乌兰乌德／Ulan Ude

和之前从北京坐到乌兰巴托的火车一样，开往俄罗斯的火车是四个人一个车厢，只不过火车上的一切都是用俄罗斯文写的，负责每个车厢的女“队长”可是一句英语也不会说。好在与我同个车厢的是一个美国人和一个澳洲人，大家语言相同，聊着聊着，时间很快就过去，然后一觉起来就到达了第一站，即东西伯利亚第三大城市乌兰乌德。
Just like the trains going from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, the Trans-Siberian trains’ second class carriages are made up of cabins meant for four people. However, these trains are all Russian trains and as such, everything was in Russian. Luckily for me, I was sharing the cabin with an Australian and an American. We spent the whole day chatting and after a night’s sleep, I arrived at the first stop of my Trans-Siberia journey, i.e. the third biggest city in Eastern Siberia – Ulan Ude. 说是第三大城市，但相信很多人都没有听说过乌兰乌德，毕竟这不是很多游客会到的地方，所以连个象样的青年旅舍都没有。好在有个新开的民宿，服务非常周到，一大清早就到火车站接我，让我在抵达这陌生的地方后不必感到彷徨。
As the third largest city, one would expect Ulan Ude to be a big and busy place, but in fact, it is not. This is hardly surprising since this is not a place that most people have heard of, nor is it a “must-see” city on the tourists map. As such, you cannot find any decent youth hostel. Luckily, there is a new guesthouse which just opened for business this summer, which included pickups at the train station, saving me the headache of orientating myself in a foreign land.原本以为俄罗斯人都是白皮肤、蓝眼睛的，一看到来接我的民宿负责人就感到以外，因为他们看起来就像是亚洲人。后来才知道，这部分的俄罗斯有很多布里亚特人，而这一族人的祖先其实是蒙古人。
I had always thought that Russians are white people with blue eyes, so you can imagine my surprise on seeing an Asian looking face greeting me as I got off the train. I later learnt that this part of Siberia actually has a huge population of Buryat, who are descendents of Mongolians.

民宿距离市中心有一段距离，老实说，很不方便。不过因为民宿刚开张不久，没有什么客人，所以我和同时入住的西班牙情侣想要去哪里，主人家就开车送我们到那里，因此问题不大。民宿是典型的俄罗斯房子，木制的，设计简单，但因为主人家很友善，整个地方感觉温馨。他们不但有个可爱的“经理”，还打造了自己的三温暖，让客人有机会尝试何谓俄罗斯式三温暖。
The guesthouse was quite some distance away from the city centre, but because there was just me and a Spanish couple staying for the night, the guesthouse owner and his translator drove us around, making things really easy. The guesthouse is that of a typical East Siberian wooden house, simple in design, but cosy to stay in. Not only do they have a cute “manager”, there is even a sauna for you to experience what a banya (Russian sauna) is like. 在小休片刻后，我们先回到火车站购买下一站的火车票。不过抵达火车站后，只看到一堆的火车站职员和警察站在站外，不让任何人进入，就连民宿的主人和翻译员也被这个情况搞得满头污水。后来下车询问了很多人，才知道似乎有人在站内发现了一个没人认领的包包。实际情况到底怎样，没有人知道，大家开口闭口讨论的就只有“炸弹”。无可奈何，只好先到市中心逛逛，之后再回到火车站。
After a short rest, we headed back to the train station, hoping to secure train tickets for our onward journey. However, upon arriving at the station, we were not allowed to park, but instead were instructed by station staff and the police to leave the vicinity. Even the guesthouse owner and the translator were mystified by the situation. After asking around for some time, we finally gathered that the station is temporary closed because somebody discovered an unattended bag in the station. Nobody knew the exact details of what happened; neither did anybody have any ideas for how long the station will be closed. Everybody was just talking about “the bomb”. Under such circumstances, we had no choice but to head to the city centre for a walk, before going back to the train station again. 乌兰乌德的市中心并不大，就只有一个主要步行街道，街道两边整排的商店，但和其他大城市不同，来来往往的人并不人，商店也不怎么热闹。虽然正直夏天，在市中心可以看到临时搭起，贩卖啤酒和其他冷饮的帐篷，但坐在那里悠闲喝啤酒和咖啡的人不多。
Ulan Ude’s city centre is nothing to crow about. There is just one main pedestrian street, lined on both sides by shops, with just a smattering of people walking about. And even though it is right smack in the middle of summer, and there are some tents set up, you can hardly find people drinking beer or coffee at these temporary joints unlike the big cities elsewhere. 在街上不时会看到这类型的大木桶，很多人在那里排队买饮料。民宿主人从那里买饮料给我们喝，说是“俄罗斯可乐”。这个俄罗斯可乐样子看起来与平常的可乐没有两样，但是没汽的，喝起来味道也与正常可乐不同，倒有点像生病时喝的咳嗽药水。
One interesting thing we did notice was this huge barrel on the streets. There is a person dispensing liquid from these barrels to queues of people. Our guesthouse owner bought us a cup of drink each, describing it as “Russian cola”. It did look like a non-carbonated version of cola, but it definitely tasted nothing like it. In fact, it tasted like the cough syrup we usually take. 下午到附近的露天博物馆参观，这里个博物馆主要呈现俄罗斯古代人的生活。在这里可以看到很多旧式的木制房子，在房子内还可以看到以前俄罗斯人所用的日常用品和所穿的服饰等。由于布里亚特族人是原自蒙古，所以不难发现这些衣物与蒙古人所用和穿的非常相似。
In the afternoon, we headed for the open-air Ethnographic Museum, where we could see models of wooden houses from the olden days. And in the houses, you can actually see displays of daily necessities items used and clothing worn by people from the past. As this is a region heavily populated by Buryat Mongols, it is hardly surprising to see Mongolian gers and Mongolian-like costumes in the displays.本来还想到当地一个寺庙参观，可是参观完露天博物馆后，已经是傍晚了，寺庙都关门了，只好这样结束乌兰乌德的探索。　　～伟
We had wanted to visit one of the many datsuns (Buryati temples) too, but by the time we are done with the Ethnographic museum, most of the datsuns have already closed. Thus, I ended my short tour of Ulan Ude. 　　～wei