Last day on the Trans-Siberian

Well it’s 11pm Friday and we are in our warm and comfortable compartment on the Trans-Siberian and our overriding thought is that we wish we had at least one more day on board!

Today has flown by. We were awake by 8am and the beautiful countryside was passing by whilst we enjoyed a morning cuppa tea in bed. Then we made ourselves some porridge for breakfast got dressed and greeted our fellow carriage passengers and our Provodnista.

Mid-morning was our first long stop (42 mins) at the big industrial City of Krasnoyarsk where there was time to get off and stretch our legs on the platform as well as wave goodbye to our ‘well hard’ new found mates from Serbia who were sadly leaving us at this point. Their toothless smiles were memorable (possibly reappearing in a future nightmare).

We spent a bit of time reading and taking in the views and then it was lunchtime so we topped up our pre purchased spicy pork pot noodles (very retro) from the Samovar and tucked in. Believe us or not it was a decent lunch!

The afternoon consisted of chatting to neighbours, drinking coffee, eating Hobnobs, reading our books and researching our next port of call, as well as receiving the daily vacuum cleaner visit. Mid-afternoon we had a 17 minute stop at Ilanskaya so we had a good conversation with John’s Mum on FaceTime showing her around the train and the platform and introducing her to our neighbours and the Provodnista. Oh...the absolute wonders of technology and certainly beyond our expectations to have live contact from the middle of Siberia.

Late afternoon we took some time to re-pack as we reach our embarkation point of Irkutsk at 6.22am tomorrow and we do not want any last minute panics.

We had arranged to go to the bar for drinks with our friends at 5:30pm, however we crossed into another time zone at 5pm, which immediately became 6pm so 5.30pm never actually existed. Confused? How do you think we feel!

Anyway we made it to the bar and sat with Tony, Kirstine and Will until around 10.30 when we all, very sensibly, agreed that we should get a few hours sleep in. We are all, coincidentally, getting off at Irkutsk, however the train carries on to Chita which is another two days down the line and none of us are interested in missing our scheduled stop.

Tonight we ate in the bar/restaurant area with myself and Janet both having a really good meal of smoked salmon pancakes, ‘greek’ salad and boiled potatoes. Beer was again the order of the day and we have to thank the wonderful waitress who looked after us so well over the two nights and always made us first in the queue (regardless of who was in front of us). Our experience is that most working Russians normally adopt an initial position of caution and coldness but once you work to break through this exterior we have enjoyed great service with a real warmth and sense of humour.

We had tagged this long train journey as having the potential to be a real (if not the) highlight of the trip and it has not disappointed. Our cosy compartment, our neighbours/beer buddies, the Provodnista, the bar, the scenery plus the overall sense and atmosphere of adventure that exists on this Trans-Siberian train have all provided us with an unforgettable experience.

But we move on. 5.30am alarms set for a 6.22 arrival and then the next stage of the trip, a two day visit to Lake Baikal.Read more