150908 – Russia, Trans-Siberia Railway

DAY THREE

This morning began with a breakfast of noodles, bread with jam or ham and cheese. Cold and Flu tablets were once again a highlight of the meal. Today was deemed a day “without drinks”, most of the lads seemed a bit under the weather from the effort of yesterday. I'd been taking it very easy, considering the cold and the tablets.

The main feature of today included Anne revealing that she was trained in giving Thai massages, which I took full advantage of, and the revelation of the group that we actually had an additional day on the train..
It had not been entirely apparent and none of us had really realised that we would have four nights on the train. In fact, not many had taken sufficient preparations for the additional night with regard to food.

By this time, we appear to have caught up to the schedule. The extended stops allowed us to get off the train to stretch legs and stock up on food. The little push cart had been a lot more regular today, so there was no shortage of additional instant noodles and bottles of water. The weather outside was cold and drizzling most of the day, venturing out onto the platforms was only performed after rugging up with jumpers, jackets and scarves.

The day passed somewhat unnoticed. I managed to write a bit of my blog and charge my phone before the battery on my laptop died. One last foray for electricity was unsuccessful.

The scenery passing by the window was quite spectacular, Siberia was nothing like what I expected it to be.
Thinking it would be flat, barren and unwelcoming, the countryside consisted of forests and rivers, villages and farms. With very little imagination, and if you ignored the weather, this could very easily be one of several places in Australia.
This part of Russia could be any place that I have been to in America, weather included.