The
last six days have been incredible and one truly has to experience it to believe
it but we hope we have done an adequate job of describing just what it is like
to travel the entire length of the Trans-Siberian Railway. We have watched many
scenes whiz past us including forests full of birch trees, vast expansions of
wastelands, large cities, small villages, grounds packed with snow, swollen
rivers, countless shells of abandoned buildings and many beautiful cathedrals
intermingled along the way. We have smelled smoked fish, fresh breads, brewing
coffee, beefy cups of noodles, and some not so pleasant odors including the use
of heavy cologne and the non-use of deodorant.
We have also smelled smoke, even though it is not allowed on the train,
they find a way to sneak a cigarette in the corridors between the connecting
cars, that and the occasional smell of the cigarette of the illegal kind. We have met only one other American couple
from Baltimore and an English couple. We do see a lot of the same people at our
stops staying in the other carriages. There
is one young Asian man who probably thinks we are following him or maybe he is following
us, but he was on the plane from Seoul to Vladivostok and has been on the same
schedule as us every since. We share a
wave every time we see him and he bows a friendly hello. He has big thick
glasses and we have nicknamed him Goggles.
There is another older man that we also share a head nod with and is also
of Asian decent. We have nicknamed him
Japan-Man. We will miss these guys because they have become familiar friendly
faces over the past 6 days. We'll also miss our provodnitsa. Her name is Tonya and she is quite different
than our provodnitsa on the first train.
She is funny, but full of discipline and rather large. When she tells you to get back on the train,
you get back on! We tried to buy her a Coca-Cola at a stop but she
refused. She did talk us into buying a bowl
of perogies from one of the vendors and we think she scored a free sandwich out
it because she slipped behind the booth and came out holding one in a plastic
bag. Overall, she has been very pleasant!
As we draw this post to an end, its extremely hard to describe the last 5,741 miles of terrain we covered with just a few pictures; but we have tried to pick out some of our favorites. Enjoy them...we sure have! Remember, if you click on one photo, it will enlarge and you can scroll through all of them.
Neighborhoods and countrysides along the way
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| All the railroad crossings had these huge gates that popped out of the ground to avoid trespassers |
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| Traffic Jam...Russia style! |
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| All the centuries were very colorful and surrounded by gates. A lot of them were located in the middle of woodsy areas |
Stops along the way
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| Zoom in and you can see the icicles hanging off the train. |
At this Station in Novosibirsk, Siberia the most boys went off to the WWII Russian front than any other station in Russia.
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| A father (soldier) waving goodbye |
A memorial to the fallen soldiers
All males are required to serve one year of military service. Here was a group of young boys leaving for their required duty.
The locals selling making a living
Crawfish and eggs???
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| She was telling us we owed her 100 Rubles for three rolls, about $2 |
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| These were crunchy on the outside and creamy chocolate on the inside! |
The Cathedrals
Life on the train...
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| This is how we found out there was a shower... |
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| A map of the route |
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| Our dinner "salad" in the restaurant car |
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| Our crude refrigerator...snow in a bag |
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| Drinks in the restaurant car |
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| The hot water dispenser |
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| The provodnitsas, Tonya is on the far left |
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| Killing time! |
All males are required to serve one year of military service. Here was a group of young boys leaving for their required duty. 
