The crossing of Siberia by train, realize a dream - .
Crossing Siberia by train
The pleasure of standing in the hallway of a car bed watching the world pass by the window one of the reasons why I love long-distance travel by train, being serenaded by the rails, I could rave forever. For a train lover wandering,
the Trans-Siberian route is a long-aspired dream . To travel slowly through the vast plains of Siberia, to take a train to London and with some changes coming weeks in Asia.If it can be done, it must be done, it must be traveled.This step of our rail trip to Vietnam was to be the longest,
Yekaterinburg to
Irkutsk . Three days, two nights,
3373 kilometers and four time zones. I craved this trip!
I booked our seats in a (4 beds) Kupe using the website Russian Railways (English bit) . This worked for me, but I understand that all credit / debit cards are accepted by it, especially American ones.You can book an internal Russian train on the site and it gives you a registered exit ticket you print that you give to the attendant when you board,
I could not believe how easy it was! 
Our train, the 002 Rossiya, Moscow to Vladivostok , left the Yekaterinburg station late in the day.
All trains in Russia come to Moscow time , which can be a bit confusing at first.All stations have clocks to Moscow time too, as well as trains.
It had snowed all afternoon
we crunched on the platform as the train pulled in to us, looking our car as it passed
This is the time the railway anticipation traveler: .. aboard a train and meet your fellow travelers This train began its journey in Moscow :. will join a sleeper already settled and inhabitedBundling in the hallway of our car with our bags, we found our cabin and we are introduced to
Natasha and
Valiyr its other occupants. Both Russian Natasha traveling full Moscow to Vladivostok for the first time and was Valiyr until the next stop later in the evening. Tyumen
We were able to converse with great success, albeit slowly, with our glossary. In trying to explain why we made the trip, and how we could afford it, we used our old story of travel (used when we traveled through the Middle East and India) that
we were on our honeymoon. It usually justified without question.far.Valiyr disappeared. He returned shortly afterwards with a bottle of
Liebfraumilch (there was a mother and her baby on the label) and a chocolate bar (had a baby on the label, do not you see a pattern here?).We toasted our wedding, we toasted our future off-spring, we went with it.
fully in the festive swing now ubiquitous Valiyr dragged a bag of laundry checked under the seat and produced a dark bottle, homemade liquor. Blackcurrant we were able to deduce it was poured and passed around.We toasted our wedding, we toasted our future off-spring.bottle was returned to the bag and another took its place, this time
a spirit pales house it was herby :. We toasted our wedding, we toasted our future off-spring.Natasha, eager to keep things under some control
lavished sausage slices of salami-type for men. The bottle is returned in the bag, this time
cognac unlabeled replaced.This was powerful stuff, Natasha and I agreed that we had had enough after the first.We toasted our wedding, we toasted our future off-spring.Chris Valiyr and continued with cognac, we were all getting rather merry. Natasha Valiyr and sang for us
Russian traditional songs , and then asked us to do the same.Our minds befuddled could not think of anything, they urged us, we watched another and a lighted spark in our eyes, yes,
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, can not escape the reality" There was a vibrant version of
Bohemian Rhapsody :. , it blew their minds! Well, it may have been bemusement!By the time the train pulled into the station Tyumen four hours later, Valiyr and Chris were very drunk.
Valiyr had to be helped off the train by Natasha! I felt a little guilty with
our honeymoon fib , Natasha and Valiyr were so sweet to celebrate. We can use it more carefully from now on!
Natasha even made my bed for me that night. Valiyr was replaced by two placid men on the rest of the trip, one after another.
over the next two days the Siberian world through the , it seems similar to the pre-Yekaterinburg travel. The trees, so many bare trees in the late fall.The village occasional wood
dusty streets that separate the shabby colorful houses . Orange-clad railwaymen appear in remote locations along the track.We spend a few large cities
Ob and Novosibirsk , with blocks of ugly housing, litter and congestion. They have dark gray air compared to
fragile villages splashed color wood. The afternoon burning gold.
The transparent background of endless large standing birches, turns on the miles , punctuated in the foreground with short low platforms next to the tracks . These rudimentary stations serving small villages hidden in the trees.
Forest soils are dusted with snow that has become small drifts on the slopes. time is lost as we travel across time zones,
we eat by the sun and the days are short. continues the process is that we sink in the dark, time to curl up and read.the next morning, there is a lot more variety to the outside world, many colonies of logging and forest poker straight pines.
The train crosses rivers, frozen on the banks platforms and stations, we pass through the brilliance with the gel.
As we get much closer to the Irkutsk logging increases , the terrain becomes hilly and most diverse forests.traffic on the roads and trains many goods.
We see foxes, their big bushy tails disclose. A
Zima the train stopped for thirty minutes giving us plenty of time to get some fresh air needed on the platform.
Our diet on the train consists of noodles and soup powder, Brown bread, brie, pickles, crackers. Packets of instant oatmeal are complete breakfasts, made with
water from the samovar bags Three-in-one instant coffee wash everything down. - I know, shocking but oddly quite addictive!Chris enriches the diet with hot food that brought down the train:
donut rolls filled with hot dogs or meat arriving in Irkutsk
There were a few other backpackers in our car, we met and
chatted the entire trip . Everyone gathered in the corridor as the train pulled into the early evening Irkutsk.We entered the city with a beautiful girl Aussie, Tori, threw our bags at the hostel and joined some other guys in the dorm for drinks in town
Wow now we were so far along the rails of the United Kingdom I could not believe this section of the trip had been completed.! something I had dreamed of for so long! He lived up to my dreams and expectations, and I felt a little solemn now he had traveled.
However, more adventure beckons, the journey was far from over ... Pin for later:
Try these messages:
Irkutsk, a beautiful place to take a break Hop off for Lake Baikal!
Heavenly island Olkhon, Lake Baikal Just the most beautiful place, off the train for a few days and head to the island on Lake Baikal.
Mongolia Hello! arriving by train in Ulaanbaatar on the anniversary of Chenggis Khan! How very auspicious!
Breaking Up The Vastness Of The Journey In Yekaterinburg, Russia A perfect break on Trans-Siberian.
Moscow. Lenin, Gorky Park and the Soviet space shuttle! Moscow Exploration and find some surprises.
Arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia Baby! We had very, very drunk on the train. Let's just call an initiation!
From Russia With Love, Red Square in Moscow. is iconic, and it's fantastic!
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