Krasnoyarsk to Yeketerinburg

It took a further journey of 36 hours, 2284 kilometres and 2 time zones to leave Siberia. It was also a time to sample some more Rusian traditions. Pine nuts from cedar cones and then two dishes in the restaurant car. Pork fat with salted cucumber and herring with potato and onion. Both washed down with vodka. They went together well.

I shared the compartment with Sergey and his son Stas. Stas had been visiting grandparents in Krasnoyarsk and his father was returning him to Moscow by train because his mother didn’t want him to fly. Sergey was keen to try out his English learned at military school in Saint Petersberg some years ago and very curious about the Brexit world.

The landscape was starting to change. More frequent villages, a wider variety of crops in allotments, an occasional main road with lorries and cars. The remoteness of eastern Siberia was beginning to disappearing.

At Marlinsk there was time for a walk around the station and at Novosibursk, in the early hours of the morning, we were joined by Natasha and her 2 year old daughter Iyra. It’s surprised me how soon I’ve got used people joining and leaving the kupe in the middle of the night. Just part of live on the train.

It was the train with the most international travellers. In the corridor I met a Phd student from Shanghai studying freak waves. He was on his way to Moscow. There were two men from Australia  who had travelled from Beijing and two women from Luxembourg who had also been in Vladivostok on the 1st August. It pleasant to chat for awhile, but not too long. My kupe companions were very entertaining.

At 22.07 we arrived in Yeketerinburg and I was met at the station by Nataly and Victor, the family of friends in Dubai.