Life on the train

The first night, it seemed I would have the compartment for myself. Not what I expected, even though it was low season. As I would tumble in and out of sleep, however, a fellow passenger arrived, who, as I would discover the following morning, was an old lady who spoke nothing but Russian.

Getting a good night's sleep, or what was left of it, proved to be a challenge. Whenever the train had to lose speed reaching one of its stops, it would make a low and quite loud creaking sound. Nothing I shouldn't have expected, since my train #44 is one of the older ones on the Trans-Siberian railway. But there were a lot of stops, even during the night. Long live earplugs!

My first day on the train started slowly and comfortably. The first thing to do was taking a look out of the window and I was greeted by a white landscape, mostly woods, sometimes little clusters of houses and barns, more often than not brightly coloured. And snow, snow everywhere! Every year I'd wish for a proper winter and it seemed this time I'd get it, even if it meant going many kilometres away from home. Twice that day we crossed a broad river completely covered by ice and snow.

The old lady I shared my compartment with was a quiet companion, though that might had something to do with the fact we didn’t have a language in common. I'm glad I took the time to learn at least a bit of Russian. Even so, whenever I told people - in Russian - that I don't speak Russian, this was met with different responses.

A raised eyebrow, an understanding look, but most often people just decided to continue speaking to me, in Russian. Sometimes they tried speaking louder, or slower, which didn’t help me at all, though I could appreciate the intent. It’s quite different from the Netherlands, where you can expect almost everyone to speak at least a few words English. Overall, it was quiet in our carriage. Almost none of the compartments were full, but the occasional conversation and Russian radio made for a nice atmosphere. I was right not to have high expectations of the toilets... but well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Apart from being old and noisy, this train wasn't built for tall people as well. Back in the Netherlands, I'm of average height, and I'm actually the shortest in my family, but my feet easily reach the end of the bed. The interior of the wagon is like the train in the Harry Potter movies: a long small hallway, sliding doors to the compartments, each with four beds, two lower bunks and two upper. Once every while a woman with a cart full of snacks for sale passes by. Sadly, no chocolate frogs or pumpkin pastries, but just the ordinary kind, though that didn't stop me from buying some.

I used one of the stops of the train to get out, stretch my legs and get some fresh air. Every day, the train would stop for a few times: sometimes only for 1 or 2 minutes, which meant we weren’t allowed to go out of the train. But when a stop was 10 minutes or longer, The weather was lovely, briskly cold, blue skies, bright sun. Inside the train, it was almost tropical, at least 23 to 26 degrees if it wasn’t more. Sunlight made it even hotter inside the train.

Around three o'clock, it seemed time for dinner. My ticket included one meal, which was brought to the compartment. First, a bag with which I think was meant for dessert: a granola chocolate bar, another tiny chocolate bar, fruit yoghurt. Since I was quite hungry, I ate dessert first. Later came the main meal, after the serving lady went through a whole lot of trouble to make sure I knew I could choose between chicken or pork, even though she didn't speak English. The meal came with two pieces of Russian bread: very stiff and quite sour.
The old lady gave me one piece of her bread with a huge chunk of cheese she brought with her, and gave me half of her apple as well, though she refused anything I offered her. As soon as it got dark, life on the train became quiet, even though it was not yet 6 o'clock. The old lady went to sleep and it seemed she wasn't the only one. That and the fact that it was already dark, gave me the feeling it was already very late, though the hours had no hurry to pass by.