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Last few hours on the train

Previous page -  The wonderful forests of Siberia

Lunch From The Platform

Today we bought our lunch from the Baboushkas at one of the stations. We bought some large fried items that had potato inside and some hard boiled eggs. We wanted to buy some cooked potatoes but the seller couldn’t understand us and then we suddenly realized the train was about to leave. It all tasted fine but was a bit heavy going. A few stops later we hopped off and bought an ice cream each. They were much like Cornettos and cost us a total of 80 rb which is about $3 AUD.

Old buildings roofless and abandoned		They are like old empty shells

Countryside Seen From The Train

We’ve seen stunning landscapes with incredibly huge forests of fir trees and others that look like birches. We’ve seen streams and some of them even have some snow/ice still in them. The weather has been incredibly warm today so it is hard to reconcile ice with such warm temperatures.

Despite seeing trees and water in abundance we fail to see much sign of birdlife. How strange. We have been journeying for almost two days and only just seen our first horse. We’ve only seen a handful of cows too. Are there no chickens in coops in Siberia? The houses we’ve seen are mostly constructed from timber and all look like they are badly in need of a coat of paint or varnish.  Money must be incredibly short. 

We see so many half demolished buildings. We wonder what their previous usage was?  Some are just like shells with roof and windows totally gone. It’s mainly stone structures that are demolished. They look quite old. Would they have been bombed in some sort of war?  Were they buildings abandoned in their construction stage many, many years ago.  Did the money run out before they were finished?

Added later:  We saw countless buildings throughout Russia abandoned in this way.  Some were residential too.  We never found out the reason for their abandonment.

A meal purchased from the Baboushkas		The ever-changing landscape enchants us

And just for a change, it was dinner from behind the platform…..

We’ve had dinner. We stopped at a station and couldn’t see any Babushkas although there were plenty of little kiosks selling dried foods and drink. Then Ian spied some Babushkas up a side street next to the station building. We felt perhaps they weren’t permitted on the platform as they would be taking trade away from the kiosk holders.  From the Babushkas we bought some sausages in a thick dough, pancakes filled with a cottage cheese concoction (which we really didn’t like), coleslaw, tomatoes and more boiled eggs. We had quite a good feed once the train was back on the move again.

Changing Russian landscape

We have noticed the landscape change in the last few hours. The hills are more rolling and grassy and there are now far fewer trees. We have seen wild horses out in the middle of nowhere. Later on we saw streams and rivers with people fishing and pottering about in the early evening warmth. Then it all changes again and we are back to thick forest. It’s never boring to look at.

Next Morning

Both of us slept poorly, tossing and turning all night.  My throat is still sore so that was keeping me awake too.  Since we have been on the train we have worn our thongs and not our lace up joggers. This has been lovely for our feet, plus is meant we didn’t need to wash socks out each night. However, since doing this I’ve noticed my feet have swollen up considerably. I’ve been wondering if they will fit back into my shoes this morning. That was playing on my mind a lot last night too.

We’ve eaten our standard train breakfast of peanut butter on dry bread with slices of tomato on top. We have packed up all our gear into our rucksacks and we are pretty much ready to leave the train.

There seems to be big problems with blocked toilets today. One of the two in our carriage was blocked up yesterday and now there are problems with the other one. Hopefully Ian and I can hang on until we get to Ulan Ude before needing the loo again. I think we have only an hour left to go on this first leg of our journey.
 

Next page - Arriving in Ulan Ude

Our trip in the order it all happened: