The Great Ride

So there I was, settled with my 3 coupe-partners, ready for our 4 days train ride to Mocsow. Stanislaw was only there for the first night, Olga untill later that day, but Rimma stayed with me during the whole trip. In spite of all the crazy transsiberian experiences you read and hear about, Rimma was not the one to make my trip. Out of her bags there came no sausages, dried fish, cookies and bottles of vodka. No, Rimma just sat there quietly, enjoying her tea and staring at me...

But, one door down, in the other wagon, there were Natalia and Ira, who did live the true transsiberian experience.. Dressed in their 'we-are-on-a-4-day-trainride' outfit (which means leopard skin tights and zebra striped shirt for the one and silk pyjama-like shirt for the other), this accopanied by colourful socks and slippers. Since my own roommate could note provide with my so hoped transsib. exp, they did.
the vodka was opened at noon during lunchtime (which is in Russia a bigger thing than dinner) and if you had too much of it the evening before, you got a shot in the morning, vodka cures everything.
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While the landscapes passed by, the nights fell and the mornings came. On our 10 to 20 minutes stops old ladies from the villages supplied us with home made potatoes, buckets of berries and other Russian specialties to go with my instant noodle dishes Thousands of kilometers of forest, riversa and villages with wooden houses and rural life, brought us in the early morning to Moscow.

Moscow is different kind of Russia. But with the warmhearted hospitality from Wasili, I am enjoying the Russian city life for the moment, until my trip continues further West.