Tour Guide Antics Ok, totally a story I forgot to tell yesterday: When we visited St. Basil’s Catheedral, they have blocked off lots of the walking path around it, including the shortest path to GUM. Before lunch, she just leads me around the barricades, between metal barriers and the brick wall, obviously circumventing the intent of the barriers. Then, after lunch, we are trying to get back. We have passed between this barricade and the wall, 3 times. But now, there are 2 policemen there, guarding the passage. We walk over, and I assume we’re just going to go take the long way now. But oh no. This lady is…
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A Day In Moscow
Starting the day I got off the train at 9:30 am. The driver took me to the hotel, and fortunately the room was ready. I dropped off my things, having already hurriedly dressed on the train, and went downstairs to meet my guide. I am exhausted. Worried about getting everything ready and packed to get off the train first thing in the morning, I kept waking myself up, thinking I was going to miss my stop. Moscow was the last stop of this train, though. Also, I somehow left my deodorant in Yekaterinburg, and have been without any this train ride. Casualties so far: hairbrush, deodorant. Red Square We started…
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Final Trans-Siberian Train
Getting to the train My guide picked me up at 9 and we went directly to the train station. It’s kind of cute and also a little demeaning that every guide is mandated to put me ON the train. Like I haven’t already figured out the platform/track situation and can’t find my carriage. The train arrives late, so we spend maybe 20 minutes awkwardly staring at the timetable, since we arrived an hour before the train departs. Finally I board the train for my final leg of the actual trans-Siberian railroad. Technically, I guess the Moscow-St. Petersburg line isn’t part of it. First Class This time, I am booked into…
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Ekaterinburg and the Romanovs
Breakfast I started the day bright (not) and early by getting up at 5:30 am, getting dressed, and going downstairs for breakfast. The Russian food seems to be pretty similar to most European breakfasts with the exception of having a lot of cool and interesting dairy products. Cottage cheese fritters? yum. Condensed milk as a topping for…anything? Sweet. At this point, at least breakfast food is pretty similar to anything you’d find in any European hotel. Walkabout I started out with a quick walk around the city, leaving at 8 a.m. and returning by the time my driver arrived at 10. Since it is still dark until 10, nothing is…
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Final Stretch
Train Living I am on the commuter train, stopping at every stop, seeing all of the cool things. I’m also in a tiny room for 56 hours. Things start to get…interesting. My hair is oily. My face is oily. The train bathrooms are nowhere you’d want to brush your teeth. I do not smell worse than anyone else in my carriage. Also, the carriages are all full, so there are lines for the bathroom and the trash bin is constantly overfull. The Russian and Mongolian train do, at least, have toilet paper, where the Chinese train was a BYO-TP. The dining car is my only respite from my room, and…
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More Random Thoughts from the Train
Content note: Just FYI, I do most of my writing on the train. The chromebook has a text editor, but not spell check or autocorrect. So if you spot some bad grammar, punctuation mistakes, fully misspelled words, or notes to myself that I forgot to remove like this: (?), that’s why. Second content note: This is new for me, writing a blog. And it is super weird, like screaming into the void. There’s no feedback, so I have no idea if anyone is reading it. So…if you have any comments, please hit the contact button. It just sends an email to dr_tina_white at yahoo. Or you can email there… or…
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Train Life
Tales from the Rails A roommate Just before the train departed, another person joined my room. An older guy, traveling for work. He introduced himself and immediately he was kind of a jerk. After exchanging names and where are you from, I don’t really possess enough Russian to have deep philosophical conversations. At which point he begins speaking English with me, asking why I am traveling alone. And how can you travel alone when you can’t even speak the language. Ok, condescending jerk. We don’t generally expect tourists to be fluent in every language of every country they visit. I have done just fine until now and I don’t like…
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Irkutsk and the Taltsy Museum
Irkutsk Leaving Listvyanka So my last day in Listvyanka was simply hanging out in the hotel waiting for my ride to arrive at 11 a.m. Not enough time to go walk around, and it’s cold and I’m tired and really looking forward to sleeping as much as possible on the train. Nikolai makes me another delicious breakfast, this time with an omelette that is somehow fluffy *and* delicious, though I usually hate egg yolks. I take everything out of my bags, and re-pack, trying to take as little space as possible. Getting on and off of the train is a huge task, and the backpack straps catch on every doorknob…
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Listvyanka
So I have 1 full free day in Listvyanka. It’s a balmy -10C out today, snowing heavily and constantly. The lake is not yet frozen, which I was expecting to see. It freezes completely clear and colorless but has mushroom-looking bubbles from natural gas release while the water is freezing. Breakfast I started my day with breakfast from Nikolai, my ever-smiling host. I am in a guest house with perhaps 4 rooms, only mine is occupied. So we agreed on a time for breakfast, 8:30, and I meet him downstairs at 8:30. He is slightly disappointed that I showed up right on time and didn’t wait for him to ring…
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Arrival in Listvyanka
Train Living My lack of sleep has finally caught up with me and I am exhausted. I get on the train at 2:30 and take a nap from 4-5. I try not to sleep too much, afraid I won’t sleep tonight. I wake up, chat with Joe a bit, and eat a ton of cookies with some fruit tea I picked up in China. But the rocking and the darkness and the constant hum finally lull me back to sleep at around 7, so I set an alarm for 9 p.m., as the border crossing is at 9:50 and I need to fill out my customs forms. The train is…
