Trans Siberian Railway

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It is currently 7am and I have been awake for almost an hour, excited because today is the day we have all been waiting for- we are arriving in Moscow! The end of the train trip is rather bitter sweet it signifies the end of our journey together which for the ones of us that became such close friends, is really sad. Our carriage has become like a little community, we're all travelers yet we're all on very different journeys. Four days on a train sounds like a lot but it's like a little holiday break from all the exhausting travelling. You get to relax and enjoy the view, read a tonne of books, play games- what more do you need? Well maybe some better food would have been nice. From what I had read about the trip prior to my departure was that there would be Russian women (Babushkas) selling food at most of the stations. Contrary to this most stops only seemed to offer a few of the same corner stores which sold packaged food, stale belyashi (like a meat pie cross a pastie) and the odd piece of fruit. There was one station where I bought something off a babushka (not from a stall). It was a chicken nugget (or something similar) and it could have not have tasted better. There was a restaurant car on the train but the meals were quite small and expensive so I couldn't afford to eat there very often so instead I mostly lived off noodles and bread. However I couldn't care less that my diet was poor and I hadn't showered the whole time. We entertained ourselves pretty easily- made up our language, played who I am, charades, two truths one lie, had raves in the hallways and would squeeze as many guests as possibly into our cabin to share vodka and travel stories.

As for the scenery it was a lot more constant than I expected and much more monotonous than the trans Mongolian. Every morning I would wake up and peer through the curtains wondering what it would like but most days it was just the same. More trees and less mountains than what my expectations beheld. Siberia is actually home to 30% of the worlds trees which is pretty amazing, pine and poplar mostly- or at least that I recognised.

Although it was great fun I am looking forward to having some space, being constantly within one meter of at least three people at any one time can get a little bit claustrophobic and I am more intolerant now than I was at the start of the journey of some of the people I am around. Luckily knowing we are nearly there I am still able to hold my tongue.

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