Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 5/2/2012 Moscow to Irkutsk (Siberia somewhere), Russia TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY

We had a nice sleep in then cracked the soup and noodles… I wrote 37 post cards during the day and we cracked the vodka and card games in the evening. We met a Russian girl who joined us for some drinks in our cabin and chatted for a while. During the day we travelled through Ponasierevo, Shabalino, Svecha, Kotelnich, Kirov pass, Glasov, Balesino, Kes, Vereshchagino, Mendeleevo, Perm 2 (the last big city before entering the Ural Mountains and Siberia), Kungur, Shalja, Pervouralsk, Ekaterinburg Pass (city is located on the Asia / Europe border), Bogdanovih, Elanskiy, Kamyshiov, Oshchepkovo and Talitsa. The beds are about the width of a suitcase and are comfortable enough (after camping for 3 months most things are comfortable). They blast a strange mix of music over the radio from Russian stuff to ‘the love shack’! The train is really warm (quite stuffy) but the window sill still has a frozen chunk of ice on the inside! The toilet is interesting… it flushes straight onto the track but because it is soo cold outside sometimes the contents freeze onto the outside of the train and the carriage lady has to chip it off with a crow bar!!! The toilet gets locked 20 minutes before and after each stop so you have to time your drinks! The scenery is amazing, vast stretches of white openness, trees and snowy villages, ice fishermen and we even saw a snow mobile. We watched a pretty sunset over the snowy hills after a clear blue sunny day.