Russia, Moscow –> Irkutsk (Trans-Siberian)

The Trans-Siberian left on September 21, 2010 at 9:25 p.m. I shared a four-berth compartment with three Russians who spoke neither German nor English. It was quiet and nobody said a word… 1 minute … 2 minutes … then suddenly, without warning, the three of them started rummaging in their bags and pulling out all sorts of things: sausage, cheese, meatballs, eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes … and of course vodka! Unfortunately I hadn’t brought anything and felt pretty awkward. No problem: they kept telling me to dig in, and of course I was happy to join in the rounds of vodka. The atmosphere was fantastic. This ritual repeated itself at least twice a day.

All in all, I’d landed in a pretty luxurious compartment: individual lights, radio, a power socket and even an LCD TV with three channels. On top of that, Aleksander got out his laptop, and every now and then we watched the latest movies on it. With Russian dubbing, of course… He was also kind enough to install an English-Russian/Russian-English translation program, which made communicating with each other a lot easier.

At the stations we could stock up on fresh food as well as certain clear substances sold by the vendors on the platforms. Some of it was really tasty.

Many of the Russian stations were really grand.

As for the view: apart from the seemingly endless birch forests, every once in a while there was a little variety.

Finally, after about 3.5 days and a time difference of 5 hours from Moscow, I reached the former Siberian capital, Irkutsk, and said goodbye to the Trans-Siberian – for the time being.