Weather overcast but very warm. Transfer day – spent the morning packing and getting provisions for the first leg of the Trans Siberian train journey: Moscow to Yekaterinburg. Taxi pick up from the hotel at 2pm which was way too early, so we spent an hour-and-a-half standing around the station waiting for our train departing at 16 :08. Were going to buy some vodka for the journey but nowhere was selling any, we think probably due to it being a national holiday today. How unreal is that – no vodka in Russia! Met up with a Canadian, Jennifer, and her travelling companion, a New Yorker called Bryce who will be going all the way to Beijing with us.
You will notice that I have changed the format of the blog slightly as a result of a request from Matt, who thought the posts were too long and wanted something a bit more concise for those of you who are time constrained. So as you will see I’ve introduced a introductory summary. Do feel free to post any feedback.
Today is travelling a day, so no time for any further sightseeing unfortunately. We feel we have hardly seen anything. We didn’t have time to go into the Kremlin or the Armoury (the equivalent of our Crown Jewels) or see the main shopping area plus loads of other sights – we will just have to come back.
We spent the morning packing – each time we repack we try to improve the organisation of our stuff so that it is more manageable and easier to carry. Now we don’t have any weight restrictions we’ve redistributed the weight which makes my backpack much lighter – great for me, but we still have far too much! We are putting our hope in natural reduction as we use up things like medicines and anti-mosquito creams etc.
After packing we went to stock up on food for the journey at the local shopping centre, which is situated around the local metro/bus terminus. That was an interesting experience, since we can’t read the labelling and can only guess the contents of packaged foods from pictures on the labels!
The train departed at 16:08 and we are sharing a four-berth sleeper with two Russians. A man who speaks some English, but looks a bit spooky and rather morose. And a woman with no English at all. The man took to his bunk as soon as the train left the station and has slept ever since.
Our new Canadian/American acquaintances are very friendly and are two compartments down from us. The woman – who we later learned is called Jennifer – is in the middle of a similar trip to us but is also visiting Nepal and has a NGO internship in Cambodia. She has been joined in Moscow by Bryce who is just doing the Trans-Siberian to Beijing. Jennifer is carrying with her ‘Potato’ (think hattie and you’ll get the idea). Potato is small conch shell with – yes you’ve probably guessed – potato inscribed on it. There is long story associated with the conch but suffice to say it was given to her by her boyfriend and Potato is the name she wanted to give to her cat but a previous boyfriend wouldn’t let her. Of course, as you would expect Hattie has met Potato, and needless to say they got on famously!
So far the train journey has taken us through flat landscape of mainly pine, birch and oak forests. Along the track are picturesque wooden dachas with corrugated roofs where, according the guide book, Muscovites spend their weekends. Every so often the landscape is punctuated by rather bleak-looking Soviet-style towns of prefabricated gray apartment blocks.