Day 284 - Km1777, Europe/Asia border obelisk

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Today was pretty similar to yesterday - life on the train is not very varied like we said. The theme for the day, as it were, was heading up into the Ural mountains which we passed later in the day, the dividing line between European Russia and Asian Russia, and we were expecting an impressive range. Strangely there's nothing to them though and they have got more in common with the South Downs than with the Himalayas.

We spent most of the day reading, with Ed heavily into his new book on the lovely man known as Stalin. We visited the dining car and ate a passable meal without really being bowled over by Russian train cuisine. We went to the very back of the train where you can just see mile after mile of track disappearing behind you. We laughed as we passed each level crossing or junction, because the person manning it stands to attention as we pass.

Other than that the scenery in between Soviet towns (concrete apartment blocks, concrete factories, concrete chimneys) consisted of a lot of silver birch trees, snow and freight trains, and before we knew it we'd passed into another timezone which
meant we could go to bed an hour earlier. We tried and we think failed to spot the obelisk marking the point between Europe and Asia because it was too dark.

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