My knowledge of Russian gives me a chance to make many friendships. I met aboard few Russian travellers: Tonya from Chelabinsk, Dima, Gosha and Natasha from Moscow. We have a lot of time to share our traveller’s knowledge – they are explaining some parts of Russian history… Nice people! Also my cabin mates are nice and quiet. Everybody uses free “kipyatok” – boiling water to prepare coffee, tea and instant soups. There is also “stolovaya” -a kind of the restaurant on the ship, but the waiting lines are long and the typical meal costs 400-500 roubles. The budget traveller can try mashed potatoes just for 50 rou. Ob River has many branches and shallows so the navigation is not easy. I met the captain Nicolai Agaki, he told me that within 2 years they are expecting a new ship with a toilet attached to every cabin and a/c (the lack of a/c is the nightmare of this boat). They allowed me to visit the bridge and see all the navigational equipment.
In the late afternoon we reached Berezovo. Here we had again 30 minutes stay, but the ship arrived 15 min after the scheduled time and I was able to see only from the distance the hill where the settlement is located with the golden spires of the church – it is about 700 m from the landing.
