Last week I left my city for the first time. And this is the story of how it happened.
My teammate and I had been talking about getting out of town for Christmas. We’d thrown some possible dates around, but nothing was set in stone. Upon meeting at my leader’s house one evening, we decided to try to catch a train that night. So we packed our things, and were on our way within an hour.
Getting a train ticket to a tourist city as a tourist ended up being a lot more difficult than it would sound. Turns out, for security reasons, foreigners can only purchase tickets on the sleeper train for 100 USD. One way. Since no one would sell us tickets on the non-sleeper train, we wandered around the train station pestering people for over an hour before someone in the ticket office finally told us in an exacerbated tone of voice to just hop on the train for locals!
So that’s exactly what we did. We hopped on without a ticket, and took seats in the first car with the rest of the locals. When the conductor came around and asked for our tickets, he didn’t ask for ID, and he didn’t question our obvious foreignness. He just took our cash, and printed us out a little receipt with two local tickets for a local price.
The train we rode on was an authentic Cold War era train, decked out with a gray metal exterior, and equipped with squeaky iron wheels, and appropriately rickety brakes. I had never taken a journey on a coal burning train before in my life. Sometimes sparks would fly down past my window when we sped up. It was like stepping back in time.
But nothing could beat the desert sunrise in the Middle Eastern countryside. It was indescribably stunning.
We ended up spending four days in my new favorite city. It was like 6th grade social studies all over again, only this time I was actually interested.
I got to practice my bargaining skills, too. This city has the biggest, most touristy flea market I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve lived in this country for almost three months now, so I know how much things are supposed to cost (about). So, when a man wanted to charge me ten times what I knew a set of rings was worth, I bartered with him until the price was something I was willing to pay - an eighth of what he originally asked for. That was a fun experience.
But probably the best part about this whole excursion was getting to ride a bike again. It had been so long since I had ridden a bike, and, rickety as it was, it was a pleasure to ride on dusty abandoned roads through the desert sunshine. Plus, it was 80 degrees a few days before Christmas, and, come on, how awesome is that?
Purchasing a bus ticket for the ride home was far less sketchy than buying a train ticket was (somehow buses are safer for foreigners than trains?). But we got to purchase actual tickets in advance, instead of just hopping on and hoping for the best. Driving through the desert on the night bus was frightening at times, but also incredibly fascinating. The vast, empty desert landscape is eery, really. Never have I been anywhere where the only light was from the moon. Never before have I felt like I was in the complete middle of nowhere.
So I got to see more of my country, and got to get a break from the city I live in for a few days. Plus, I got to see how long distance ground transportation works here. In the end, we made it home safely, and had an awesome pre-Christmas adventure.