Vladivostok

På den syvende morgen skulle toget ankomme til Vladivostok klokken 06:15 Moskva-tid, hvilket var 13:15 lokal tid. Polly vågnede ved det første lokale lys, omkring klokken fem.

On the seventh morning, the train was due into Vladivostok at 06:15 Moscow time, which was 13:15 local time. Polly woke at first local light, sometime around five.

Ud af vinduet havde skoven givet plads til lave, bølgende bakker og græs. Stillehavet lå et sted forude. Hun kunne mærke det, som man kan mærke en stor vandmasse, før man ser den.

Through the window, the forest had given way to low rolling hills and grass. The Pacific was somewhere ahead. She could feel it, the way you can feel a large body of water before you see it.

Den sidste station før Vladivostok var Ussuriysk. Toget stoppede i femten minutter. Polly hoppede ned. En kvinde solgte røget fisk fra et klapbord. Fiskene var sølvfarvede. Øjnene var stadig klare. Polly smagte et lille stykke. Kvinden pakkede det ind i avispapir og tog ingen betaling. Nogle markeder fungerer sådan.

The last station before Vladivostok was Ussuriysk. The train stopped for fifteen minutes. Polly hopped down. A woman was selling smoked fish from a folding table. The fish were silver. The eyes were still clear. Polly tried a small piece. The woman wrapped it in newspaper and accepted no payment. Some markets work this way.

Stillehavet dukkede op på højre side af toget omkring klokken elleve lokal tid. Det var gråt og lyst.

The Pacific appeared on the right side of the train at around eleven local time. It was grey and bright.

Vladivostok kom pludselig til syne. Byen er bygget ind i bakker, der strækker sig ned til havet. Toget kører gennem en af disse bakker. Endestationen ligger ved havnen. Stoppet ved enden af sporene er fyrre meter fra vandet.

Vladivostok arrived all at once. The city is built into hills that come down to the sea. The train tunnels through one of those hills. The end of the line is on the harbour. The buffer at the end of the tracks is forty metres from the water.

Toget gjorde sit sidste stop. Uret over kupeens dør, som havde vist Moskva-tid i syv dage, viste 06:23. Det lokale ur på stationen viste 13:23.

The train made its final stop. The clock above the compartment door, on Moscow time for seven days, read 06:23. The local clock at the station read 13:23.

Polly hoppede ned på perronen. Vladivostok var en havneby med lave stenbygninger og stejle gader. Luften lugtede af fisk, rust og salt.

Polly hopped down to the platform. Vladivostok was a port city of low stone buildings and steep streets. The air smelled of fish and rust and salt.

For enden af perronen stod en lille hvid obelisk. Indskriften lød KILOMETER 9.289. Enden af linjen.

At the end of the platform there was a small white obelisk. The inscription read KILOMETRE 9,289. The end of the line.

Polly stod ved obelisken i et langt minut. Syv dage. En halv milliard år af Ural-bjerge. Femogtyve millioner år af Bajkal. Én kran. Otte tidszoner, hvoraf toget kun havde observeret én.

Polly stood at the obelisk for a long minute. Seven days. Half a billion years of Ural rock. Twenty-five million years of Baikal. One crane. Eight time zones, of which the train had observed only one.

Hun strakte sine vinger. Stillehavet lå lige forbi havnemuren. Hun løftede sig fra perronen, fløj over containerhavnens kraner og ud over bugten.

She stretched her wings. The Pacific was just past the harbour wall. She lifted from the platform, climbed over the cranes of the container port, and out over the bay.