joyful songs were sung.
An example from their guidebook was, "It is up to me to be happy, events or circumstances cannot change this" or, "My stomach may be hungry but I will eat when it is time to eat, I am not an eating machine" It seemed like brainwashing to me but they were all very happy and who am I to judge. Geoff entertained a crowd with travelling stories, explaining to one girl how impressed he was to see people dancing in a cafe in Volgograd, as the English need to get drunk before they dance as we are too self conscious. She replied, "Why don't English people just dance?"
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