17 August 2014
Train from Irkutsk to
Khabarovsk, Near Chita
Transiberian Warm-up.
At 60 hours, this is our longest train trip. Our tickets were purchased
late and with some confusion so we are all, except for Liam and Grace, in
separate koupés within the same car.
This has the distinct advantage of meeting more people in the car and spending
more time moving around. For example, 36 hours into the journey we have had
almost no infighting. If only I’d learned this secret in China!
This is the Transiberian Railroad – capital letters and all, but this is not the Transiberian Train. The 044 from Moscow doesn’t make it all the way to Vladivostok, but ends at our destination, Khabarovsk. As such, little amenities I imagine might be on the Transsiberian are denied to us, at least in second class koupés – showers, A/C, in my koupé’s case at least a window that opens. Constantine, who has been on since Moscow, has become quite ripe and the whole compartment was done no favors yesterday when a small milk carton exploded all over. So it’s a bit of an olfactory factory in here in the third koupé of car 10, but I take solace in the nose’s ability to adapt and ignore.
My perfect Transsiberian moment arrived last
night at 7:25. All was well after a dinner of cheese and peanut butter,
crackers and bread. Constantine sought me out and announced a double rainbow. It arched over the tracks in front of the train as we stood in the corridor and stared. Then car 10 slid past a little frontier town and the blue onion domes of a little Orthodox church rose above the corrugated roofs. The rainbow stayed with us for many more minutes and the wind blew in my face. Constantine and I decided that was pretty great.
 |
| Americans in the dining car! or, card sharks and their tea |
 |
| Official Russian Train tea cups |
No comments:
Post a Comment