The next leg of our journey takes us from Beijing to Moscow via the week-long Trans-Siberian train. We battle the Beijing metro crowds again to get to the central Beijing train station. But what a cool place at night! Our train leaves at midnight so we have some time to enjoy the scene and let the majority of the crowds scamper off to their destinations.
We've got seven full days on the train heading west until we get to Moscow so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. We stop at small train stations (sometimes just a platform) every few hours to drop off and pick up a couple of passengers. But it seems like the train is mostly empty for this trip. Definitely a quiet and welcome change from the cruise ship and China cities.
Good-bye shower, hello wet-wipes. While we splurged for a train cabin of our own, the shared bathrooms are quite small with a tiny little sink barely big enough to brush your teeth. There's definitely no showers and no room to be doing laundry this week. Time to put our 'roughing it' tent camping experience to use - at least we're not sleeping on the ground.
Our cabin is too small for 7-minute exercises this week and we would look too silly doing lunges down the hallway. We're definitely going to need to get back on the exercise program in Moscow since we are living mostly on train station junk food this week. Here's what our snack stash looks like to start the trip. In case you can't read the label that's Italian Meat Sauce flavored chips there. Mmmmm... meaty.
We cross the China-Russia border at 4am on our second night on the train. At least 20 different stern Chinese and then Russian officials tromp through our train car to check our passports, scrutinize our visa documents and search our luggage. Note to everyone... do not try to smuggle anything into Russia via the Siberian train - they are very thorough. I have no idea what we would have done if our documents weren't in order and we were thrown off the train. Whew! We passed smoothly through what we worried would be one of our more nervous parts of the trip - crossing into Russia.
While the section of China we rode through was developed with manufacturing and farm land, the eastern Russian section has been mostly wilderness. We pass through a small town every few hours and so we are able to get out for some fresh air, a quick walk, some local scenery and a snack restocking.
We spend our days watching the fall countryside go by, drinking an exorbitant amount of hot tea, reading our Kindles and playing cards. Talk about totally getting away from the bustle of a technology-filled life. We're enjoying another stretch of unplugging but it feels like the complete opposite of the cruise. We have the entire train car to ourselves instead of sharing a boat with 2500 other travelers. We completely stay in our little train cabin instead of wandering in and out of cruise ship lounges. We nibble on junk food instead of trying to control ourselves in front of buffets of food. And we lounge around in our comfy clothes instead of pulling out the fancy pants for dinner. Here I am taking advantage of the train's all-you-can-drink hot water buffet.
The train does have a Russian restaurant car so we stash away the junk food for one night and check it out. The highlight is definitely the borscht - a beet, potato and beef soup. Very tasty and much lighter than I expected. We might have to try and figure out that recipe when we get home so if you have a killer borscht recipe send it on over.
And guess who we met on the train? Another couple on an around-the-world journey! No way!! Meet Joan and Ron from Vancouver. They were on the same Pacific crossing cruise as we were two weeks ago (but we didn't know it), are on the same Trans-Siberian train this week and will be on the same Moscow-Warsaw train next week. They're touring western Europe after Moscow instead of eastern Europe like we're doing. Then they'll cross the Atlantic on a repositioning cruise in November. Just like we will (but on a different ship)! A car and a train ride across the US will complete their circuit back to Vancouver. I guess we weren't the only ones to come up with this crazy idea. Now the around-the-world travel agency we start after this journey will have a west coast office.
We spend an evening in the dining car with Joan and Ron talking about logistics and drinking beers. Then a couple of Russian passengers who spoke a little bit of English joined in and things moved from beers to vodka to cognac. Ouch. Good thing we can just lay around in our little cabin and recover the next day.
With the help of our new Russian drinking friends, we picked up a few phrases like 'good day' and 'thank you' and of course 'cheers'. Other than that, we've found very little English speakers or signs here in Russia so far. While no one has been as accommodating as the Japanese, traveling through China and Russia has been very manageable. Hooray for the Google translate app!
We're over a month into the trip now, crossing five more time zones and two more countries. This traveling is beginning to feel like our 'normal' life and we don't miss our home nearly as much as we thought we would. We're getting use to ordering weird food in different languages, unpacking our stuff in our new hotel home for the week and reading the maps to trek us to our next destination. Maybe we humans are just very adaptable creatures that can handle as much change as is thrown at us. Maybe anything can become normal with enough time and repetition. Maybe... but I still don't think Brian can talk me into this nomadic lifestyle full-time.
By the way, after 37 stops, 5,600 miles and 7 non-stop days of traveling, the Trans-Siberian train arrives in Moscow exactly 1 minute ahead of schedule. Try and do that traveling by plane.
"Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory." - Dr Seuss
More Food Pics
Every morning the food car lady would tempt us with some warm, fresh(ish) breakfast pastries. She called them Pirozhki (definitely had to look that one up for the spelling). We had one filled with ground beef and onions and one filled with mashed potatoes.
More starch food filled with starches. These are little steamed dumplings (dumplings!) filled with mashed potatoes that we picked up at one of the train platform shops. Not much flavor going on there (maybe we missed ordering a garnish or sauce). But if you love very plain food this would be right up your alley.
It would be uncivilized to have tea without some type of snacks. Here is sunflower seed peanut brittle we picked up at one station. Very tasty... salty and lightly sweet. Nuts are healthy, right?
Our grocery shopping this week looks like this. Look at all those potato chip options! At least we're starting to recognize the chip flavors now (bakon!)... looks like we've left the shrimp chips and seaweed chip varieties back in China.
Bun stuffed with pork and onions from a train station cafe. Might have been great for lunch but didn't quite hit the spot for breakfast with coffee.
More train station baked goods - they love their carbs here! This was very nice, if a bit plain, brown bread. Try as we might, we couldn't find any good looking jam to smear on it.
Here's a 'salad' from the Russian dining car on the train. It's apple slices and meat slices with a splat of plain mayo on top. So much for trying to eat fresh and healthy.
Brian is kind of excited to have a US-style snack - a king size snickers for about 75 cents. Hey, if you're going to eat junk for a week, go big.
