"And welcome to your destination! The appliance store!"
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"Oh that little cybercafe, we've walled that off for your convenience!"
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Disappointed, I walk out and find more of the jolly man. Here he's jokingly pointing toward another staircase. "Ha ha buddy, just joking... it's this way."
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Finally, I find the place... and as always, get the heavy tourist tax for my English.
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At the somewhat scary hour of 3:15 am, I go to the train station
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Yet another confusing thing about "centralized" Russia... all trains operate on "Moscow time." This means that my #10 train from Moscow-Irkutsk (4th line) that leaves at 1:52 really leaves at 3:52 local time (Yekaterinburg is +2 hours from Moscow)!
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A kitschy chandelier with even kitschier hammers and sickles hangs above the train entrance.
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The #10 Moscow-Irkutsk train is the most touristy on the Trans-Siberian line. It is a four day ride (but my ride is only 50 hours since I'm leaving from Yekaterinburg).
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The train is replete with a relatively nice restaurant.
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These are the available (non-chilled) drinks.
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Michelle is the only female solo backpaker I meet. For an American, she is very cool. She left Prague after teaching music for 7 years and is en route of a 6 month backpacking trek... from Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, SE Asia... and then island hopping her way to Hawaii before beginning graduate school!
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The days on the train are very long... and as we cross into Siberia, very hot!
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I meet even more American tourists. These girls are from Boston on a 6 month trip. Astoundingly, I meet more Americans than any other nationality, and never meet any Germans or any Australians on the whole trip!
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We begin to cross the Irtysh River... replete with a gigantic manufacturing center.
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Evidence of Russia's oil wealth can be seen all over the Trans-Siberian.
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My couchette-mates are all Russian. Sergei, on the right, also accuses me of being a spy! The garish woman on the left, I think, swiped $200 from one of my bags while I was out.
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The train stops for a few minutes, and people stock up!
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The Omsk train station...
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...with its very common aqua blue paint.
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Our provodnitsa busts out the Baltika!
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At some point on the trip, Michelle has about $600 stolen from her. We all speculate later that it was our party-friendly provodnitsa.
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On this trip, some very atypically social Russians greet us. Elena "the sports lady" has just taken some students to an athletic competition.
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At another stop, we find a series of shops...
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...all with Western-style food products.
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People take a break by the restaurant car.
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Some passengers take the opportunity to buy some smoked fish...
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...as has this very excited Bostonian!
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The utter boredom can make you obsess over small things...
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...or lead one to drink the time away.
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I'm very excited for the stop at Krasnoyarsk!
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I drag Michelle with me...
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...to have a look at the splendid square...
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...and the crazy Commie murals!
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Lenin and I are reunited at long last!
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Back on the train, the samovar provides some much needed tea!
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As always, the instructions for the mechanics are detailed beside it!
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You can't go too far down the line to see the smoke stacks. Russia has one of the worst environmental records of any nation on earth!
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But the vastness of nature somehow seems to dwarf the disasterous effects.
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Later, we go to the platskartny (3rd class) carriage, and find this little boy bouncing all over the place.
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Elena "the sports lady" shows off her champion student.
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