Birmingham to Tomsk, Russia

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September 3rd 2010

Published: September 4th 2010

Friday 27th August 2010
We finally left the country starting in style drinking champagne on the Euro Star and everything was going swimmingly! Our overnight journey from Cologne to Berlin was not a sleeper though. Just as we was about to spread out and get some shut eye others boarded and were booked on the spare seats in our compartment! This then involved some interesting positions trying to sleep!

Saturday 28th August 2010
Arrived in Berlin at about 5am in the morning and managed to sweet talk the person at our hotel/hostel which was ace (and right by the sation) to let us have our rooms - o after he sent us to some mans room by mistake tehee! He was very confused as to why 4 women had just walked into his room lol. We then had a good kip and then went for a venture round Berlin visiting the wall and Holocaust museum - a little depressing but well worth the visit! We also saw a pub on wheels riding round the city that looked amazing!

Sunday 29th August 2010

The day it started to go wrong hehe! We had decided to do a bit of shopping this day and had found out where all the shops were! It was about an hours walk but it was nice to streach our legs even if it was hammering it down with rain. Got to the shops and guess what, yes they were all shut!!! We did find some markets open and a very interesting church that had been bombed in the war! After we had had enough and done some eating we decided to take the scenic route back to the hostel not really taking much notice of the time! When we did eventually check the time we realised that we had 35 minutes to get back, get our bags and find our platform and we were no where near back! Arrhhhh this was our first run for a train - it was always going to happen, I just did not think it would be so soon hehe! We made it with about 5 minutes to spare and still managed to buy some beers for the journey - an essential hehe!

We found our compartments which were really nice with beds that folded down from the wall. As we did not have time to buy any food supplys Nat and myelf managed to run to the shop in Frankfurt when the train stopped for 30 minutes O and brought about 16 beers that were 30p each - nice!!!

For dinner we cooked up some rice, vegtables and meat on my little lightweight camping stove - the poor lady in our cabin who did not speak any English thought we were mad English drinking beer and playing games! So when we all went to sleep at about midnight and then got escorted of the train she did not seem very sympathetic towards us lol.

Monday 30th August 2010

Our days now go down in history as friends episods and this one is - the one where we got deported and back into Belarus on the same day! It was 3am and what we thought was the Russian boarder control people was actually the Belarus people! They took our passports and then came back about 20 minutes later informing us that we did not have a transit visa and that we had to get off and go back to Poland! We were escorted to the end of the railway and then had to cross a track and climb through an abandoned train to a building where we were made to wait for about 20minutes. We then got our passports back with the address of an Embassy in the first town in Poland and put back on another train!

We was made to sit at the end of the train with the laundry! It was going well day 4 and we were deported haha!Luckily a very nice Polish student passed us and asked us our story he then found out lots of information from the Russian (camp) attendent for us! We found out that were not the first peolpe this has happend to and that there are actually others as stupid as us hehe! But more importantly we found out that the Embassy that we were heading to takes 2-3 weeks to get the visa sorted and that the one in Warsaw does an express Visa! We got this piece of information seconds before we were about to get off. So quickly decided to stay on the train for an extra couple of hours to Warsaw! The ticket man for Poland then came round and made us pay 12 euros to get to Poland - and guess what there were millions of available seats - grrr! So we then go a couple of hours shut eye! Arriving in Warsaw we was on a race against time and the taxi driver knew this - we got well and truley scanced! 30 Bloody euros to take us to the Embassy!

On arrival it was a building in the middle of nowhere with this weird little house next door! There was about 5 people outside the embassy all lined up (at 9am) waiting to get in, one at a time! We tryed to figure out the process with this guy who kept speaking to us in French but alais this did not really help us haha! Then the savour to our lives arrived. Greg the amazing Greg! The French speaking man told him to help us as we did not know what we was doing - for a change haha! Greg then helped us through every step of the way! We needed forms, pictures and insurance! Greg got us the forms that we needed from this very strange house! We then filled them in while he went and got his visa sorted. Then he took Nat and Liv to a shopping centre to get their pictures done, while Laura and me sorted out the insurance! It was 11am by this time and the Embassy was shutting at 12. Nat and Liv were not back yet...this seemed like the longest 5 minute wait in history as it dawned on us that they had gone off in a strange mans car, but then their happy little faces arrived and we was in the Embassy handing over all our documents! Not before turning our phones off (crazy Communist country)! We then had to wait for about 15 minutes while they decided if we could have a visa on the same day - yes yes yes, we were allowed! We then had to go to the bank and pay them a crazy amount of money and a get a receipt to confirm that we had paid and then take it back between 3-4 to get the visa yipeee! Greg took us to do this! The next problem was - would we be able to get a train back intime to get to Moscow for the Tran-Siberian train DUN DUN DUN! Greg took us back to the train station and again saved our lives! There is no way we would have sorted the train out with out him as they did not speak any English at the station! But we had an over- night ticket booked at 10pm that evening to get us into Moscow the following night with 3 hours to spare!

After going back to the embassy and getting our visa's we then spent a good 5 hours in Mcdonalds (because they had wifi) waiting for the train!

On the train and actually this is a much nicer train than the originanal one, and we have the cabin all to ourselves! The best thing is we did not have to pay for the train again only having to pay from Warsaw to Brest in Belarus where we got kicked off! Once we had settleed in and got into bed I dont think any of us slept until the boarder in anticipation of getting through the country - even though we had not really slept for about 36 hours! When the boarder control people arrived thay once again arrived in style slamming the door open puttin on the lights and shouting passports! This time we was prepared for it but still anxious about the whole thing! The man checked our passports and all seemed ok - then another man went passed, it was the man that had kicked us off earier - he did a double take and smiled saying good good to us, which was a nice gesture! He then came back with some forms that had to be filled in and helped us do them!

God dame we made it - even though we did not step foot on their soil we made it! The most frustraiting thing about all this is that no-one in Russia has even asked to see our passport or visa! O well if it dont kill ya it makes you stronger hey!

Tuesday 31st August
We arrive in Moscow and becasue we dont have any time in the city to pick up our tickets I had arringed for our Tra-Siberian tickets to be couier delivered to us at the train station. Some thing of a theme with this trip as I had lost my bank card 2 days before leaving the UK and managed to convince Barclays to courier me a new one the day before I left, which they did! At no extra cost - which is nice! Anyhow a lovely lady met us with all our tickets and then helped us get a taxi to the next train staition. After flagging down about 3 different taxies she managed to get us one for a very good price! Moscow was buzzin with madness and we spent most of the taxi journey at a stop! We eventually made it with about an hour before our train left. Having hardly any Russian money we got some supplies in - beer haha! Well there was not a shop that sold food!

Wednesday 1st September - Friday 3rd September

This journey now seems like a distant memory! Our first day we have a bit of food supplies left and very little money but enough food to keep us going until day 2 when we reach a station that should have a cash machine! We are down to our last 100rb and manage to bartor with the ladies that arrive outside the trains to sell you fresh fruit, salad, meat, beer and vodka! Finally we find a small bottle of Vodka to sample! Once we get some money out we then buy enough food to keep us going! On our final day on the train a few random people come up to our section and ask us where we are from and why we are on the train! We are travelling 3rd class and i dont think many other tourists do this. By the end of the evening we have a crowd of people just wanting to chat and join in our games! The carriage is normally fairly quiet at night so it does not take long once the main lights go out for the woman to come and tell us off and ask them to go back to their carriage. The group of people are not friends they are a selection of individuals from all different parts of the train. One old lady is trying to marry Laura off to her son (who was not their)! After some time when no-one goes away the guard on the train comes and tells them off and they all scurry away!

Saturday 4th - Monday 6th September

Tomsk is a pretty University city! We spend the first day pretty much sleeping and eating as we are all shattered! Athough I think this is the same night Englad are playing so we go to an English bar for dinner - which is actually really cool. However, no-one here speaks any English! We watch the Russia game listen to the live music and then go back to our hostel to listen to the first half of England on Talk Sport. It is 2am for us (6hours ahead at this point)

We are back on the train tonight Tomsk time at 19.30 and will arrive in Ulan Ude on Monday afternoon - so no contact with the outside world for a few days again - but this is where the pretty views are!

Birmingham to Tomsk, Russia

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