road adventures

= Day 40 =

From Krasnodar to Sochi I again got there on BlaBlaCar. The driver was an Uzbek, next to him in the front sat a Russian. On the road we managed to become friends. The road was long – 11 hours. From Goryachy Klyuch there was a huge traffic jam all the way to Tuapse, stretching about 150 km. The driver didn't get lost – after the traffic jam finally got to him, he pulled into the oncoming lane, turned around, and drove along the shoulder in reverse. That way we cut off about two hours. He got back into his lane only after we told him it was time to merge back, because the traffic cops aren't asleep. And after we got back into our lane, we first noticed one car, then another, bypassing that dead-stopped traffic jam in exactly the same way. It amused us. "Feels good to be a pioneer, huh?" asked the guy in the passenger seat. We did get pulled over at a traffic police checkpoint, where we got stuck for two hours. The cops stubbornly tried to find drugs in the car; they were two young guys, looked no older than 23-24. They knew the driver, he drives here often. And apparently, they had already found drugs on him before. And they also knew he had them, they were way too insistent. In the end, they tore the whole car apart, we had to unload all the belongings, they searched the trunk, under the seats, crawled into every crevice. But they

never found anything. During that time I managed to go to a café, had a coffee with a pastry. I came back, and they were still sorting things out. They let us sit in the car while they discussed something among themselves. The Uzbek picked the right moment and tossed some small metal part out the window, in which what they were trying to find was hidden. After that, one of the cops came up to us and started asking for a bribe of 200 rubles, then they'd let us leave right away. Or, as he said, they'd start shaking down the car and search until they found something. The cop gave us time to think, walked back to his partner, and our Uzbek, after a moment's thought, hit the gas and we sped off from there, leaving the young cop standing there waiting for his money. )) We arrived in Sochi late in the evening – at 10:30 PM. I said goodbye to the Uzbek, he turned out to be a good guy. He told me as a parting word that I could reach out to him if I needed help. We exchanged numbers, he drove me right to the guesthouse where I had already booked a room, and we said our goodbyes. I was met by Gena, the owner of the guesthouse. I settled into the room where a young couple from Saint Petersburg had been living; they had stayed here exactly one week. Now I live here.