Friday July 17 – On the Rails – Day 2

Another peaceful night on the rail and depending on what “clock” you are on either a late, or an early morning. We passed through stations such as Barabinsk, Omsk where Dostoevsky was exiled to in 1849, Nazyvaerskaya, Ishim, Tobolsk, and Tyumen. The scenery is not the most exciting; semi-taiga, farmland, and marsh.

We wandered the platform for 15/20 minutes at Tyumen, but there was nothing really eye-catching or exciting, except perhaps the odd drunk from the train. During the day we talked, ate lunch and several snacks, snoozed, and generally allowed ourselves the luxury of staring blankly out of the train window. It rained on and off, but the platform stops were generally warm, mid 20s I’d say.

The passengers on the train change as we go along, but we haven’t spoken to too many, due to language mainly and the fact that all the Russians around us have their doors closed. What are they doing inside….or maybe, they are just avoiding tourists like us!!

Around 16:47 or 14:47, not sure what time, we stopped at Yekaterinburg for 20 minutes. The station was quite beautiful, but a train drew in just as we arrived and I wasn’t able to get a proper picture. There were some food vendors on the platform, and I bought a large plastic glassful of fresh cherries and apricots. Delicious! Otherwise, it’s just a big modern city.

The train rolled slowly on through the mixed countryside with its non-descript scenery, small communities with wooden homes, and larger towns with grey soviet-style buildings. We had a couple of beers then the four of us went down to the dining car for dinner. It says it closes at 2300 hours, but since there is 7 hours difference from beginning to end of this journey, it’s not always possible to know the “local time of the moment". Anyway, we decided to go for Moscow time so that next day wouldn’t be too much of a shock when we arrived in Moscow and put our clocks back.

Dinner was very tasty, chicken with tomato, cheese and some string-fried potatoes. The Russians love potatoes! The servings were small, which was perfect for me, but not really enough for the guys. After dinner we drank some vodka, sat and chatted with our group and the English speaking neighbours waiting for it to be dark enough to go to sleep …whatever time that was. Just before bed, we had one more stop at a rather dull station for about 20 minutes, so it was simply a leg stretch before curling up in bed and sleep.