Thursday 11th and Friday 12th October 2012 - Day 8 and 9 - Yekaterinburg - Irkutsk

While waiting for our taxi last night we read our paperwork that said do not wait until the day of the train departure to exchange this paperwork for your train ticket! Oops, I never read instructions! At least we were all in the same boat. Luckily Go Russia had sent a very nervous but nice lady over to help the easy transfer of us from the hotel by taxi to get on the train and she helped us to print out our tickets from a machine, without her we would have had to cue up to see someone that most likely did not speak any English and we only had about half an hour before train departed.

We got on the train with no problems after watching a drunk fight in the car park and found our wagon number 12 and cabin 9-12 again we were sharing with Carla and Simon which makes life easier as we can trust each other with leaving our gear everywhere and we can communicate easily. Although spending the next two days and three nights cooped up in our cabin would drive us a bit insane so regular visits to the restaurant wagon were a necessity. It turns out we are quite good at wasting time on trains, I have even given myself two tattoos.

For entertainment we would play cards, listen to music, stare out the window, get off at stations for some fresh air and a quick walk, sleep, read, do puzzles and chat endlessly. We had many attempts at conversations with locals. One in particular took a fancy to us and his name was Oleg. He spoke not a word of English but between playing charades and pictionary and gesticulating and with the use of our small Russian phrase book we established that he was 45 and he was married with two children and two grandchildren who we saw many a photo of. We talked about fishing, snow boarding, dog sledging, his days in prison, his tattoos and his love of drinking tall glasses of neat vodka. He was a nice guy and he called me beautiful and apparently Jon looks like a Russian film star. He kept kissing my hand and I had to wait until he left before them again with dry soap! He played us Russian prison rock music from his phone and showed us his Russian Revolutionary tattoos.

We had numerous cups of chay (tea), ate pot noodles with plastic forks that half melted in the boiling water. We bought 1L cans of beer and tasted home made dumplings and meat and sweet patties that we got from a very cold lady on the station. There was a train timetable that we were managing to just about follow that was stuck to our wagon wall. We stopped for several 2 min breaks at stations but on the scheduled longer half hour stops we were able to jump off and run up on the bridges etc. We couldn’t wander too far in case the whistle blew and the lady put the steps up and the train left. For those of you that are old enough, we saw some wheel tappers and shunters doing their thing.

One time we were up the front of the train posing for a photo in front of the train when the driver thought it would be hilarious to blow his whistle! My heart skipped a beat and I flew up off the track, he opened the window and laughed at me. We were forced to get on the train at wagon one and stagger the whole way through the train to our wagon 12 which is not easy! Still it could have been much worse, some of the trains have had many more wagons one the other day had 78. In our wagon we have a small chi Wawa dog and owner, a Persian cat and owner, a baby and a full band. Each wagon also has a lady that runs the place. Ours looks like just what you would expect her to look like. Short, dumpy, red lipstick, died hair and a harsh accent. There is no messing with her.

There are two similar women in the restaurant wagon we think they are mother and daughter. Mother is lovely but her daughter did not inherit this trait! She cleared our tea cups and when Jon asked for two more she just shouted at us and walked off! At first we thought it was just us but she did it to our friend Oleg too which made us feel better. The other reason we thought she did not like us was when everyone else ordered food they got plates and plates of it. Jon ordered a sausage sandwich and he got half a slice of toast with three half slices of pepperoni on it, his eyes showed he was not impressed!

This entire train ride into Siberia is approximately 57 hours long and we cross 3 time zones so its quite hard to keep track of where you are, when your stopping and what time of day it is etc. Also when you get off, the ground still feels as though it is moving. Hope its not a lasting side effect! We are now 8 hours ahead of the UK we think. I have read the whole Lance Armstrong book in two days and taken too many photographs. On the train the temperature is still hot but nowhere near as hot as the first train thank goodness. Still shorts and flip flops is the way forward. It is difficult to change clothes on board as you are never alone except in the loo which is tiny and quite frankly you don’t want to spend any time in there more than necessary and so changing clothes in there is out of the question. We smell, we need to shave, my hair is greasy and I miss running water. The dry shampoo is now ineffective and I feel grubby.

The scenery outside on the first day was a vast emptiness with fields and woods. We have not seen any wildlife although the book says there are bears and wolves in there somewhere. As we come to a station which is in the middle of nowhere there are small wooden houses and it is so fresh outside they must be freezing. The first night we got off about midnight to stretch our legs and there was a temperature sign at the station that said zero degrees! As we are dressed for summer on the train and cant change quickly, we are wearing flip flops and shorts outside in the cold.

We went over a huge river where the bridge was built in the same year as the Eiffel tower and this bridge won a prize over the tower, but it just looked grey and nothing special to me. We passed the half way obelisk according to the map but we could not see it from the track. As we woke on the second day I was so excited as I opened my eyes and looked out the window to a covering of snow with thick flakes still falling! Now we know we are in deep Siberia! Its so pretty to see the landscape covered in white and the sunsets have been spectacular. While completing an arrow word puzzle we learnt that the reason to go to Melton Mowbray is for their well known pies, made from pork legs. We have one more night on the train and then we arrive in Irkutsk at 9.19 in the morning but to us this will feel like 4.19am we think! Ya Nye panimayu!