(Not a) Guardian: Soviet Trains 'n Trams

With ticket in hand after passing an hour in the nothing-neighbourhood of the station I returned to the platform. It was eerily quiet. The sinking feeling quickly sank but I waited until 5 minutes past the departure time before asking the only person around, a Russian speaking cleaning lady. Eventually she understood where I wanted to go and shook my head and put me back on the tram I'd come in on. I pieced together that I'd interpreted the hand gestures of the price as the departure time from the sour Soviet train ticket lady. Cleaning lady explained something to the tram driver and the more pleasant tram ticket lady as she pushed me on. I still didn't know what was going on as we pulled away and they tutted but otherwise couldn't seem to help. Back at the main town, I cried out that I didn't know what they were expecting me to do as they told me to get off. An old man was the only one to answer to my agony. I showed him my ticket which had the destination in Cyrillic and he led me emphatically to the bus station. We stood at the platform for a minute as he asked and the answers didn't seem positive. Dragging me along again we went inside where the Soviet bus ticket lady was amazingly more sour than the train one had been. It seemed the ticket I held was not good for the bus as I'd hoped all this fuss had meant and that the next bus was not until after the next train. My old man seemed to have another idea and still wordlessly he pulled me back to the main road. However I recognised this from the time I'd taken the tram to the train station nearing 2 hours ago now. We played the worst game of charades since that time I had an unbearably itchy back during my turn, so he and I changed over to Pictionary in the dirt. Eventually I figured out he was sending me back to the train station on the tram three hours before the next departure, that he wanted me to confirm the platform it would leave from, and that he was not a guardian after all. I thanked him for his intentions and to his consternation walked away to find a better way to pass the time.