(no subject)

[randomness]

Smell can evoke memories more vividly than any other sense. As I was getting on the overnight train from Vilnius to Riga, I got a whiff of burning coal. My memory flashed back, and I was back on the Trans-Mongolian, with Victoria, on our way from Moscow to Beijing.

I looked to the head of the train and saw a diesel loco. For a moment I was confused, but then I saw the smoke rising from each of the passenger cars. The Lithuanian railways had inherited their rolling stock from the Soviets, so they had coal-fired samovars in their cars. That smell had been in the background for the five and a half days it took to cross Siberia and Mongolia. And here it was again. Sure enough, when I got on the train and looked down the corridor, I saw the attendant putting a shovelful of coal into the boiler.

Later, as I rode from Riga to Daugavpils, I'd pass freight wagons with the embossed CCCP and coat of arms spray-painted over, and the logos of the Russian or Latvian railways stenciled on.

Comments

Yay for samovars!

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I'd like to get a samovar that I could actually use. My mom's is too old and fragile so it's just for lookin' pretty. But I guess it might be a pain to actually fire one up and ventilate it right, what with carbon monoxide and all....

[pobig.livejournal.com]

This whole thing about smells triggering memories is intriguing to me, because I hardly ever seem to experience it. I guess that what comes of being chronically congested as a kid.

trans mongolian

[dirque.livejournal.com]

i want to do that trip again.

But this time i want to think of something to sell if they still do that
like yugi-oh! cards or something similar.

[contrariety.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, yeah. All I have to get is a whiff of diesel, and I'm suddenly immersed in sunshine, lying on a dock after a long day of swimming, sailing, and inner-tubing. I *love* the smell of diesel.