The international language of love ...

The place I am staying in is a bit of a dump, it's clean, just about, but kind of creepy, there is a gaggle of little old ladies who make breakfast and generally look after the place. Anyway, I have always thought that you can judge the classiness of an hotel by the amount of noise you can here from the other rooms. This morning i was woken up to the noise of squeek squeek squeeksqueek, squeek squeeksqueeksqueeksqueeksqueeksqueeksqueeksqueek SQUEEEEEEEEEK squeek squeeksqueek squeek YES!!!!! [silence]. I Thought, Great, English speakers, but a couple of moments later i heard them coming out of their rooms speaking Russian. Dammit I thought, but at least i know that Yes is in the international word for I've come, and [silence] is the international word for What about me?
It's a little colder here than yesterday, but it's still pleasant. The people here are just so much nicer here than they were in Moscow and St Petersburg, even if you try to speak Russian to them, they are good humoured about it and really do want to help, I think I'm a bit of a curiosity to them, and none of them know where Ireland is. Even when I draw a map showing the little country beside England they still aren't too sure. The driving here is appalling, it's just chaos, it makes Rome look organised. And there seems to be a real clash between tradition and modernity. You see lots of young ladies and women, in short skirts and impossibly high heels, but also the traditionally dressed ladies in their headscarves and long dresses. You also see a lot of old people begging. It's not as bad here as in St. Petersburg or Moscow, where I saw old ladies and men, dressed well going through rubbish bins and garbage tips, I saw one old lady pulling newspaper out of a bin, to make herself warm?
Then on the other hand you see Porsche, and BMW's and Mercedes, and all sorts of other fast fancy cars. Wasn't it this kind of disparity that lead to the revolution in the first place? I don't know, it seems wrong for a county to neglect its elderly. Apparently the state pension is only $430 a month.
Anyway have to get my train at 4 tomorrow morning and it will take 2 days to get to Irkutsk. Have my copy of War and Peace, think I am going to need it.