Day #55: Another day on the Trans-Siberian railway

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I had hoped to treat myself to a final blow-out meal to celebrate my last day in Russia, but sadly but the time I got back from Taltsy I felt pretty unwell and just went straight to bed. I also had to be up at 4am to catch my train. Getting up was painful but I had moved specially to a hostel near the train station so my walk was only 15 minutes, and fortunately finding the train and my berth was very straightforward.

I still didn't feel well, so it was not a very fun journey unfortunately - I mostly just read in my bed. I was sharing my cabin with a man who could not understand a word of what I said in Russian no matter how clearly I tried to speak. Obviously I have a very strong foreign accent when I speak Russian, but it is funny how some people can pretty much follow it and others not at all, there must just be a knack to tuning into it!

The scenery changed significantly as we travelled into Mongolia - this is a particularly celebrated part of line as you go past lakes and hills, fortunately the interesting scenery was out of the cabin window so I did not have to move from the bed. Having said that, I personally preferred the Siberian landscapes with all the silver birch, though perhaps not feeling well also affected my opinion. The border crossing was the worst part - it takes about 6 hours altogether, stuck with no toilets in the middle of nowhere from evening through to midnight. First the Russians come in, take passports, do all the cabin and bag searches, then return the passports (about 3 hours), then the train moves for about 15 minutes over the border, and the Mongolians repeat the process. However, they were all very friendly. I had two English guys in the cabin next to mine and they reported that the Russian search dog had barked furiously at the space under their seat. Wondering what on earth someone had planted there they lifted the seat, only to watch the dog devour a sausage they had bought for their tea.

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