Expatiperro

Long-distance train travel might be the ultimate test for restlessness. You're on a train for days at a time, confined to an 8 by 75 foot train car, except for the few precious stops that are long enough for you to run outside, stretch your legs, and buy fresh food to diversify your diet beyond the noodle ramen, over-priced dining car dishes, and vodka. In between those stops, you're left to your own devices. Reading is a popular pastime, as is card-playing, journal writing, and crosswording. The dining car becomes the social nexus of the train, unless you're lucky enough to have a compartment to yourself, in which case you can invite guests over to chat. But when it comes to external motivations and a wide variety of things to do, train travel isn't the best place to find those. Sanity is only guaranteed to those who can slow their minds down, develop routines, and find enjoyment in watching the landscape pass by.

All that time on the train leads to the a development of a community of Trans-Siberian travelers. After just a few hours on our first Russian train, we knew the names and stories of almost all the people in our car. There were are our cabin-mates, Charlotte and Andy, a friendly young British couple taking three weeks to travel across the Trans-Siberian before starting new jobs. There were the three Australians in the cabin next door, blasting pop music on their iPod speakers and dropping in repeatedly with invitations to join them in vodka shots. There were Cristina, the social center of the car, constantly popping her head into rooms to dish on the latest bathroom update (open, closed, closed unless you bribe) and pass the time chatting about anything. These were the faces we saw at almost every stop on the rest of the trip- despite Russia's size, the number of places of interest to tourists is pretty limited. Better to be friendly and take that vodka shot, if it means getting on well with your fellow travelers the rest of the trip.

After two days of riding the rails, we finally reached Yekaterinburg. Our 36 hour stop there wasn't so much to see the sights as it was to rest, wash clothes, shower, and move our legs. The town was cute- more cosmopolitan and commercialized than Irkutsk, friendly, though without a must-see attraction. Yekaterinburg is known for being the place where the last Tsar and his family were murdered, so we visited the church commemorating that event, as well as a small photography museum. Three hours of sightseeing in the bag, we returned to the hostel, relaxed and caught up on a good night's sleep, and the next morning hopped on our final major train leg of the trip, the express train to Moscow.