Hotel Reviews, things to see & things to do  in every destination imaginable.

Food available on the Rossiya train in Siberia

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Restaurant on the Rossiya Train

		We’ve just had our only disappointing meal since being in Russia. Only disappointing in so much as value for the money spent.  It was a tiny quantity of food and cost us greatly. It was also such very slow service. I don’t think we will be doing the same tomorrow night for dinner.  No wonder these first class dining cars are usually almost empty. Never mind – we have to try these things so we can report about them on this web site.
Restaurant car on the Rossiya				Big steps to climb down to get food

Babushkas at the railway stations

At lots of railway stations we saw Babushkas selling food. I think this is a source of well needed income for them. They are middle aged and older ladies with baskets of easily transportable home-made or home-grown food.  When a train is due in at the platform they appear with their food and collapsible tables and set up for business.  During the evening we knew we had a 30 minute stop coming up so we decided to hop off and have a look at their wares.

Ever security conscious, we ask a Provodnitsa to lock our compartment door for us. Ian has his camera ready and we have plenty of cash in small denominations to buy items. The Provodnitza locks the door and then wanders back down to her hidey-hole compartment at the end of the carriage. No sooner had she gone than Ian realizes his camera battery has gone flat. There is an old loco he particularly wants to photograph on the platform. I don’t have my camera on me which is unusual. The battery from my camera is currently in our compartment in the re-charger. So, we had to go back to the Provodnitza again, ask her to unlock the door but to stay close by as all we needed to do was grab the battery out of the re-charger and shove it in to my camera. She complies but is very surly.  The other Provodnitza is quite a nice girl - always cheery to us. But then maybe she owes us a bit of cheer seeing as she was the one who mislaid our tickets when we first climbed on board the train.

Once down on the platform we quickly bought ourselves two tomatoes and a small cucumber already done up in a bag. It cost 50 rb which is about $1.90 AUD. We really wanted to buy fruit but couldn’t see any. Other Babushkas were selling marshmallows in the shape of ice creams, dried fish, spring onions, radishes, cold meats and doughy things with meat in them. The doughy things might have been nice but we really didn’t fancy them at nearly 10 pm.

Villages along the train route		Railway station we stopped at

Kiosks commonly seen at railway stations		Babushkas selling their delicious foods

 
Long evenings in Russia

We find the long evenings quite strange. Who would think you could be standing outside on a platform at 10 p.m. when it was still very much daylight. We are not used to that in Australia.  We saw lots of tiny villages, seemingly miles away from  other habitation.  We also saw many graveyards close to the track.  The predominant colour in the graveyards was the same bright blue we saw windows painted in village houses.
 

Typical graveyard seen from train window		Small track-side village

Time for bed

Back on the train we attempt to prepare ourselves for bed. The water coming out of the tap in the loo is now quite brown. It doesn’t smell but has changed my flannel to a delightful brown colour – charming. Tonight we have made our beds up the way they should be made so hopefully we will sleep better. I have a really rotten sore throat so I hope to feel better come morning. I decide to take a Restavit tablet to ensure I sleep well because I haven’t done so since we left home.
 

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Our trip in the order it all happened: