All aboard!

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This is my second time writing this (I managed to delete the last one) so I hope I manage to sound enthusiastic this time but we will see!

Our first day on the trans siberian was pretty much taking in the beautiful chinese countryside which included more and better views of the Great Wall than we had seen before and miles and miles of industrial towns. Each was more bleak than the last, coal mines and factories surrounded by lines of housing. Very like Victorian Britain I would imagine... When not taking in the scenery the restaurant car is the place to go on the train. On our first day lunch and dinner were included with our ticket, but unfortunately they only provided chopsticks to eat your food with- I am ashamed to say that this was my first time using chopsticks, which the chinese youngsters sat next to us found absolutely hilarious they even tried to take a picture I think! I can see the funny side now but when I would lose the rice that had been between my chopsticks milimetres from my mouth it got quite frustrating!

The border crossing to Mongolia was pretty drawn out on the first night, they were able to check our passports whilst we sat on the train which was not too bad. We even had one of the customs officers come and talk to us for an hour which was great until he started talking about his favourite hobby. He had tried to show us a picture of him and his gun earlier and then at the first opportunity he showed us a pretty grim video on his phone of him and his friends with a fox they had tracked down... not what you want to see at 2am!

The following night we were at the Russian border I was getting pretty tired of waiting for them to get to our end of the carriage when Lee called me out of the compartment because he though one of our fellow passengers was being arrested (any drama is good when you have been on a train for two days- and we are nosey!) I had just got to the door when a rather intimidating Russian soldier shouted 'return to your compartment'. Needless to say we did! I am still amazed by how scary the average Russian looks- they walk around with a determined but pretty blank expression on their faces and don't smile or acknowledge you if you catch their eye- very un-nerving!!

The whole trans-siberian experience is very James Bond. Our compartment and carriage had wood panelled walls which obviously helped but the whole atmosphere of the train just makes you feel like you are in a film set. the restaurant carriage also adds to that feeling. It changed at every border, the Mongolian one was very decorative- very Genghis Khan with bows and arrows all over the walls. Words can't describe the shock we got when we first stepped into the Russian one! It was very dark chintzy, with doilies and floral print everywhere and the three women who ran it just added to the surreal feeling of it. They would not have been out of place on the League of Gentleman, two of them definitely took fashion advice from Bet Gilroy (for anyone who might not know she was a character from Coronation Street- she was very tacky animal prints, furs heaps of make-up that kind of thing). That kind of look is fairly common in Russia but it was the third lady that really caught your eye or blinded you with her golden smile (literally she had a mouth completely full of gold teeth!) Sadly in other towns we stopped in Siberia there were more people who had spent their hard earned Rubles on their gold teeth- I just hope it isn't some fashion phase that has been sweeping Europe while I have been away!

Siberia was pretty beautiful the snow at times covered small trees and the temperature at one station was around
-35 degrees! There were cute little villages complete with coloured wooden cottages and miles of dense forest as well as the nothingness of miles of snow which you would expect from Siberia. we do regret not stopping off somewhere but maybe that would be more pleasant in summer! all in all it was a pretty good experience- and I finished War and Peace too (in 4 days I think 2 would be difficult for anyone!)


да свидания!

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