So with a sore face after so much laughing I try and get out of the Hostel but the lady working today seems to think I have not payed the bill so in a typical russian fashion there is a long protracted discussion - at least in english - where it starts with 'you are on list that say you no pay' - when I ask her to check the reciepts for the day I arrived 'no need you are on the list that say you no pay' this goes on for some time but the Russian's are used to dealing with hostility when you find one of the many holes in their system - but it is diffused when you just get more and more polite and then she becomes your best friend and drives you to the train station! So I arrive at Yarlovsky station after another shaky car ride across Moscow and begin the lengthy process of trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Due to the russian design of having a station building at the front with platforms at the rear with no connection everyone just walks around the building to the platforms. With
my broken Russian I try and locate the train and fairly quickly I find the 350 service to Valdivostok. There is a brief dialogue with the Provotnik who does not seem happy to have a foreigner on board and then I am into my new home for the next four days! It is small but seems ok - basically the same type of train as runs the overnight service between St Petsburg and Moscow. I have a lower bunk which is an advantage as there is much more storage space for stupid western europeans bringing winter kits in the spring - and then I sit back to see what happens.
Soon I am joined by a soldier - he is a bit rotund - so not the most convincing and definitely not like the Omon units - but I realise that the train is competely Russian as yesterday was the Orthodox Easter when most of the country makes a trip to Moscow and now they return home. My new friend makes an effort to greet me but then quickly retreats when he realises that he is in with johnny foreigner. But I am lucky that it seems that there
Platform TradersFor idiots like me this was the only saviour from four days on a diet of pot noodle or pot mash - chocalate - and pistachio nuts - which is all that was available on the train! Fortunately the platfor
... [more]are two of us in the four person carriage so we find the most lengthy diagonal line in the carriage and he gets stuck in to the brilliant russian music scene by blasting the mp3 on his mobile where the russians have executed such hits as doing a cover of Glenn Maderos - nothing is going to change my love for you - which he gladly sings along with - and an original track with english lyrics that were if my man cheats on me I will kill him - again he is singing along and now I am scared. I start to realise that the fuss on the way to the train has cost me as there was no time left to buy food or get something to do - so I dilligently start copying out the russian phrasebook much to the soldiers amusement. From the corridor I take in the view out of Moscow where the fragmented city blocks give way to low scale housing that then turn to the country shacks that the Muscovites use as weekend houses and the rest of the rural population live in full time. Attempts at photography are quickly shut down by
FoodstopYou need to be careful as the train will happily pull off without you!
my female provotnik - who looks seriously tougher than the soldier - so I sneak as many as I can in through the window in between the carriages.
The evening draws in fairly quickly and we are joined by a russian lady who immediately manages to offend the soldier just by being a woman and a very awkward atmosphere follows. As she simply takes off her shoes to climb into the top bunk the soldier freaks out and practically runs out of the compartment - the lady tries to reassure him that it is only her shoes coming off (my phrasebook is already paying off) but he still storms off in a huff. She swears in russian and then turns to me for a conversation where I try and get through but I quickly have to tell her that I speak english and now she looks really unhappy realising that there is not going to be anyone to talk to - she comments something about a bloody soldier and an english what am I going to do? After a while the soldier returns and gives me a stare to see if I share his discomfort that the lady is
View Trans SiberianMany many silver birch over the thousands of miles of open wilderness ocasionally broken by cities or shacks that dominate the view from the train.
there - so I start singing if my man cheats on me I will kill him and he happily joins in for a while. Everything calms down and I get ready for my fifteen minutes of sleep. Before bed I realise that the average russian man will not wash for the trip - but will just change into sports gear and get on with it. In a carriage where you cannot open any of the windows this is not good!
City ViewOne of the cities with the typical industrial signs.
Russia's Flag
Map of Russia