Monday, March 16, 2015

Travelling the Trans-Siberian Railway















"What does a Trans-Syberian journey consist of?" you might ask. For every person travelling, the answer is different. But what is it like for me or the group I travelled with? For the matter, I can speak only of the half of the journey. I only did three-four days of traveling with my group as our end destination was Abakan, not Vladivostok. Still, having a few thousand kilometres of travelling the Russian railway under my belt, I think I can give you one answer.

On our journey while sitting on the train, there were lots of chess and card games, discussions, lots of playing guitar and singing and having fun. Mix all that with some good nights sleeps, naps in the day time and a bit partying and drinking beer and you get the idea. And theres one thing I forgot to mention: the stoppings at train stations. 

When the days consisted of only sitting on a bench or laing down on the bed, of almost thirty people being cramped into a small smelly place, you began to really appreciate the possibility of going outside the train. When the train stopped at stations, there was usually a ten minute pause and we would have a walk and breath some fresh air. Also the trains stations were good places to buy some food and snack for the journey (meals were not included on the price of the ticket, but there was a restaurant wagon at the train).

During the train journey some us also read quite a lot and many people (not all) had books with us. Some had also diaries and you can believe there was a lot of time to concentrate on your own projects whatever they might be - writing diary, scribbling ideas to a notebook, texting your friends or just enjoying yourself.

For me , the journey quickly became like one kind of meditation: all day long we were just sitting around and seemingly not moving, just staying at one place, and still you knew you were all the time moving and going forward wand nearing your end destionation, which was the train station at Abakan














All in all, the journey, having been really nice and wonderful, felt really anything that super super special in the end. Like with many dreams and fantasies, we imagine these dreams and fantasies in our minds with more romance than what they are really like in real life.

For example, when on the train, I had to constantly remind myself that this really was the Trans-Syberian train I was travelling, a life-long dream for many, and that I was to appreciate it really much to have this chance to ride it. And one thing is for sure though, I will never regret riding it as I'm sure none of us in our group will.


No comments:

Post a Comment