Boxcar-ish adventures: Across Siberia

And months later (sorry!) the story continues....

It was a sad goodbye to Artur in Irkutsk, but I was excited to experience the four day train ride to Moscow. We had several movies downloaded, fully charged Ipods, a few books, the dice for Yahtzee and a grocery bag full of instant potatoes, noodles, bread, cheese, sausage, and sardines that Artur insisted we buy; what else would one need to travel across Siberia?

As soon as we boarded the train we attracted the attention of a group of young, Russian soldiers just released from their military service. When they weren't drinking, they were smoking and trying to communicate with us in Russian. It was entertaining until Matt and I tried watching a movie which was interrupted every 30 seconds as one soldier or another would try to put together a thought in English to try out on us. But that's ok, we still loved them.

Throughout the next day the soldiers one-by-one hopped off in their hometowns. But no worries, the departing soldiers were replaced by more soldiers heading west. These soldiers were younger than the other ones and loved to show off their uniforms, badges, medals, and videos from their phones. I was really hoping one would slip up and show me a video exposing some big Russian military secret but alas, just videos of tanks, guns and the soldiers messing around were shared. Dang it.

The view of winter in Siberia whizzing by out the window of the train was at times magical. Fresh, pure, white snow sitting on top of these small, wooden cabin-looking houses. At each stop we got out to stretch our legs and play in the snow. As the train rolled up to the stations people lined up along the train trying to sell all kinds of random goods: scarfs, socks, toys, gloves and at one stop....a home-cooked meal of roasted chicken with veggies. Best idea I'd seen yet! Matt and I had been eating instant noodles and potatoes for days so when we saw (and smelled!) this lovely food we instantly handed over the amount she was asking without a hesitant thought to bargain. We probably paid 3 times the amount it should have cost but we didn't care in the slightest....it tasted aaaaaaamazing!

Besides the soldiers, Matt made friends with a rolly-polly (we were quite surprised the top bunks held a few of them!) group from Belarus our last night on the train when he drank an excess of vodka. They laughed a lot at us and made sure Matt was safely strapped in his bed when it was bedtime. There was also a less-and-less-cute-each-day toddler running up and down the aisle, giggling early in the morning. But it was all part of the immersion experience riding in the platzkart, aka the cheapest seats on the train.

We had been progressively reading through my guidebook about Moscow, making plans, discussing hostels and whatnot as the Siberian trip rolled on, so after 4 days on the train we felt ready to be in the booming metropolis. Even if it was 4:41 a.m. and darn cold when we arrived. Whatever, we made it!