A Journey through Russia

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For many years I had had the desire to travel by train across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok. It takes just over six days to travel this distance. I guess I just wanted it on my historical record that I had actually done it. In the summer of 2008 I boarded the 'Rossiya' and began my journey across this vast country.

Before the Train Journey

Care of Brussels Airways, I arrived around 1 p.m at Domodedovo Airport, Moscow. Unofficial taxi drivers asked extortionate fees from Domodedevo to the centre of Moscow, but firmly ignoring these gangsters I found the Aeroexpress counter, paid my150 roubles and took the 50 minute train ride into the city centre.

Armed with a bit of Russian which I had been trying to learn for the previous five months, I took the super fast metro train from Pavlavskaya and in ten minutes arrived at Mayakovskaya metro stop. I was met by Michael who took me to Dorothy's Bed and Breakfast. This was a nice clean apartment situated along Tvakskaya Ulitsa about 20 minutes walk from the Kremlin.

That evening I just walked around the area taking in the sights, sounds and smells of this seemingly wealthy part of Moscow. Young people stood on the streets smoking and chatting. Restaurants were very pricy. Exchange bureaus and expensive cars were everywhere.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get much sleep during the night because of some rather noisy workmen who insisted on working until about 3 a.m. The following morning, July 9, I set off to see Red Square, Basil's cathedral and of course the Lenin mausoleum. The highlight of the morning-my very own meeting with the Bolshevik leader, Lenin. It took me two hours to get aquainted because of the huge queue that stretched for about a mile. I wonder if anyone of these souls had camped out over night to make sure of having their mystical experience with this man.

Around 12 noon I headed off to get my transiberian train tickets from Real Russia. Having found their office by asking any Alexei, Vladimir and Sasha along the way where this was, I returned to Red Square and joined my pre-booked Kremlin tour.

The next day with my confidence riding high I headed for the Tretyakov museum-a building full of wonderful artwork from hundreds of years back to the present. Now luckily enough I managed to latch onto a bunch of 70 come 80 years of age Americans who were being led around the museum by an excellent Russian guide who seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of every picture present.
The 250 rubles entrance fee was definitely good value for that day.

On next to the Church of Christ the Saviour near the Moscow river. The place was raised to the ground by Stalin in the 1930's and then rebuild again in the time of Boris Yeltsin. I thought I had better get there before someone in Putin's gang decides to repeat Stalin's actions.

From Moscow to Irkutsk

It was a bleak, rainy day in Moscow and wherever I went I was surely going to get wet. I could have spent the time admiring the beautiful metro architecture, but instead I decided to walk around the Arbat and Novy Gorad areas for a few hours. In the evening I started to get a little nervous at the prospect of the journey and the type of people I would meet on the first leg of the train trip.

I boarded the Moscow-Vladivostok train on 11 July around 9 .10 p.m. I had my book to read and had the chance to catch up on my social skills along the way. I thought my fellow train passengers would be Russian, so there would be a chance to practice. To my surprise I shared the compartment with three very sociable Dutch ladies on their way to China via Irkutsk. Carriage 12 birth 8 was to be my home for the next 4 days.

These three ladies, Anneta, her daughter Muruska and Anneta's sister were already on their bunks. Goodness there were bags everywhere together with bottles of vodka, beer and food to eat.

I ended up having the bottom bunk which suited me fine as I did not have to kill myself getting to an upstairs bunk. I was provided with a pillow, blanket and bedding and thankfully these girls showed me how to arrange these things.

We seemed to get on well together. We chatted for a bit and then after a while went to sleep to wake up the next morning at around 8 or 9.

The train went on and on and on and on stopping every 3 hours or so to pick up more travellers. You really had no idea where you were but I knew that we had at least passed through some small towns. The sound of the train lulled me into sleep, but, of course, sleep was constantly broken by the stops and the noise of passengers getting on and off the train. Life was comfortable in this letter compartment albeit a llittle crampt. We had a small table to food and drink on and a door which closed to give us a sense of security. The toilet was at the end of corridor which acted as a place to have a shave and brush ones teeth. Also there was a samovor, a device that always gave out hot water if you had a tea bag in a cup.

As the days went on I learnt more about my Dutch friends. Anneta worked in a bar and it seems her sister owned some kind of beauty salon. Marusha was only 13. These travellers were campers. Prepared with cups, knives, forks and the proper backpacks for travelling, cuppa soup bread and proper clothes such as shorts, throwaway nickers and comfortable tops. Everything which I didn’t possess. I wasn't really prepared for this journey.

On day two I think I went down to the restaurant with Anneta to see what it was like and was greeted by the word ‘Closed’ as soon as we entered. A sign said ‘no smoking’ but of course as this was Russia everyone was smoking. As soon as Anneta mentioned that she wanted vodka the whole atmostphere changed. The staff were only too happy to oblige.

Any stop we came to was an excuse to get off, do a little stretching and buy whatever food was there. People were selling an odd assortment of things on the platforms from giant stuffed animals - I wonder where people would put them-to biscuits, fish ice creams and bread.

I realized sadly that I should have brought a couple of pairs of shorts with me as it was too hot with the trousers I had. In the end I asked the ladies if I could wear my boxers during the day. Permission granted I felt much better but then what was I to put on during the night. Oh dear I felt embarrassed and hightly uncomfortable around these professional campers.

On 15 July after 96 hours on the train we finally pulled into Irkutsk at 6.03 a.m. The days had passed very quickly. Perhaps it was the good company, the reading or the shear excitement that made the time go so quickly. We parted company and said our goodbyes.

Irkutsk

People have the image that the great expanse of Siberia is extremely cold, bleak and covered in snow. True for much of the year but the region in July and August can be very warm reaching between 30-40 Celsius.

Lena, my young host, met me at the railway station a little late as I recall. It was 6 in the morning so I couldn’t really complain too much. I didn’t get much sleep during the last night on board the train so as we came into Irkutsk I was a bit groggy. Care of a local taxi driver, off we went on a 15 minute drive into the suburbs of the city to stay with here mother and cats.

Irkutsk is a small city with a distinctly European feel to it. You can easily walk from one end of the city to the other without taking a taxi. The main streets of Karl Marx and Lenina are easy to find and pleasant enough to walk down. It is not difficult to find your way around with the help of a simple map and a few questions for directions.

I wanted to do as most Russians do, so I took a mini bus from Lena's to the town centre. The nicest part of town is by the Angora river near the statue of Alexander 3. Having bought a bottle of mineral water, I started to explore the streets and did a bit of shopping for the next part of my train journey. I did not manage to get a bus ticket for Listvyanka to see Baikal. I think I was just too tired to walk anymore.

Alas at the beginning of day two I started to feel ill. I didn't know what the problem was at that time. I went back to Lena's house and rested up before the next part of my travels.


The Russian Christians

At 9 a.m.17 July I boarded the train which should have taken me from Irkutsk to Vladivostok. A rather long three day run. I was lucky to have as my companions three Christians, Sasha, Anotoly and Nadia. They were very friendly and curious about me. I introduced myself and told them about my job and family in my rather poor Russian. With the aid of my phrase book, I could make myself understood. I thought how wonderful it is to now have the opportunity to talk with real Russians.

This was a third class train and the difference between this and the 'Rossiya' really showed. Passengers seemed to have found their bunks above, opposite, in the corridors and on the roof. There was no privacy-no cabin to hide in. Toilets were dirtier and the floors needed a scrub.

And now the unthinkable happened. I don't need to go into the details but I felt very ill. Sasha, the more elderly of the three, helped me get threw my difficulties. She got help from somewhere on the train to check my pulse, put a wet towel over my forehead and really impressed on me the need to get off the train and see a doctor. I did not fight this idea.

Apart from these Russian Christians, no one else bothered to even look in my direction. Most people just remained totally indifferent.


The Russian hospital or how not to spend 3 days in Ulan Ude

After unexpectedly getting off the train, I was thus at the mercy of the Ulan Ude platform medics. Two doctors or people who passed as doctors checked my vital organs in a small medic centre on the side of the platform. The verdict-off to the local hosptial. There seemed to be two things going on here. Transport staff were asking me countless questions about my travel plans while at the same time I was being asked about my aches and pains.

I got to the hospital care of a beat up old car and was ushered into a reception room.Three or four doctors sat around me, asking me questions about pains, history of illness and travel plans. You know I guess that these people couldn’t understand why anyone would be crazy enough to attempt a 4 day train trip from Irkutsk to Vladivostok.

It didn’t seem to be a very busy hospital. I didn't see any patients until I was shown my hospital ward and then only fleeting glimpses. A check on my heart, a blood test and an ultra son followed to establish the problem. The heart was ticking well, but the ultrason revealed some blockage in the utirary. I have a history of kidney stones. it's a pity this problem manifested itself now. The general consensus was that my stones had come lose due to all the bumping of the train from Moscow to Irkutsk. Probably right. I had or still have three kidney stones lurking around before the trip. The doctors told me that I should stay for two or three days so that they could give me the medication to unblock the blockage.

Here was a nightmare scenario. The doctors couldn't speak any English, and I only had a smattering of Russian. I had no communication as my phone wouldn't work and get this the hospital had no phones that seemed to work either. In comes the food. Now it certainly wasn’t very beautiful to behold and I could imagine a French person having a heart attack at seeing such a grotesque thing put in from of you. It was so bland. A couple of pieces of bread and a kind of white stuff that looked like semolina pudding with a sliver of butter to give added taste.

The Russian piece de resistance was a watered down borsch. Borch is a thick cabbage soup with pieces of meat which actually tasktes quite nice in normal circumstances. But the hospital borsch was basically water, a piece of what looked like meat and a few red blobs which I took for carrots.

I only stayed for three days at this five star hotel. Goodness not even a taxi to take me down town. So I just pulled my case for maybe a kilometre and then finding a taxi headed for the Hotel Buriati.

There is not much in Ulan Ude. It's claim to fame is the giant Lenin head in Sovietskaya plaza. Apparently, it is hollow on the inside. Newly weds love to have their pictures taken there. The Buriyati are a friendly lot. I was lucky to be shown around the town by two charming students who made my stay palatable.

It was time to go back to Moscow. I had bought my ticket a couple of days previously at some horrendous price .I decided that because of my condition ,I had better return to Euroland.

As the plane left Russia and passed over Germany, I felt a surge of relief. I was relieved to be going home. This is not the end I had wanted. Yet, I thought there is always another time.

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