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Train number 2, Carriage 5, Berth 33 was where I spent the last four days of my journey. The carriage was full of Russian crew and passengers and even with my very limited Russian; I had an amazing time so far. It just helped to show me the nicer side of the Russian Character. The way they looked after me and helped me along the way showed me now that Russians all over, from Moscow to Vladivostok, all have a soft side to them; no matter how hard and strong they appear on the outside. And once you see them smile it’s hard to miss that warm, flirtatious and caring nature. I’ve seen a completely different side to the Russia I knew from my last visit.
I shared the carriage with 10 year old Shusha and her mum Emilia who were both traveling into a Siberian Mountain town of Chita. With gestures, pictures and my few phrases and words of Russian, we talked about family, food, and all sorts. Pot noodles and pots of flavored, instant mash potatoes have made it big here on the trans- Siberian. You see people get onto the trains with carrier bags full of these pots. Hot water is all that is available for free on the train and with raw cucumbers and juicy tomatoes; these were everyone’s meals, lunch and dinner day after day. (Since the noodles and mashed potatoes pots were Korean I’m told, they must be making millions from them...who would have though…pot noodles on the trans SiberianJ)
The train itself, though not as luxurious as the model they had first presented at the Paris launch, still maintains a rich outlook. Velvet curtains with tassels, radio with English, Spanish and Russian music and your own personal volume control in your cabin, the whole carriage cleaned every morning by the crew and of course the silver cups..……all make it a completely different experience to the one on one of the normal Russian trains.
But also the landscape that passes you by, how did they ever construct such a track in such remote places and in such drastic environments? It’s absolutely amazing. As soon as we reached Perm, the icy cold winds in the evening warned us that we were entering Siberia. The change in time ( 5 hours ahead of Moscow) meant that the night from Novosibirsk was a very short one. It was one in the morning in Moscow but already on the trains the sun was high up and at it’s brightest on the train…6 am in the morning and the Siberian sun was bright and hot.
Sparsely populated with izba’s (beautiful log houses) or dachas (country houses for the Russians) but not much in between for miles. And yet I was surprised because it isn’t as sparse as I imagined it to be. Big cities, like Novosibirsk and Irkutsk are really well developed and there are many other smaller mostly industrial cities along the way too. However I guess it’s the vast emptiness that lies between these; the big open fields that make people imagine Siberia to be so ‘empty’.
Anyway, I got to Irkutsk today and immediately noticed that I was in Siberia. Not only the heat so early in the morning but more the mixture of faces here. In Moscow and other cities like Perm and Omsk, all I saw was Russian faces with pure white skin and beautiful light eyes. Here the brown Siberian skin and the dark and smaller but still beautiful eyes are seen everywhere. The difference when you go from one place to another is so apparent and I wonder now how the mixture here works. Already I have heard that there are areas that we just do not go to at night.
I’m in SIBERIA
I shared the carriage with 10 year old Shusha and her mum Emilia who were both traveling into a Siberian Mountain town of Chita. With gestures, pictures and my few phrases and words of Russian, we talked about family, food, and all sorts. Pot noodles and pots of flavored, instant mash potatoes have made it big here on the trans- Siberian. You see people get onto the trains with carrier bags full of these pots. Hot water is all that is available for free on the train and with raw cucumbers and juicy tomatoes; these were everyone’s meals, lunch and dinner day after day. (Since the noodles and mashed potatoes pots were Korean I’m told, they must be making millions from them...who would have though…pot noodles on the trans SiberianJ)
The train itself, though not as luxurious as the model they had first presented at the Paris launch, still maintains a rich outlook. Velvet curtains with tassels, radio with English, Spanish and Russian music and your own personal volume control in your cabin, the whole carriage cleaned every morning by the crew and of course the silver cups..……all make it a completely different experience to the one on one of the normal Russian trains.
But also the landscape that passes you by, how did they ever construct such a track in such remote places and in such drastic environments? It’s absolutely amazing. As soon as we reached Perm, the icy cold winds in the evening warned us that we were entering Siberia. The change in time ( 5 hours ahead of Moscow) meant that the night from Novosibirsk was a very short one. It was one in the morning in Moscow but already on the trains the sun was high up and at it’s brightest on the train…6 am in the morning and the Siberian sun was bright and hot.
Sparsely populated with izba’s (beautiful log houses) or dachas (country houses for the Russians) but not much in between for miles. And yet I was surprised because it isn’t as sparse as I imagined it to be. Big cities, like Novosibirsk and Irkutsk are really well developed and there are many other smaller mostly industrial cities along the way too. However I guess it’s the vast emptiness that lies between these; the big open fields that make people imagine Siberia to be so ‘empty’.
Anyway, I got to Irkutsk today and immediately noticed that I was in Siberia. Not only the heat so early in the morning but more the mixture of faces here. In Moscow and other cities like Perm and Omsk, all I saw was Russian faces with pure white skin and beautiful light eyes. Here the brown Siberian skin and the dark and smaller but still beautiful eyes are seen everywhere. The difference when you go from one place to another is so apparent and I wonder now how the mixture here works. Already I have heard that there are areas that we just do not go to at night.
I’m in SIBERIA
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