160908 – Russia, Trans-Siberia Railway

DAY FOUR

Today was unanticipated and pretty much unremarkable. Anne gave us a briefing on what would happen tomorrow and we rearranged our gear. Drinks ensued along with meals of instant noodles, a handful of the guys braved the dining car and returned looking a little disturbed. The fare on offer had been... suspect...

Most of the day continued with reading, writing journals, sleeping and cards. I managed to read about some of the history of the railway from someone's Lonely Planet guidebook. Russian history is something I know shamefully little about and may need to read a little about when I get home.

The two cows were particularly “bovine” today. The names and descriptions from the boys cabin now extended into speculation on their actual gender, sexual preference and choice words that we would leave them with on our departure. The degree that these two women, particularly the older one, took “malicious neglect of duties” was phenomenal. To describe them as merely passive-aggressive would be like.. I don't know...

they were... really bad...

Tonight offered what was one of the best babushka stops of the journey. I was able to acquire a bag of dumplings and a bag of hot potatoes for about 150 Rubels. The lovely old lady even walked up to me, about 5 minutes later, checking the temperature of the potatoes. Deciding hers were warmer, she swapped them and then exchanged delighted smiles. She was lovely old babushka :)

The rest of the day passed, we had a fairly early night as there would be a 5 hour time difference the instant we stepped off the train (the trains all run on Moscow time). Tomorrow we would be getting off around 7AM.

I was still surprised at the diversity of the terrain. I'd been hoping at this point to see some of the legendary Siberian Steppes, envisaging great flat planes of desolate grey grassland. Still surrounded by rolling hills, mountains and rural enterprise, a great deal must have changed from the origin of the literature that I'd read.