Истории и судьбы

Читаю учебник истории, думаю, что же мне это напоминает?
In the late 1270s two Christian monks, Bar
Sa¯wma¯ and Marko¯ s, voyaged into the heart of
Islam. They were not Europeans. They were
Uighurs, a Turkish people of central Asia, many of whom had
converted to Christianity centuries earlier.(много всякого текста об их путешествиях)Bar Sa¯wma¯ visited
Constantinople (where the king gave him gold and silver),
Rome (where he met with the pope at the shrine of Saint
Peter), and Paris (where he saw that city’s vibrant university)
before deciding to return to China, where the Christians of
the east awaited his reports. In the end, neither monk ever returned.Yet their voyages exemplified the crisscrossing of people,money, and goods along the trade routes and sea-lanesthat connected the world’s regions.

Анекдот, про мужика, который соль в поезде передал. Именно его и напоминает.