Trans-Siberian from Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk

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The day has started quite late today. We woke up only around one-ish. Just in time to add another hour to the time change, and by the evening there will be another one to add. In total we will be on +4 from Moscow time and +6 from home time. It feels as if we are loosing the hours faster than we should. Must be also because the time is literally flying by. After the usual noodle bowl that by now has become our official meal for this journey, we played a bit of chess and Trivial Pursuit. With in between few stops the day was gone in a matter of moments.

Out of the window the view changed slowly. First there was the dense forest with small wooden houses popping up occasionally. I wonder how do people live here, when in the winter time temperatures reach --30 or even -40C! Well, aside the cold, the panorama in winter with snow must be equally beautiful as it is now in the bloom of the summer.

After the forests, the view slowly changed into steppe. By the mid afternoon that was the dominating theme. Around ten, local time, the evening set in. The darkness was so thick, nothing could be seen. Not even the stars, nor the moon. The clouds have covered the sky.

At midnight we arrived at Novosibirsk. Twenty minute stop, just enough to stretch our legs. Soon we left the capital of Siberia and out of the city we crossed the Ob River - one of the longest rivers in the world (4.000km).

24.7.2004

Today we had again a lazy start-up. We got up only around noon or so. The highlight of the day was a stop in Krasnoyarsk were we got off the train to buy some more food from the locals. This time we bought two large bread buns and also so called piraški. We had piraški before - it's kind of an oily pastery around a wurstel. These ones were different though. They had crauti instaed of wurstel. Nevertheless - they were pretty good.

For the rest of the day, except for looking through the window and chatting, I read some stuff about the history of Trans-Siberian railway. It's kind of an amazing story. The whole thing is a result of one man's passion: Sergei Witte. An ordinary man, he started his career by selling train tickets. Within some years, while moving on in his career he became the minister of transport and finance. Talk about humble start. With the tsar's support he pushed for the construction of the Trans-Siberian line and eventually it did happen - thruogh lot of hassle and issues. The construction of the railway was divided in seven areas that eventually had to meet - each area history is indeed a history chapter of its own. Well - my reading lasted for the bigger part of the day so... I'll skip it here...

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