The Trans-Siberian

It was a fascinating journey though. We shared our cabin with a very nice russian lady who spoke no english and so i had to use my rubbish russian and a cheap dictionary to communicate. Embarrassingly for me, i forgot every new word and had to keep referring back to the dictionary. Natashia was very patient and humoured me as i butchered her language in front of her! poor woman was probably glad when i gave up, exhausted, after about 90 minutes. The other guy in our cabin, a tall pasty guy called alexei didn't say boo to a goose for the entire trip until the last day when i asked him where he was going. He gave me the cursory answer then carried on looking at the trees outside as they blurred past. i plugged on by asking his name and then I figured that he wasnt in the mood for chatting with a clearly poor speaker of his language. can't blame him really. if an eskimo tried talking to me with no actual language ability, i would get pretty fed up pretty quickly and most probably walk away with no warning.

As for the scenery, the whole of the 3 days were filled with trees. trees, trees trees. The guidebook tried to spice it up a little by explaining about the differences in the bark of the trees the further west you get, but. not being a tree surgeon or botanist, i failed to see the difference or excitement. Thats not to say it wasn't nice to look at. it was camlingly pleasant. but unfortunately trees don't look so great in photos taken from dirty windows. I gave up trying after about 18 hours of happily snapping and then disappointingly erasing the latest dull pic of 6 more blurry green trees with slightly different bark to the last trees i snapped and erased.

The second morning, i think, started quite nicely with some eerie fog shrouding the whole area. again, it looked cool visually but the photos failed to capture the mood adequately and were again erased with a frustated release of breath. Still, of all the sights i couldnt take good pictures of, at least i have the memories for the time being of how nice and relaxing the thousands upon thousands of miles of trees were. For the entire 77 hour journey, that was about all i did: look at trees, take some pics, erase some pics, drink some beers and sleep. on average i think i got about 12 hours of sleep throughout each day. I read approximately 50 pages of my 1200 page biography of London. Still have to carry the weighty tome around though, just in case i get bored...Not likely though, cos one thing this long train ride wasn't was boring. quite amazing really when you consider it. imagine the prospect of spending 3 full days sitting in your house with only 1 book for company.

The end of journey provided the biggest thrill as we gradually and finally pulled into Moscow Station. I expected people welcoming us with white hankerchieves and russian flags to wrap around our shoulders like after the london marathon. Instead we were met by apathetic smokers, "Velcome to rashya, komrad" i wanted to hear. Not likely, mate...I guess russians are all part of generation x or y, whatever, y'know...

but here i am at last...moscow. biggest city in europe, home of communism, vodka. fur hats and cold weather.

written by  adamski752 on September 1, 2008 from Irkutsk, Russia
from the travel blog: Adam's Leisurely Return Home
tagged TreesTrain
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