March 28, 2001 (Day 21)

March 28, 2001 (Day 21): Approximately 1070 km east of Moscow near Kirov (European Russia) – 2.50pm (Moscow time)

Health: good.  I slept fairly well last night but am still tired. No concerns; I will have ample time over the next few days to catch up.

Morale: very good. While each part of this trip will have its own challenges, we have completed the part that I felt would be the hardest.  To my pleasant surprise, Moscow and St. Petersburg were not as difficult as I had allowed myself to believe – an impression fueled in large part by the media. As for ourselves, I think we have been very good at pacing ourselves. I was concerned that Anna would get worn out and, subsequently, ill but she seems to be doing all right. Communication between us was another concern. We had a heart-to-heart in St. Petersburg and things have been on a fairly even keel since then.

I knew that this trip was going to be tough on us a couple, but we are doing well. There are going to be good times and bad and we both know that. We have traveled together in close proximity before, granted not to such a great degree. We know what it will be like and we have made it through before.

Our home for the next several days is a small, two-bed cabin with dark, reddish-brown paneling and accented by the teal slip covers on the furniture. There are two single beds – one a pull-down bunk and another sofa / sleeping berth – a small table and a fixed chair across from the lower bed. A shared toilet is down the hall. There is a shower and basin cabinet that we share with the adjacent cabin. The cabin is about four feet wide at the narrowest (by the entrance to the shower) and five and one-half feet wide by the window. The ceiling is fairly high so the space doesn’t fell quite so cramped. Still, it can be a bit of a challenge if more than one person is moving about the room.

I should add that this is our second cabin. The door into the shared shower has a deadbolt lock with an alarm that sounds if someone in the adjacent cabin tries to enter your room. Our alarm would not stop howling. We fetched the attendant whose solution was to jam toilet paper into the lock mechanism. While it silenced the alarm it also prevented the deadbolt from being used. The attendant pleasantly pointed out this flaw, smiled, and gestured with his palms up as if to say, “Well, what can you do?” Despite the lack of a common language, I feel we managed to effectively communicate that this was not an acceptable solution for the next several days on the train. He begrudgingly moved us to another cabin down the hall. We have the advantage that the adjacent cabin is vacant, so we do not have to share the shower. The downside is that the light in the shower does not work. Fortunately, the cabinet has a frosted glass window that lets in enough light from the hallway but we won’t be showering after dark.

Breakfast was a cup of coffee (brewed using our ‘Coffee Survival Kit’) and a sweet roll as we sat watching forests of birch and pine, blanketed in snow, glide past our window.  The train murmured with the sound of a distant heartbeat.  We were warm and comfortable as powdery flakes freckled the dull overcast sky. The faint smell of coal from the samovars reminds us we should have no lack of hot water for our drinks.

Shocked by this sudden enforced downtime, I busied myself addressing a few issues around the cabin, mainly the most annoying rattles and squeaks. Channeling my inner MacGyver – armed with only my Swiss Army knife, surgical tape, one cotton make-up-removing pad, and the wrapper for a bag of jasmine tea – I was able to successfully address all major noises. All major noises, that is, except for the gentleman in a nearby room enthusiastically clearing his throat.

7.30pm (Moscow time) – Between Balezino and Perm (European Russia)

It is too dark to see the kilometer markers.

We explored the dining car and found it rather dark, smoky and, generally, uninviting. The plan is to fend for ourselves with vendors at the stations until we can’t take it any longer. I hopped off the train at Balezino to see what was offered at the kiosks on the platform. The variety of foods for sale is impressive. If the rest of the platforms are like this, we should have no problems supplying ourselves. One woman was selling bricks of gingerbread that I could not resist – quite tasty with a lovely apple filling.

There were also a vendor selling stuffed animals and a couple guys selling Lego-like toys. One of our fellow passengers took the opportunity to pick up a snazzy new meat grinder for himself, which I hope he will wait to use until after he leaves the train.

It has been snowing steadily all afternoon so some of the staff took the opportunity to have a snowball fight while they were changing locomotives.

I have set the alarm so that I will be awake as we cross into Asia. There is supposedly an obelisk marking the meeting place of the two continents, but I am not sure how much will be visible at night. Failing that, I hope to be awake to see Yekaterinberg (a.k.a. Sverdlovsk). Failing that, I guess I will wake up somewhere in Asia.

Excerpts from Anna’s journal included.

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