140809 – Russia, Trans-Siberia Railway

DAY TWO

Waking somewhat late, with sunlight bearing through the window and the train bouncing about, everyone was a little hung-over and my cold had settled itself in quite comfortably. The day started with eggs and pork as a breakfast dish in the dining car with a side of cold and flu tablets. Liam, Andy and myself made the expedition and braved the somewhat expressive waitress. Glaring as she gave us the English menus (undoubtedly with a great deal of “translation” tax..) with a glare, took our order with a smile, delivered the food with indifference. The meal was better than we expected, but it would have been difficult to mess up. I would have dearly loved some Borsh, but it was on the 5/6ths of the menu that was “not available”. Going to pay, the waitress seemed to have decided that us giving her money was the least pleasant thing imaginable. Letting her keep the 7 rubels from my note rather than depleting her change had the same effect as if I'd convinced the other two lads into using the dining car as an open latrine.

These Russians are weird and make NO sense.

The old cow was absent for most of the morning, the younger of the two handling most of the business and at times even appeared to be scowling less.. At various points in the morning, the Matriarch of all Wenches appeared in curlers and a satin kimono (that would have suited a girl about 10 years younger..) to help with tickets and boarding passengers.

Card games, jokes and stories persisted through the morning. Plans and discussions for the upcoming stages of the trip and the longer journey played as intervals between drinks and games. Lunch came with our forays into noodles and sandwiches. More drinks continued.

At this point, the stops became a little erratic. We found out that we were about 2 hours behind schedule for some reason. The most probable reason was that a 737 had crashed into the lines we'd passed last night. We heard very little, apart from a great many casualties from the plane. We had no other involvement.

The longer stops were cut short at all of the stations that day. Often only stopping just long enough for the Two Cows to buy food, but refusing to allow us to. The brevity of the stop did not stop them from locking the toilets for 30 minutes before or 20 minutes after. Finally we were able to stop and stock up on pastries, local sausage rolls, drinks and sweets. The icecream was as excellent as ever. On the train, the lass with the pushcart had been a little less regular and passed too quickly for us to make purchases.

We had passed the 1100km mark during the night, passing from Europe into Asia. Our hopes to see the monument marking the occasion was missed on account of the failed schedule and lack of warning. Part of the day had clear blue skies as we passed over great bridges and bright blue lakes, the rest of the day featured low clouds and cold weather.