We weren’t expecting much, so to our surprise, we got more.
As opposed to the nail biting stress we experienced in St Petersburg getting to the station on time for our train to Moscow, we allowed PLENTY of time to board the Trans-siberian.
This IS the journey we have anticipated for so long. An amazing trip that some only ever dream of doing, is becoming a reality for us.
What lies ahead of us is 3 days and 4 hours on a train, sharing facilities with other passengers.
We don’t know what to expect of this train trip, but from what we read in terms of reviews and online information, we knew that the Rossiya was the best choice. What we didn’t know was that it would surpass all expectations!
Expectations vs Reality
We had read blogs, books and talked to other people about this journey. Here are some of the things we had heard:
* how expensive the trans-siberian train can be
* how there may not be adequate heating on board, or if there is, it’s quite primitive (a bit of a worry when we are in the middle of winter- surely they would have that down pat?)
* how unhelpful/unfriendly the Russians can be
* that vodka is drunk all the time by Russians
* we didn’t think we would be able to have access to fresh water. We had convinced ourselves that we would need to use the water from the urn to fill our stainless steel water bottles and leave the water to cool down over night. So we brought a lot of water on board just in case.
* reviews of the restaurant cart were pretty bad that we did not plan on visiting the restaurant. Instead, we bought a load of 2-minute noodles, snacks, milk, porridge etc…
* we weren’t sure whether our cabin would have power to charge our electronics so we brought various battery chargers
We actually were quite surprised to find that the train was well heated, almost to the point of boiling stinking hot! The restaurant cart was actually decent and they have a chef onboard. We tried the schnitzel with fries for two nights in a row (haha). Although the schnitzel was not big and the fries were a little greasy, it was tasty and better than what he had expected.
Each cabin has their own power socket, which was most helpful!
Thankfully our huge luggage fit under the seats. The Russian ladies on board were very friendly (although there were exceptions on the other carriages).
And… to top it off, the carriage was well kept. The ladies emptied the rubbish, cleaned the toilets and vacuumed every cabin everyday – It was wonderful!
Booking our tickets
We booked our tickets in second class with Rossiya train 002. There are many options as far as trains on the Trans-Siberian, but we read many reviews about the different trains and all said that the Rossiya was the best option. Considering we would be spending three whole days on a train we thought it best to do it on a decent train. Of course this train costs just that bit extra, but on boarding our train at 11.20pm, I was glad we opted for Rossiya.
You can book tickets at: http://www.rzd.ru
Our tickets were approx 40,000 Rubles for the four of us.
The trains are very punctual and at 11.45pm on the 1st January, the train left Moscow. Our carriage number 2, was not full. In fact there were only four out of the eight cabins occupied.
First class consists of a two-birth cabin, while second class is a four-birth cabin. It’s cozy and similar to the Niece to Moscow train we caught from Warsaw, with the beds just a little more narrow.
Third class is all in the carriage with no closed doors. The seats convert into beds and is the cheaper more popular option for most Russians.
They say:
“In a forest of a thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. Similarly, no two journeys along the same path are alike”.
Here we are experiencing this grand journey on the Trans-Siberian and no matter what our journey brings, it will never be the same as another.
On the train there are not too many places to go to except your cabin, the hallway, in between carriages and the dining cart.
The scenery is a rotation between small villages, train stations and snowy trees/bare lands. After a while the novelty wears off, but from time to time there is something that grabs our attention and whenever a new person boards the train it feels like they are entering our family (as strange as that sounds).
The people in the cabin next to us is a group of four friends travelling together. Harry and Diane from the UK are both journalists, Paola (polish is married to Harry) and Max who is originally from the UK but lives in Tokyo. We met with them the first night at the restaurant cart and ended up staying until late playing cards over drinks.
On our other side there was a lovely Russian couple from Omsk, also with two young boys (6yrs and 3yrs). We exchanged contact details and hopefully will stay in touch in the future.
On the second night, we thought we’d have our free meal that they offer on board. We were disappointed as it was horrible!
We ended up going to the dining cart. We bought a bottle of Georgian wine. Unfortunately they did not have a bottle opener (go figure!). The lady signalled “one moment” and left with our bottle of wine. After a few minutes she walked passed with some pliers and a screw driver. From that moment we knew we would be having corked wine. We tried to signal to her that we probably didn’t want the wine anymore, but it was no use.
Corked wine it was. Nevertheless, it served as a good laugh and something we will remember for a long time.
The restaurant staff weren’t what you’d say extremely expressive, but they were amicable and with our limited language communication we were able to grasp their humour and friendly nature.
We tried to get off the train everytime it stopped for around 20mins in order to go for a quick walk and breath in the very dry, fresh, cold air. Nearly everyone on the carriage got off to stretch their legs. It was a mix of smokers and those just wanting to wander up and down the platform. I found that it was a nice gathering of us all and it almost became a ritual to greet your fellow traveller at each stop.
On the third day a man arrived onto the train, in the carriage next to ours – he took over where the lovely family from Omsk had been. He was an intetesting man but quite strange. He had limited social awareness. He greeted us in Russian and commenced having a conversation. We tried very hard to comprehend and even got google translate, but with little reception, it was useless. He plonked himself on the seat next to me and was telling us something that seemed very important to him. Everytime we shrugged our shoulders and said we didn’t understand he would roll his eyes in frustration. He then lifted his sleeves and showed us a tattoo of a parachute he had on his left arm. Pointing to the boys who were in their own world watching a movie he was chatting passionately.
Jason made out that he was trying to communicate that he had served in the army and was part of the forces sent to save the children in the Beslan school siege in 2004. Once we affirmed we had understood, he seemed relieved. He was a troubled soul and I imagined that an event like that would have definitely scarred him.
He continued to talk but this time he was whispering and and shut the door of our cabin. This is when I started to feel uncomfortable. Not only did he invite himself into our cabin, but now closed the door and started to behave oddly. We got the Google Translate out again to see if it worked. We set it to ‘conversation’ and it picked up:
I’ll just take your wife.
From then I wanted him out of the cabin! I took my Google translate to the lady and told her that the man made me feel uncomfortable. No other words were needed and she came to the rescue and asked the man to leave in the most polite manner possible!
We went to get dinner at the restaurant cart again and from what we heard, the same man had just left the cart after causing a little bit of a scene and had to be escorted back to his room. We felt sad for him because he probably just wanted company but he was troubled and seems to seek comfort in alcohol. I hope he finds what he’s looking for.
As we progressed into Siberia it got colder and drier outside. It was also crazy to see how the window to our room froze up from the condensation. Towards the last night the doors leading into the next carriages were so frozen up and that some of them stopped opening. We got stuck at one point coming back from the dining carriage and the maintenance guy had to come and fix it.
We were getting close to Irkutsk and I was slightly nervous about what was to come. We were going to be picked up by a man from Eastories and I was hoping he would be there!
Family Excursions Abroad 