Perm Krai

After dreading this day for a few weeks, the time had come for Courtney to make her way to the train station, and board the sleeper train to Irkutsk. It wasn't the meeting new people; it wasn't the lack of substantial vegetarian food options; it was the potential for four nights without sleep.

Jamie assured her that if she made one night without sleep, the second night, she'd be fast asleep in no time, and if she made it two nights without sleep, the exhaustion her body was suffering, would result in a full reset, and a third night of sound sleep. Time would tell how Courtney would respond, but for now, the only thing she could do was wait.

After one last burst on the treadmill, before four days on train, Courtney and Jamie, checked out, and headed to the station on the other side of the city. Arriving with over an hour to spare, Courtney and Jamie sheltered under the dilapidatd eves of the station's left luggage office, as rain fell persistently around them. It wasn't a day for exploring a city, it was a day for being inside. "So long as this rain persists for the next four days on the train, so that the rest of the holiday is dry, I'll be more than happy", Courtney thought.

Surveying the motley crew, huddling in the only dry section of the platform, the spectrum of people to travel with them was diverse. There were Russian businessmen in their two-piece suits, perhaps heading into the Motherland to secure the sale of some industrial supplies. There were the international tourists, marked by their backpacks, ready to start their Trans-Siberrian adventure. There were old Russian ladies, travelling with bags and bags of food, back to their families, in the great distance of Siberia. The train was going to be a cosmopolitan mix of people from within Russian and without.

Suddenly, an announcement went out over the PA system in Russian, and the throng of people previously sheltered from the rain, stepped out into the chilly Moscow 'mist', and headed for the train. Not having understood the annoucement, but having the limited ability required to interpret the movement of people, Courtney and Jamie followed the horde, and boarded the train.

Their sleeping compartment, was small, but adequate. Housing four people, in two sets of bunk beds, with a small table in between. Just the job for eating breakfast, playing cards, or writing a travel blog. Having taken five minutes to put there bags away, and settle in, Courtney and Jamie were joined by their two cabin mates, all the way from the Netherlands. As it would turn out, there was a sizable Dutch contingent travelling in second class on the train. Being a Russian commuter train, rather than a pure tourist train, there was no first class at all.

Their new cabin mates had already travelled through Germany, Poland, and Belarus, and were now making their way to Ulan Bataar in Monglia, via Moscow. After exchanging pleasantries, and getting to know each other a bit better, it was time to head to the restaurant car, to have something to drink, have something to eat, and mingle some more with the rest of the train. While there, Courtney and Jamie made the acquaintance of many more travellers, including two in particular from Poland and France.

The international contingent of the train was a good bunch - a good laugh. As she lay in bed trying to get to sleep, Courtney thought to herself, that the time would pass quickly, with such fine company.

And as the clock struck midnight, Courtney's final thought of the day, reverberated through her head, "I hope I can sleep".Read more