On #016 Ural to Yekaterinburg! I start to get anxious from the moment I stand by the train schedule display board – wondering who will be my cabin companion. I saw a family of a mother and two small children (please no..) and a group of fat old men (please no...) Luckily, it was Michael. A military officer, 37 years of age, born in Yekaterinburg, back to work from a vacation. There weren’t the most articulate of conversations but we managed to chit chat most of the long journey; about family, Russia, languages, jobs, music, food, etc.. with my very basic Russian and his also very basic English with our mutual best friend Berlitz Eng-Rus:Rus-Eng dictionary. This actually makes the conversations and their subjects automatically more genuine, unpretentious, optimistic and somewhat youthful; it's refreshing.
One of the great moments was when he requested that I’d eat with him; then he pulled out from his black holdall the following – a bag of coffee, a bag containing several tea bags, a bag of sugar, a row of UHT milk pots, napkins, instant noodle pot, a bag of roast pork, a bag of roast chicken thigh, a packet of pirogi, a bag of 4 boiled eggs, a bag of yellow and red tomatoes(dacha grown), a loaf of white bread and a packet of crackers!!!!! A meal for an emperor! Bless his mother.. What a shame I didn’t take a photo of this! And of course I couldn’t say no! Yum...
The train took a different route to the one I was expecting (as read in Trans-Siberian guide book); apparently, there are two routes – one via Perm, and one to the south via Kazan – mine took the latter, closer to the Volga river.
The highlight of the trip was when Michael woke me up as we were passing Kazan; earlier on he’d mentioned that the Kremlin in Kazan is beautifully lit at night. It was 4AM (I think) and definitely worth getting up for. Ah-Ra! Kazan! Kazan! Bstra bstra! It was absolutely stunning!!! I bet it is much more impressive than Moscow Kremlin...Again..didn’t get a chance to grab my camera!
Luckily for me and Michael, no other passengers joined the cabin, so it was more leisurely than perhaps with four people in the cabin. We exchanged email addresses and went on our separate ways. Another great meeting.
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| Moscow Kazanskaya Station |
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| I've learned the train customs...like the locals..tracksuit and slippers(preferably) |
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| just about...see...the..train.. |
Dearest Ah-Ra
ReplyDeleteH A P P Y B I R T H D A Y ! ! !
We wish you all the best. Missing you a lot. But thanks for letting us be part of the trip. Love hugs kisses Nesli/Florian/Jakub