Day 6 - Novosibirsk

28.08.09

Today is Igor's dad's birthday and so after a late wake up from the late night mosquito blood bath and vodka drinking session, we get up and have breakfast, wish him a happy birthday and drink some water!

We also have a walk to the shops with Igor's older brother Dimitri and between the three of us buy his dad a new fishing rod for his birthday, which he is very pleased about.
I also attempt to have a conversation with Igor's little brother Nikolaj, my Russian now consists of about 10 words so the conversation goes no where fast and we resort to the universal form of made up sign language.

I also get talking to Igor's dad today and he shows me his wounds from a grenade in Afghanistan and bullet wounds in his leg from another time. It turns out he was in the Russian version of the SAS and was a Colonel I think. He had his own men and was known to never lose anyone on missions. His knowledge of survival is astounding and he values his training highly, he now teaches survival at the local school. I'm guessing it's similar to having classes at school which are like being taught at the scouts except a lot more in depth and by an SAS Colonel.

Day 5 - Novosibirsk

27.07.09
The train network throughout Russia runs on Moscow time which means when we get off our train at 7am it immediately becomes 3 hours later and is Novosibirsk time. We get off the train and are greeted by Igor's dad waiting at the platform, him and his son both having a smile ear to ear for seeing each other for the first time in 9 years. We grab a lift to his flat in Berdsk, which is about 30mins or so across the river from Novosibirsk. We have what we have both been eagerly waiting for for 3 days, a shower!

After some food and a chat all in Russian so Igor is once again translating, we head to the beach on the river, which is only 10mins walk away. So we are well into Siberia and there isn't a bit of snow in sight. It's hotter than UK, you need sunglasses it's so bright and there isn't a cloud in the sky. We go swimming in the river and drink beer and Vodka on the beach. It's a lovely way to end 55 hours sat and doing all your activities in an area less than the size of a single bed. As the sun sets we drink away and some of Igor's dad's friends come and join us and play guitar and sing songs on the beach. A great night, the only downside is that I didn't think Siberia would be prone to mosquitoes so I left all my repellent in the bag at the flat. The next day I look like I have chicken pox on my arms and have fed about 50,000 flying blood suckers.

Day 3,4&5 - 3335km on a train

25.07.09


So we got on the train last night at a station in Moscow. On Russian sleeper trains there are 4 different classes: 1st class or SV, which is the top and compartments of 2 beds; 2nd class , tourist or Kupe, which has compartments of 4; Plaskartny, which is essentially 3rd and is a wagon of open plan beds; and the bottom one which is just unreserved seating. All the guide books and internet basically say the same thing, go for SV if you can or Kupe should be good enough, don't do Plaskartny for anything longer than a day and if your a tourist then avoid it. We obviously went for the Plaskartny for our 3 night journey.

The train wasn't actually that bad at all. It was open plan with bunks of two running across the train and then a corridor at the foot of the bed with bunks of two running down the length of the train. It was clean when we got on, quite cosy and I couldn't lie outstretched on the bed or my feet stuck out into the corridor. It was interesting as a lot of people seemed to have this problem and as the top bunk was at my head height, moving the carriage later in the evening meant dodging bare feet or getting them in the face.

We were stocked up on fruit, noodles, porridge, bread and enough food to last us to Novosibirsk and back. Usually having porridge for breakfast, bread and soup for lunch and maybe noodles for dinner or buckwheat porridge. I was also given some traditional Russian food to try by some older guys on the train.


We made friends with the people who slept opposite us, one getting off the night before us and one taking the train to its final destination. Pacha and Inya, they were really nice and gave us food to try and we ended up sharing all our food together mostly. They didn't speak any English, so found my Russian attempts amusing and also tried to help me out with my learning.




Opposite us and spread throughout the carriage were around 6 old men who got together every meal time and made a communal salad or a dish called okroshka, which is a salad made of vegetables and dill, sour cream and then turned sort of a cold soup, by adding a brewed drink called kvas. They chatted away to Igor about a whole host of subjects, one of them an engineer and one was an academic and had lots of information to convey.



It was quite weird being on a train for so long and totally messed with the UK conception of a train journey, which if your going very far might last for 8 or 9 hours. This one on the other hand was about 55 hours, and people lived their lives and they daily routines. As Igor put it, it was a stationary microcosm of people living and eating, sleeping and doing their daily business, but on a platform that was hurtling at probably over 100km in the middle of no where. There were the family dramas and incidents in some cars with people arguing and so many stories. On the final night we were having a midnight cup of tea in the restaurant car with a girl who worked the car and she was explaining the situation's history, when right before our eyes it played out, the classic 'man loves a woman but she doesn't like him and goes off with someone else in front of his eyes'.

It was definitely a train journey to remember, but I wasn't even half way to Vladivostok

Day 2 - Moscow

24.07.09

Moscow sights in a day!

Yesterday we took a whizz around some of the mahor sights in the evening and today we will finish what we started and then jump on a train in the middle of the night for a 3335km journey across Russia to Novosibirsk.

Today we see the Red Square and all the classic tourist sights. We take a trip on the Metro, the stations are amazing and put any underground station I've ever seen to shame. They are grand and have arches and decorative work and you think you are in some kind of great hall, not pubilc transport.

Slava is such a great host and he makes me feel so at home. He tried to give me an african mask as a gift but realised I wouldn't be able to transport it all over on my travels, so I have a some food and some Russian antiseptic liquid which you can also use to oxygenate your skin and on open wounds to stop the bleeding, I think it is from the military. It also turns out that he was in the Russian form of the SAS and now works in security. Handy guy.

He gives us a breifing on safety on the train and how to behave and different points on staying safe. He says I need to have a manly assertive posture about the way I walk in Russia and especially on the train to avoid being bothered.

We get on the train to Novosibirsk and start our epic journey at 12.30am. 3 nights and 2 days across Russia and 3 time zones. Epic.

Day 1 - The plane

23.07.09
The plane to Moscow was fine, apart from a man who sat in the seats in front. He was going to Moscow and then flying onto Novosibirsk, this was his sixth trip and he came for medical research work. His Russian was ok but not great according to Igor, enough to get by but not to express himself or get in with the culture and people. Even though he had been to Russia 5 times previously, he had never stopped in Moscow longer than a few hours at the airport before his next flight. His words to me were, be carefull it's dangerous, I'm lucky to have a native speaker, if any woman tries it on with me in the first day then she is on the game, the people are not hospitable to foreigners, be carefull of the racism and watch for the police. So all in all, he didn't really have much to say that was good about the place and was on a constant spell of negativity.

When we got off the plane we were greeted by Slava, who served with Igor's dad in the army. He immediately contradicted the plane man's attitude and was so hospitable. We were also greeted by Illya who drove us back to Slava's flat via some Moscow sights. Illya could speak some English so I was attempting to give him some chat and Igor was translating between me and Slava.

After we set down our bags they took us on a tour of Moscow by night and drove us around lots of different sights, we also went to the train station and bought our tickets to Novosibirsk, the train leaving the next night at 12.30am.

The day before

The first post and am I sitting in the living room. Our possessions laid out across the kitchen table, the same question keeps coming to mind, do I really need that.
For what could be a 4 or 5 month journey, 3 pairs of boxers, 3 socks, 3 t-shirts, a shirt, a jumper, pair of shorts, a pair of trousers, what I leave the house in and a jacket doesn't seem like much. In fact it's probably the lightest I have ever packed for a holiday/journey, but my bag seems to be weighed down with my 'essential' tropical zone kit. Mosquito repellents and a mosquito net, sun tan lotion, iodine and neutralisation tablets, rain covers and dry bags, an extensive first aid kit, 4 months of malaria tablets, in my head it's all needed, but when you aren't even going to be thinking of using it for several weeks, it takes up a lot space. Along with some travel books, various toiletries and bits and bobs, and a daysac, the whole thing weighs in at 18kg. I definitely have too much stuff and will be throwing things away or posting them back within a few weeks.

A 8.30am leave for the airport tomorrow morning and a flight out of Heathrow that lands in Moscow at about 7pm. It's the start of an epic adventure and hopefully one that will be an exciting and wonderful experience.

The plan is to stay in Moscow for a couple of days with Igor's friends and then travel 3335km across Russia to Novosibirsk to Igor's dad's home.

Watch this space.