Blogs from Yekaterinburg, Urals, Russia, Europe - page 5

Her er russerne altsaa venligere end vestpaa.Selvom dem der er mest enteresserede i os paa banegaarden af nogle meget naergaaende boern vi tror er zigeunere! Det er de ikke siger vores guide. De er fra et eller andet med „stan“- Kirgisistan, Usbekistan e.l:Watch out for the „Stans“ advarer hun. Bortset fra at Jeltsin kom herfra er vi hoppet af toget for 2 ting: Vi er her for at se hvor Europa og Asien stoeder sammen og faar et diplom af guiden saa vi senere kan bevise at vi har staaet med et ben paa hver verdensdel - lidt ligesom i Skagen hvor vandene moedes. Saa skal vi se hvor Romanovs(sidste zarfamilie) blev udslettet. Det er faktisk en meget stor oplevelse ude midt en skov. Russerne har jo sans for at fremkalde de store melankolske foelelser, saa ... read more

Well here we are in Moscow. We were so thrilled to get here after 72 hours non stop. The train was actually pretty good with lots of storage but about the 66 hour mark we all got really lethargic. The highlight was the station stops we could get off at to buy food from old ladies at the station.The boiled potatoes were particularly grand!!! If I see another game of UNO or Yahtzee I will scream though! Unfortunately we had to sort out our own Belarusse visas this morning so we had a terrible 2 hour wait at the embassy while a series of people pushed ahead with no one complaining. The Russians are a patient bunch for the main. Actually it has to be said the Russians we've met have been a very dour bunch. ... read more

Part 3: Walking in a winter wonderland. Pre-blog: Welcome, dear reader, to another belated installment in our travel blog. In this post we are trialling a slightly different format. We will start with our usual eloquent prose, razor sharp wit and high brow humor, but this time, when we post photographs of events or places we have visited we will only briefly mention those events and places in the text. The bulk of the information will be attached to each relevant picture. Please feel free to post a message to let us know if you like the new format. If it sucks we may revert back to the old way. Post pre-blog (huh?): You may be interested to know that we are writing this blog from gate 4 at Keflavik airport in Iceland at 4.40pm, about ... read more

(Day 41 on the road)The train from Moscow to take Yekaterinburg, and stepping out of the train felt strange somehow. Yekaterinburg (KM 1814 on the Transsib) is in the Ural, and about 200km short of Siberia. It is also the first major city in Asia when you travel on the Transsib. The border between Europe and Asia is at exactly Kilometer 1777, counting from Moscow. The train-ride itself was great. There are basically three classes on long-distance trains in Russia: SV (first class), Kupeyny (second class), and Platskartny (third class). I had experienced kupe on the train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which was fine - 4 bunk beds in one compartment, one above the other on both sides. Now however, it was time to try platskart, and it is perfect: Imagine a normal-sized train-carriage, but ... read more

The next leg of my journey contained plenty of progress indicators - about 160km west of Krasnoyarsk the train passed the halfway point of the Trans-Mongolia route, another 100km beyond that we crossed from eastern to western Siberia, and about 1700km beyond that we left Siberia entirely. This last point had in times gone by been the Jiayuguan of Russia, where exiles said their goodbyes before heading into their banishment. My cabin-mates were a young couple from Irkutsk who were on their way to Azerbaijan. They spoke little English, though the husband was able to sing along to "Happy Birthday" when it came on over the carriage radio. We were also treated to what I'm guessing was the musical "Mamma Mia" in Russian. I doubt I created a good impression by dozing off and dribbling on ... read more