Wonderful forests of Siberia

Previous page - Meals on the Rossiya train

 

Waking up in a foggy forest

After a good night's sleep we wake up to find we are in a forest surrounded by fog. It's quite magical. We try to clean ourselves up and attempt breakfast. We drag out our dry bread, spread it with peanut butter and top it with slices of tomato that we bought from the Babushkas last night.

We hop off at a station stop but sadly there aren't any Babushkas selling anything at all. My throat is still quite sore but then Ian produces our bag of Minties and one of those makes me feel a lot brighter.

 

Station stops

We've decided now that we won't lock our compartment each time for these little stops. It's too much hassle for the Provodnitzas. We have our money belts with our passports and documentation strapped to us but that is all. We now leave the lap top in the compartment and cover it with a towel and then simply shut the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a great deal of discussion and wonderment, we have changed the time on my watch to local time – well we think it is now saying local time. Ian's watch is set for Moscow time (so we can be sure we always know when trains are departing and arriving). The lap top is still set for Bunbury time.

Whilst I was just in the loo Ian has bought us some treats from the Provodnitza who was plying the corridor with a tray of interesting edibles. We have some savoury biscuits that look a bit like Sao's but have a faint garlic flavour and also a couple of chocolate bars.

Toilets in the First Class (Lux) carriages

For someone who is normally a constipated person I find myself frequenting the toilet fairly often. Maybe there is something in the water in the Samovar. We drink enough of it. I'm genuinely pleased with the toilets in our carriage. They are invariably clean. The Provodnitzas clean them frequently. I'm not so sure they will be so crash hot in the lower grade sections on the train. Here in First Class there are less people per carriage than in Second Class or Platskartny Class, so each loo is getting used less frequently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Large dogs wander around stations

Something comes to mind – we frequently see unaccompanied dogs lurking around the place. They are invariably very large dogs. They don't appear vicious. They are often skulking around railway stations right up next to the platforms and the rail tracks. We saw a lot of free-roaming dogs in Vladivostok too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch time is looming. All we seem to do is eat. Who could help it with so many different Russian foods to try. A very fitting lifestyle for a pair of toads.

 

Next page - Our last few hours on the Rossiya

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