Train to Moscow (86 hours)

We're catching the train to Moscow at 4:20pm today (Sept 22) and arriving September 25th. This is the longest train ride of our journey. We won't be posting for at least 4 days...

UPDATE:
Phewww! That was a long ride!

Unfortunately, when we bought our tickets, the train was nearly full and we ended up in separate 'rooms'. My roommates consisted of 3 Russians (one married couple and a 20-something girl). All pretty normal besides the cat the girl brought.


Mary started with 3 construction workers, that smelled something terrible! They got off at one of the stops and were replaced by two Russian boys in their 20's. They enjoyed their drink and wanted to share, so we indulged them with a few shots of vodka, but mostly left them on their own - they couldn't quite handle their own medicine, passed out, and later vomited on the floor; another nice smell in Mary's compartment. This didn't deter them since at 7 am the next morning they were back into the beer!


The final roommates that we had the pleasure of meeting (I joined Mary's room by this time) were a Russian couple that could speak some English (Andriy and Helena). Our guess was that they were run-aways wanting to get married but the girl's parents wouldn't allow it. They were both odd, but the guy was the weirdest of the two. He went on about being a singer 10 years ago (he was at least 10 years older than Helena). Helena did a lot of translating since she knew more English. Both were very friendly and they bought some wine for us all to share. He offered cigarettes to us, but we said we don't smoke; so his question to us, "Why not?". We gave him some stuff about lung cancer, smelling bad, yellow teeth, etc. In Canada at least, most people, even smokers, know that smoking is unhealthy - not this guy. He tried to explain to us that smoking helps your brain remember how to breath, something about yawning in there too, and a bunch of other garbage. He was thoroughly convinced it was good for him. We couldn't argue much because of the language barrier, so we gave up and labeled him a nutter.

Our 6 year anniversary was held on board the train Baikal; pot noodles celebrated the occasion. We told Helena and Andriy as much, and early the next morning (4:00am) when all were sleeping (except Andriy since he "only sleeps 2 hours a day"), he gave Mary a gift for us...see the photo below for our 'new' serving tray (conveniently forgotten on the train). At that time, he also quizzed her on her knowledge of the Ural Mountain anthem; he was shocked to learn Mary didn't know it - fortunately he didn't try to sing.

When we got to Moscow, we had some trouble finding a place as we wandered the city for 5 hours before settling at the Traveler's Guesthouse. More to come on Moscow later.