Siberia and sakura | FindPenguins

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Traveler Siberia and sakura
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- Mar 26, 2018, 10:07pm
- 🌬 0 °C
- Altitude: 110 m
- Russia Perm Krai Zheleznodorozhnyy Svetlushka 58.00414, 56.1945258°0’15” N 56°11’40” E
Day 3
Perm-afrost
March 26, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌬 0 °C
Perm 2 is the last stop in Europe. By the time we wake in the morning we'll have passed Yekaterinberg and be over the border to Asia.

It also the first place where the snow lies uncleared on the platform. Up until now every platform, path and walkway has been ruthlessly swept to pristine dryness. Here it is merely trodden down. In some spots where the hoses trail across to replenish the train's tanks it has melted or worn down almost 6 inches, still without any sign of reaching the bottom. There may be a platform under there somewhere, or it may be solid ice all the way down.Read more
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- Mar 27, 2018, 3:22am
- 🌬 -1 °C
- Altitude: 259 m
- Russia Sverdlovskaya Oblast’Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg-Passazhirskiy 56.85914, 60.6051556°51’33” N 60°36’19” E
Day 4
Exiting Europe
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌬 -1 °C
The border between Europe and Asia. We're in the dark, while invisible men crash about making lots of noise preparing to leave.

Seems oddly familiar.

But we know where we're we're going. We have a plan.Read more
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Traveler Siberia and sakura
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- Mar 27, 2018, 8:02am
- ⛅ -1 °C
- Altitude: 85 m
- Russia Tyumen Stantsiya Tyumen’57.14593, 65.5205157°8’45” N 65°31’14” E
Day 4
A passion for trains
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ -1 °C
The Trans Siberian handbook is written with train enthusiasts in mind. So the remarks about points of interest along the route include not only historical and geological features (and which town is the largest manufacturer of jute or plastic seesaws) but plenty of notes on which station has an FD-whatever locomotive on a plinth, or is near a branch to a steam line. The comment that Yekaterinberg's feature of note was a locomotive depot therefore came as no surprise, but also held little interest. I made no effort to look for it in the 3 am dark.

But as we pulled into a later station this morning, I looked out and thought 'Oh that's a pretty building'. I'm rarely with it at 7.30 am, and particularly not when I've been through 5 time zones in 3 days, so there is no photo. You'll just have to take my word for it that Tyumen has a remarkably attractive locomotive depot.

You should take a look, if you're ever in the area.Read more
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Traveler Siberia and sakura
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- Mar 27, 2018, 11:22am
- ⛅ 0 °C
- Altitude: 118 m
- Russia Tyumenskaya Oblast’Nikol’skiy 56.28038, 68.9369756°16’49” N 68°56’13” E
Day 4
Siberia
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C
In the early hours of this morning we crossed into Siberia. The temperature also rose to just above freezing, but you'd never know it by looking out of the window. Inside the train it is 28°C. Wrapping up to get off at the stations is a protracted business.Read more
Traveler Presumably no problems with snow on the tracks?
3/27/18Reply
Traveler Lots between, none on. We've seen people out shovelling it off the lines and digging out junction boxes.
3/27/18Reply
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- Mar 27, 2018, 1:50pm
- 🌙 16 °C
- Altitude: 120 m
- Russia Omskaya Oblast’Nazyvayevsk 55.5694, 71.3497655°34’10” N 71°20’59” E
Day 4
Closest point to Kazakhstan
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
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- Mar 27, 2018, 5:03pm
- ☁️ -2 °C
- Altitude: 83 m
- Russia Omskaya Oblast’Privokzal’nyy Stantsiya Omsk-Passazhirskiy 54.9418, 73.3873154°56’30” N 73°23’14” E
Day 4
Omsk
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ☁️ -2 °C
Sadly, we don't also go through Tomsk.
Traveler If that is the rail station, it’s rather impressive.
3/27/18Reply
Traveler It is the station building. They use this colour quite a lot in Siberia. It looks lovely against the snow.
3/27/18Reply
Traveler It all looks so much nicer than our wet and miserable Easter weekend. Keep having fun
4/1/18Reply
Traveler First tiny bit of rain today, but generally the weather has been quite bright.
4/1/18Reply
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Traveler Siberia and sakura
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- Mar 27, 2018, 9:39pm
- ⛅ -1 °C
- Altitude: 124 m
- Russia Novosibirskaya Oblast’Zaton 55.03542, 82.8958555°2’8” N 82°53’45” E
Day 4
Novosibirsk nights
March 27, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ⛅ -1 °C
I'd planned to tale a photo of the Novosibirsk sign, but it was 1 in the morning and cold. I stayed in bed.
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- Mar 28, 2018, 5:22am
- ☀️ 15 °C
- Altitude: 298 m
- Russia Krasnoyarskiy Kray Bogotol 56.21948, 89.5468156°13’10” N 89°32’49” E
Day 5
Land of the silver birch
March 28, 2018 in Russia ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
Woke still in the birch zone, but with decidedly thinning snow. Rivers are still frozen - solid enough for ice fishers to set their chairs out mid stream.

My time keeping system had reset itself overnight. You might think a clock is optional for someone on a train for 5 days, but that's not the case.

Local time is needed to keep up with the time zone changes, and prevent jet lag landing all at once when we reach the next destination. And the restaurant car runs on local time. However, the rest of the train runs (and stops) on Moscow time. So we need that to keep track of where we are (stations are few, and often not well signposted) and when we are coming up to stops long enough to get off, stretch our legs and buy provisions.

The guidebooks list where we cross time zones, but they disagree with each other - sometimes by 2 hours. It is therefore unhelpful of a clock to have a mad 5 minutes and lose both times. Fortunately Russian trains run to a strict timetable, so you can quite literally set your watch by them. Which I did.Read more
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- Mar 28, 2018, 2:16pm
- 🌧 18 °C
- Altitude: 329 m
- Russia Krasnoyarskiy Kray Sulemka 56.21285, 96.3692856°12’46” N 96°22’9” E
Day 5
Adventures in food
March 28, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌧 18 °C
Illanskaya, according to the guidebook, is one of the best stations to buy home cooked food from the platform traders. It turns out they are no longer allowed on the platforms, but lined up behind a low fence there were indeed half a dozen or so women - all elderly, all short - with boxes on carts. A few factory sausages on display, but almost all the rest looked home cooked/dried/toasted.

Dried and smoked fish featured heavily, and all the stalls had pine nuts. As expected in a region of lakes and pine trees. The rest varied from stall to stall, depending on the cook - assorted pirozki, different types of potato cake, boiled potatoes with herbs, caramel waffle rolls, home made sausages, bread, and in one case raw carrots and potatoes.

They speak no English, and listen to little Russian. Any question is initally met with a display of the number of notes needed to purchase an item, rather than an answer to what was actually asked. This makes it a little tricky to establish which of the anonymous dough and pastry parcels are the vegetarian* options.

I ended up with a giant rosti/latke and a** caramel waffle roll. Mixed success - as in many countries, being assured that an item contains no meat doesn't necessarily exclude the possibility of ham - and the pre-consumption dissection confirmed it's presence in the latke. The caramel roll, however, was ham free. And very good jaw exercise.

* Potato. Sometimes alone, sometimes with cabbage and onion, occasionally with cheese. But always based on potato.

** The observant among you might count 2 caramel waffle rolls. One of them is not mine.Read more
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Traveler Siberia and sakura
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- Mar 29, 2018, 2:48am
- 🌙 -1 °C
- Altitude: 426 m
- Russia Irkutskaya Oblast’Mel’nikovo Stantsiya Irkutsk-Passazhirskiy 52.28274, 104.2602752°16’58” N 104°15’37” E
Day 6
None aboard.
March 29, 2018 in Russia ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C
Irkutsk is the closest stop to Lake Baikal. The train has emptied - locals presumably going to the city, tourists are seeing the lake and then changing to the Mongolia train. Nobody got on, so our carriage has gone from full to just 3 people. One of themn is asleep.Read more
Traveler Tourists to the right, please, and travellers to the left...
3/29/18Reply
Traveler so long as the samovar is still manned...?
4/1/18Reply
Traveler The samovars are mostly Olga-ed, and the Olgas still supply tea in those lovely glasses in silver holders. Also an ice cream delivery service.
4/1/18Reply
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