Gateway To Asia

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So, our first long train leg with two nights on board. My first impression was that the carriages were older than the St Petersburg to Moscow train but essentially the same. Next was that it was quite warm compared to the waiting room coming in at 24°C. Nice.

We climbed on board unloading our bags into the bottom bunk. This time we had an upper and lower bunk and hoped Dave would be more comfortable on the slightly longer lower bunk. Next thing we knew a couple of Russian ladies had entered the cabin and were taking up all the space in the middle. We couldn’t move so ended up crammed into the lower bunk waiting for them to situate themselves. Eventually the older lade left and we realised we had just one roomie, a young blonde Russian lass who seemed really nice. We proceeded to move our backpacks into the storage areas and took out comfy clothes to change into. Our young Russian friend promptly gestured at our clothes and left the cabin shutting the door so we could get change. Or at least that’s what we figured as when we opened the door she was outside in the corridor.

Coming back in she started rummaging in her bag and next thing we knew she was offering us a couple of chocolates as a gift. First thought was, “oh how sweet”, second “dammit we don’t have anything to give her in return”. Massive oversight and totally our fault. We’d been told by James Eves, one of Dave’s friends and former colleague that gift giving was a big part of the culture here but managed to run out of time and space in our bags to get anything before we left Moscow.

Looking around we realised the only things we had were vodka and single malt whisky. She looked quite young but was travelling by herself so we figured what the hell lets offer her some. She looked at us in surprise and said “nyet” a few times. Oops.

We settled in for the night and fell asleep to the train rocking from side to side.

The next morning I woke up quite late and Dave shoved a coffee at me as I obviously still looked a bit incoherent.

Now, I’ve had a lot of people ask me what do you do when you’re on a train for a long time and I now have a couple of answers. I’ll probably add more as time goes on but so far:

1. Sleep

2. Read a book

3. Write a travelblog

4. Eat

5. Talk

6. Tally up costs so far/budgeting

So far I’ve done more of number 2 than anything else because I’ve been feeling like being very lazy. I mean, I’m on holiday right?

The train stopped periodically, ranging anywhere from 2 to 40 minutes at a station. Handily there was a guide stuck to the wall to let us know where we were. Of course, everything is in Moscow time which is becoming interesting as the further east we travel we cross a few time zones and local time and Moscow time deviates. One interesting (?) thing was that our train tickets are in Moscow time but our itinerary is in local time.

At one point our roomie left at a particularly long stop at Kirov. When she returned she had bought a stuffed toy almost larger than she was from one of the platform vendors. It looks like you can buy almost anything from these people.

Back in the cabin we were bring quite boring and soon our roomie disappeared down the corridor where it appeared a Russian party was taking place.

A couple of meals of train food later (i.e. pot noodles, stuff on bread) and it was time for bed as we had to get off at Yekaterinburg at 03:39. Yes, you read it right. Stupid o’clock. Unluckily for me I couldn’t settle down to sleep until about 1 am. I had an alarm set for 03:30 but the provodnik (attendant) decided it was time for us to wake up at 3am.

Blearily we gathered our gear and realised that at some point the temperature in the carriage had risen to 29°C! This would explain why we’d been sweating just sitting in our cabin. Tumbling off the train the temperature dropped to about -15°C which was one hell of a shock. We scurried for the tunnel into the station which was not much warmer than outside. As it was around 4am we found some seats next to a heater and tried to read our kindles to pass the time. After managing a few hours we went to check our luggage into storage for the day and then headed outside.

Desperate for a warm cafe and coffee due to lack of sleep the first place we found was... MAKдOHAлдC (McDonalds). As it opened at 7am we were a couple of the first customers and promptly ordered breakfast and coffee.... lots of coffee. Realising that not much we wanted to see was open until 10am and that the sun would probably be getting up at about then too, we decided to catch up on our blog writing and plan what we were going to do.

Eventually it got light outside so we left and stepped into the bitter cold. We headed south down Sverdlova St towards the site where the Romanovs have a memorial Church of the Blood dedicated to them. Taking a couple of pictures we continued on through town towards the tourist information centre where we obtained a map with a walking route that passed through the sights we wished to see. Thankful for the warmth we lingered until heading back out into the bitter cold but very sunny day. Partway around the route at Ploschad 1905 we encountered an ice sculpture installation which was pretty cool. It said something about Expo 2020 which I guess means in a few years there will be even more ice sculptures and stuff. Continuing on we passed the “pond” (which I think is a city lake as it was dammed under the bridge) which was frozen solid with people walking over it. Following the river south we saw hot water emptying into the river from a sluice gate below that dam which had the effect of thawing the ice below there. Ducks were playing in the water and vapour was rising from it which made for a couple of nice photos. Next, we came to the “keyboard monument” which I thought might have been buried under that snow but I’m guessing some other enterprising tourists came along and uncovered it.

We were freezing by this point and decided to stop for lunch at YPaлbCKиe пeлbMeHи (Uralskiye Pelmeni) to satisfy my pelmeni craving. There we found a lovely waitress (Aida) who was happy to help and translate for us. After we finished our meal we asked for help finding an ATM which she happily provided. Then she came back to our table just before we left and asked for our email address so she could contact us. This was so surprising but I gave her mine and hope I hear from her at some point.

We left in search of an ATM dropping in and out of department stores along the way to keep warm. Sounds pathetic right? I have a feeling Siberia is going to be a shock for us.

Having acquired cash we headed back to the station and decided to have a wander around, avoiding the many beggars at the entrance leading to it. It was then we realised we had only been in a small section of the station and that the rest was bloody heated!!

After grabbing our bags a feeling of unease grew as we saw that for each train there were two numbers being displayed. Deciphering the Cyrillic we figured out that one was for the platform but couldn’t work out what the other one was. I sidled over to a station attendant and after a lot of showing tickets and pointing I figured out she said wait for when our train was actually due and the numbers came up and she would direct me. It turns out the second number was the gate. Never mind, we got our train in the end and soon found or new roomie, an older (retirement age) Russian lady. As we settled in we decided to try the gift thing ourselves as we had bought some chocolates at the supermarket before we got on the train. No dice, she just wasn’t interested. Maybe we bought defective chocolates? Who knows?

Quickly getting changed and making up our beds, the train got underway and we pulled out of Yekaterinburg on the way to Omsk.

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Comments

[Helen]

Love the ice sculptures.
When you get to Beijing the super market is at the northern metro exit from the Beijing main station. its called Yutong supermarket and its in the Henderson Building basement. Its to the east of the China Post depot with a KFC outside.