For Christmas I got my husband a bunch of DVDs. I got him season I and II (part I) of the new Battlestar Galactica (which is great, by the way), Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Batman Returns (are you seeing a pattern in his viewing?) and on a whim, I also got him Long Way Round, a reality mini series in cameras followed Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman as they rode motorcycles around the world.

The route they took went from London to Prague to Kazakhstan into Russia and out again, through Siberia and Mongolia and then on to Alaska and points in North America. Now, the vast majority of people who've adopted from Russia probably didn't adopt from the regions they travel through, but I still really recommend this to all people who are in any way connected with Russia and Eastern Europe. It's very, very good and also quite entertaining.

We've only watched the first two episodes of Long Way Round, and they haven't even entered Russia yet, but you get a taste of what is to come when they meet with the young women who are helping them with their visas. Apparently they needed open entry/exit visas, and these two women not only tell them that they are choosing an impossible route, but that the government might not approve their visas - for no reason at all. Nevertheless, they must go through the lengthy and complicated process of trying to get the visas but puh - no promises.

Furthermore, the young ladies say, do Ewan and Charley realize how big Russia is? Perhaps they don't know what a vast country they are thinking about traversing. Charley and Ewan roll their eyes a little bit. All they've been doing for weeks and weeks is plotting their route.

I found this exchange funny and eerily familiar. There is a certain je ne sais quoi about the Russian attitude that's portrayed in these two women. It's a certain pessimism about the government and bureaucracy combined with an arrogance towards non-Russians. This attitude isn't limited to Russians, by any means, but we certainly encountered it a lot when we were in Russia. This isn't to say the arrogance isn't justified. I have a feeling that Ewan and Charley might be severely tested by the Russian/Kazakh/Siberian/Mongolian part of their route. Roads in Moscow aren't maintained well enough. What will they see on their way to Yakutsk?