Juna kulkee

Written in Kathmandu, in a country with 0km railway network

It used to be a distant dream. After having decided to travel around the world starting from the east it became a fascinating opportunity. In September, more than half a dozen of my friends had told me they have no chance to share it with me. In October I was lucky enough to find Olli with mutual interest. It became reality. And now we have done it! We travelled trough Siberia by train.

Let me take you to the world of life on train. A logical way to start this great journey was to book the Tolstoi train from Helsinki to Moscow. 13 hours sounded like a long time, but as you can imagine; There was more to come! These two travellers had met each other only once before their departure so the first night included of course getting to know each other. For example, they hadn’t evenn passed Lahti (1hour away) when Timo told Olli about his visual imparement.

(BTW, for those of you who believe I consider myself a Very Important Person in this blog, I have to tell that VIP refers to Visuaaly impaired Person in this context! This has sth to do with the URL also. More explonations will follow…)

Anyways, Moscow was in front of their eyes sooner than imagined. And as realized afterwards, the border formalities between Finland and Russia are super FAST!

Tolstoi train bottom 2:First feelings of approaching language barriers and missing something very special back home.

Tolstoi train top 2: BON_VOYAGE!

Ok, after a warm up train and some preparation time in Moscow the day finally came. On January 28^th 2014 at 13:10 from Kazan station was the Transsiberian train number 82 to leave to Ulan Ude, Siberia. Two excited travellers with backbags full of noodles, fruits and of course Vodka hopped on train ready to stay there for the next 80 hours. These dudes were glad to realize that one of them had accidently booked  a two-bed cabin that would mean extra pivacy! And whops, the water boiler tank was just opposite of the door. That meant lot of tea and easy noodle cooking.

One of the guys had a busy fall semester with finishing his studies. There was a lot of things he had not read and a lot of unfinished thoughts. Train number 82 was the solution for this. Soon after Moscow time kind of lost it’s meaning (also due to the changing time zones). So it was easy to read, sleep, eat, play cards or meditate whenever without any rush or hurry. For the guys a great train journey meant pleasure and absolute relaxation!

The temperature on the train was +25 so short trousers were the natural dress code. In Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk the dudes hopped off the train to -25 degrees. Dress code was different and after having bought more grossaries and drinks from the kiosks it felt just awesome to return “home”.

In summertime the Transsiberian experience is said to be more social due to more travelers. This time these two lads seamed to be only people on the train with English knowledge. This included also the train staff. But with so much activities like described before, this was no problem!

Couple more daily rituals were the wagon aunty coming to their cabin to hoover the floor, a nap in sunshine after lunch and of course a zip of vodka before hitting the heys. Let us not forget gazing the winter wonderland outside and reading facts about the passing villages from the guidebook.

Train 82 b2: Bathroom conditions and Irkutsk approaching too fast

Train 82 t2: Freedom and relaxation.

Part of travellig is packing and unpacking. Latest at this time the fellows understood there would be lot of his ahead. After seeing Siberian banya, bandy game and Lake Baikal it was time to head to Mongolia! The third train ride was only bit more than one thousand kilometers but the border made it feel like the previous train. Crossing the border took altogether 8 hours! The guidebook’s advice to finish all unread books seamed very realistic. Also time for naps was in use in between the many passport checks. This time the guys were almost only passangers in the whole wagon. UB was reached at 5 am after “a kind” feminder by the train aunty. Another part of great adventure was over.

Irkutsk-UB train bottom2: Border controls and again, bathroom conditions!
Top2: All the space and reaching 30^th country!

Part 4, welcome to China! & Part 5 Brathing extra oxygen on the way to Tibet….

…COMING UP! STAY TUNED''

Timo