Left for Irkutz on the 04:30 train. We are sharing with a Dutch couple, Lynn and Daan. This will be our home for the next two days and nights. The train is not quite as modern as the last one but clean and tidy. In the morning the weather is grey and overcast and rather damp. The scenery doesn’t change much as we travel – flat with lots of silver birch – until we get to Ormsk after which it is very bleak. Surprisingly time passes really quite fast as we chat, eat and visit the restaurant car for a drink There are several Brits and Irish that congregate there – the Russians don’t seem to use it very much as the prices are relatively expensive and the portions small. Writing this post also helps pass the time.
The trains on the whole seem to be very efficient and run on time. The provodnitsa (attendant) changes regularly and oversees the carriage, keeps it clean, checks tickets, locks the toilets as we approach stations and so on. The compartments are very warm, too warm and stuffy at times, particularly at night. There are windows in the corridors but they are kept locked and the Russians don’t seem to like fresh air. However, we brought a key with us! (All the locks are the triangular kind that you find on meter boxes at home, and having read this before we left we purchased a key). So we are able to open the windows and also lock our compartment door. But every so often the provodnitsa comes along and shuts the window – so it has become something of a battle of wills to to keep it open!
Our travelling companions, Lynn and Daan, speak good English. They had joined train in Perm and were asleep when we boarded – but not for long as we clattered about stowing our luggage under the bottom bunk.
Despite the mad Russian we have been very lucky with our travelling companions so far. No drunks, snorers or people who stay up drinking into the early hours. Poor Jennifer is not so lucky – she isn’t getting any sleep because of Bryce’s snoring. Apparently it is so loud that when they were in Yekaterinburg he slept on the balcony and it still kept her awake – so imagine how bad it must be in a small train compartment! Last night though she managed to find a spare bunk with some Brits.
The compartments on this train are not quite so modern as previously. Instead of purpose-build beds we are provided with mattress rolls which you spread out on the seats or top bunks. Bed linen is provided. Still comfortable though and we are sleeping well.
We’re officially in Siberia now – Ekterinburg being on the notional border between Europe and Siberia. The scenery is much the same – mostly flat with trees interspersed with clearings of varying sizes and dotted with villages and small industrial towns.
The journey is punctuated by stops and stations- sometimes only for a few minutes and sometimes for 20 minutes or so. At the longer stops we can get off the train to stretch our legs, get some fresh air and visit the kiosks and babushkas. So the platforms get quite busy. At some of the stations the babuskas are selling local products such as ornate sets of glasses, ornaments and the like. Who buys the latter on a trip like this, I don’t know, but someone must!
But you have to be careful, because you’re never quite sure how long the train is stopping for and whether it might leave unexpectedly. So we keep an eye on the provodnitsas who stand by the carriages, and take our signal from them.