Monday:
This morning I had to get up very early as we were collected by our driver at 5.10am as the train was leaving Irkutsk station at 6am! On the train I'm with Cyril, who is also travelling to Vladivostock. Currently we have the cabin to ourselves. The cabin is very similar to to other trains that I've been on. It has space for four people on fourth berths. There is space to put bagagge under the bottom berths. The whole carriage is looked after by two carriage attendants and on this train there is man and a woman. They keep the place clean and sell drinks and snacks.
The landscape has changed from the shores of Lake Baikal to open steppe to rocky landscapes to slightly frozen rivers. The snow has come and gone.
The highlight of the day is when the train stops and mopst people get off for a smoke, as you're not supposed to smoke on the train, however I'm sure some do!
Ladies keep on coming up and down the carriage selling smoked omul and red cavier. I didn't get any as I think the cabin would have smelt of nothing else.
I'm glad that that I have basic Russian as the lady from the restaurant car has no English and when she came to ask what we'd like for lunch I wouldn't have understood otherwise. We got the choice of chicken, fish or pasta and I chose the chicken. This came with rice and beetroot.
As on the other trains I have been drinking copious amounts of herbal tea in the enamel mug that I brought from home. The hot water comes from the samovar at the end of the carriage that provides hot water all day.
We seem to be the only foreigners on the train.
Tuesday:
When I went to the restaurant car this morning I founjd out that the it was closed. The reason given was that there were lots of children that needed to be cooked for on the train, but I'm not sure if I believe this story. I had been looking forward to pancakes with jam but had to have a cereal bar and apple instead!
Bought a filled bread roll and picked gherkin from a lady selling food from a pram. She looked likme what I think might have been fish sticks but I'm not sure as I don't have enough Russian to understand what she might have told me!
I think that is is strange that you can cross the train tracks and don't need to use a bridge.
Not much use of personal protective equipment used by a man cutting branches with a chainsaw as I don't think that health and safety legislation has reached Russia yet.
Wednesday:
Today that we have been joined ny two Russians in the cabin! One arrived in the morning but has slept all day. It turned out that he was called Andrei and I think that he worked at his home but I'm not sure what. We had a brief caht, inbetween his rests, through the use of my basic Russian and my dictionary. The other chap was with his mother and sister. He wasn't interested in saying anything.
