Russia – All aboard the Trans-Siberian! Or not…

June 22-24

Hello everyone!

As you may know, Russia is huge. Excluding the exclave of Kaliningrad, it spans 10 time zones and thousands of kilometres. Almost all of this can be done on a journey known as the Trans-Siberian train.

Ready to board at Yaroslavsky station, Moscow

This is actually the first train I took in this phase, from
St Petersburg back to Moscow

The famous train goes three times a week from Moscow all the way to Vladivostok, at the edge of Russia’s western frontier. The latter is much closer to Beijing, Seoul and other Asian capitals than its own. The journey takes seven days and is on the same track for a ludicrous 9289 km.

Many trains run across the country

The main building at Kirov station

Taking the Trans-Siberian train across the Russian landmass is something I’ve been curious about for a long time. From reading about it and seeing the occasional documentary, it has an almost romantic air of stunning scenery, loneliness and vodka. Being in Russia, this was my opportunity to take that nostalgic journey.

The layout of a cabin - you can't see my bunk from this view

I was in second class, called kupy

Well, I thought it was. There are many caveats to add. Firstly, the train I took wasn’t technically the ‘Trans-Siberian’ train – the Rossiya goes from Moscow to Vladivostok and this merely chugged along to Abakan, only 4380 km from the capital.

Not the Rossiya

The list of destinations - it's pretty long!

Additionally, the section of the journey I took wasn’t Trans-Siberian as I alighted in Ekaterinburg, which isn’t actually in Siberia. It’s near the Ural Mountains, seen as the border between Europe and Asia.

The trains on this route also take lots of cargo

Balezino station, viewed from the footbridge

Essentially, this was a long (28 and a half hours), friendly train ride through the forest. I only saw one other football fan, with everyone else being Russian and no one speaking English. The football supporter was Senegalese and only seemed to speak French, not understanding when I started asking him about football.

The green, green grass of...Russia

I imagine this is a very different sight - and experience - in winter

Having a basic knowledge of Russian can make a world of difference to an experience on this journey. It left at about 11pm Moscow time, meaning that everyone quickly settled down to sleep. The vodka-drinking party never happened – difficult when your compartment is filled with a babooshka and a mother with two children, one of whom was two years old.

I do love food which is presented in 'lumpy form'

Sunset from the train

I found out that nugget of information the following morning, when I got talking – at length it seemed – to the old lady, whose name was Nina. My attempts at Russian were warmly received and, with the aid of pictures on phones, an understanding quickly developed. This made the trip much more pleasurable for me.

I never got round to eating my industrial bun

We passed a few lakes and rivers on the way, which
made a nice change from pale green steppe

At certain stations, the train will stop long enough for you to disembark. 90% of the people who did used it as a chance to have a cigarette. I used it as a chance to take some ‘artistic’ photography, which got laughed at by a couple of Russians. One of them suggested that I was a bit of an idiot by taking a photo on the track. At least that’s what I hope the throat-slitting gesture meant…

My artistic photo which confused other travellers

A world away from the modernity of Moscow

Other stops had souvenirs and the ever-popular ice-cream stalls, which sell small, flat cones with ice-cream known as eskimos. The souvenirs were…interesting…

Stalls such as this lined the platform at Balezino,
a main stopping point for our train

A strange souvenir

One of the pleasures I was expecting was for some stunning scenery. Again, this probably happens further along the route. It’s very green and is somewhat varied, moving through forests and steppe. Nothing truly breathtaking, however, and countryside you can easily find on most train rides in Europe.

A beautiful church just after Balezino 

The Sun going down as the train moved east

I really enjoyed the train ride and was slightly sad to get off at 5:30am on the Sunday morning (all trains are on Moscow time so it said 3:30am – need to be alert!). The people I met were warm and welcoming and it was interesting to see a snippet of Russian life away from the World Cup. I was looking forward to a shower, though!

Ekaterinburg: my final stop

European Russia

All aboard!

Love you all,

Matt