It's 3 o'clock at night (local time) when I call Nicole in Atka. In Belgium it is 5 o'clock in the evening.
Atka also is the name of the pub where the two are staying and despite the late/early hour that I call them, Nicole and Ingrid are very cheerful.

"We are two hundred kilometers away from Magadan and that is the terminal point in Siberia, they shout out loud. Then we will have to make arrangements of how to get to Alaska, because that's our next challenge. The past week was a nice one, temperatures were ok and the things we saw were extremely beautiful. We crossed 5 mountain-passes and in combination with a bright, shining sun and long, endless carpets of white snow, these were images never to forget.
On March 8, it was women's day. If only you knew !! It's a big celebration here in Siberia and not only women take the day off, men do too ! Men are in the kitchen all day to spoil their wifes. Furthermore, they buy flowers who are imported from Holland, candy, teddybears etc. As a gift, some women even get money from their husbands.
We told the owner of the pub, a very nice woman, that our Flemish/Belgian radio, Radio 2, contacts us, life from Belgium, every month and that today, March 8, we would be on the radio. We told her the name of the program 'Niets is zeker'. She especially closed her pub for us. She hung a paper at her door saying that the pub was closed because of 2 famous, courageous girls . We were two 'Belgian worldstars', the paper said.

After our telephone conversation with Radio 2, the pub was open again and what a surprise ! Men came in and gave us presents such as cans filled with food, candy (5 kg !) and bottles of wodka. Candy is called confetti overhere.
We looked at eachother and came to the same conclusion : so many presents; we could have stayed here and opened a store. This was a remarkable women's day !