On the train for 77 hours

There it was: The Transsiberian train. Very long, blue and to be true, nothing speciel to look at! We boarded it and found our compartment, very small and we had to share it with a Russian couple. They knew how it worked so they showed us the luggage storage under the seat and we managed to fit it all in. Sia took the top-bunk and I looked at my bottombunk, 40 cm wide, and wondered how many times I would fall out during the night. Then our “sleep-friend” started to make his bed and he knew how to make the bed bigger and more comfortable. He helped me make it a decent-sized bed and I stopped worrying about sleepless nights. We tried to communicate a little with them but they spoke nothing but Russian so we gave up and went to bed. Well it was very late so it was ok. I looked out of the window for a while and wondered if I could sleep with the noises and the movements and everything but I slept almost instantly and like a baby all night long. When I woke up I looked out and there was snow and trees and very very beautiful. For the next three days I didn’t do much but look out he window, eat, sleep, scratch my very itching bites, write in my diary and try to figure out what time it was. And I loved it!!! Time just flew and I wasn’t bored for a single minute I think. The Russian couple left us in Novosibirsk and we got a russian guy as room mate now. He spoke a little german and so do I (at least a sort of) so we talked a little. I got a “smile-friend” and that was a guy I always met by the electric plug and after a few “dates” there we started smiling at each other. I think of it as a little victory because you can’t make many russians smile!!! I also got a “walk-friend”, we always walked together on the platforms and took pictures when the train stopped for 20 minutes or so. Otherwise I didn’t fraternise with the locals! When we had long stops at some of the stations I went out, often in my flip-flops and skated up and down the platform and made snowballfights with myself to great entertainment for the others on the platform…

 

This entry was posted in Next stop: The Transsiberian Railway. Bookmark the permalink.