Beer in Russia

Finding beer between rows of vodka bottles were not easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

СИБИРСКАЯ КОРОНА Зодомцсмое, 4.0%, Моscow
СИБИРСКАЯ КОРОНА Кдассцческое, 4.0%, Моscow

Traveling on Trans-Siberian Railway: Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

Distance:  1,081km
Traveling time: about 26.5 hours
Time difference: -1 hour

Although before dawn, Irkutsk station was filled with a team of European backpackers, a group of Chinese tourists, and a gang of Mongolian natives returning home. We boarded the train already packed with people, and we found our cabin-mates sleeping soundly on top bunks. While we quietly stowed our luggage, one of the bunkers, a Mongolian man of our age woke up and we exchanged silent greetings. That was enough to made us feel easy and to be welcomed.

The train, most retro of all trains we have taken so far, has a Central-Asian taste to it's interior, from the curtain to seat covers. The guy who greeted us in the dark was apparently a leader to all Mongolian boarded on our car, as they came into our cabin for suggestions about where to hide illegal alcohol bottles for the customs, and to ask him to fill in declaration documents on behalf. As arrival time to the border came near we can feel more tention in the air, and then the conductor came around telling us all to get back in our cabin. The train slowed down with extended sound of metal scraping, stopped, and then another sound of metallic sound followed with a small shock. I peeked out the window between curtains, and saw a number of soldiers placed on the platform, ordering passengers to not look out the window. This is Naushki, the final station before leaving Russia by train, and where the customs procedure takes place. Soon after, a group of customs officers marched onto the car, one came into our cabin to ask for the passport. She looked through all of them, said with a commanding tone, "I take your passports", and left us with a big feeling of unease.

The train is scheduled to stay at this station for three and a half hours. After we surrender our identification, we are allowed to get off and walk around the platform. I looked to the head of the train, and noticed the locomotive was not there. The sound heard earlier was disconnecting us with power to move. After a while we were ordered to get back onto the train, and two and a half hour later, we received our passports back. Sahe and I mmediately checked inside for the stamp and felt safe again, but that was not the end. We were soon visited by a soldier asking us to vacate the cabin. She then tossed and turned the small room, checking every crack and corner. Possibly due to their possession of illegal amount of alcohol bottles, our roommates looked somewhat nervous, but none of the thirty-some bottles stashed were not taken away, and the search for unknown substance was now completed.

Leaving the southern edged station of the largest country, we soon came to the Russia-Mongolia border, visible from the speeding train window. It was another hour when we arrived the station, Sükhbaatar, for another immigration. Usually, entry procedure is more nerve-racking than departing, but handing over the passport to our fellow-Asian customs officer did not seem to worry us as much as it did 5 hours ago. Less than an hour, our passports were back in our hands, and we were officially admitted to our seventh country.

Back in Asia.

Ballad of Siberia

Irkutsk(Иркутская), the most popular stop in the great Siberian land for travelers, is a city located 60 km south-west of lake Baikal. Known for its deepest, clearest body of water, which totals to about 20% of world's unfrozen fresh water, the lake has many visitors all year around, and many tour trips are organized in this city, population of 600,000. The surface sizes at 31,500 square kilometers (339,000sq.ft), and the deepest end measures at 1,600km (1 mile). Most commonly visited is Olkhon island (Ольхон), however, we didn't have enough time as it takes from Irkutsk about 6 hours by bus that only runs once a day. Instead, we decided to visit Listvyanka (Листвянка), the town on the closest shore.

We check ourselves in at the guesthouse at 7:00, and the first thing we did was to shower for the first time in a week. Lack of sleep mixed with a refreshed feeling only led to an early nap. Our agenda of the day is to purchase bus tickets for Listvyanka, but in order to get to the center we had to take a local bus, and not being able to read or to have a bus map, this task can be tricky. They seem to not have a clear bus station(at least to us), and people hail these minivan type vehicles just about anywhere on the street. We jumped onto the one that seemed appropriate, looked around to see how much and when other passengers are paying the fare, and got off at a stop with everyone else, which was the downtown market area.

We walked to the bus station to purchase tickets, and then we stopped by at a post office to purchase two stamps. There, our patience was tested with people cutting in line and ended up waiting for an hour and a half. Later, we came back to the market to buy food for upcoming train ride, and this made up for our half-confused, half-culturally overwhelmed experience in the governmental organization.

The following morning was raining but we still went on our small trip to the world's famous puddle, and after an hour and a half on a minibus, we came to a shore. We were able to see nothing the lake is known for on this particular day, as the rain mudded the water, wind pounded waves to the shore, and the fog lessened the visibility. Nonetheless it was worth the trip. We walked around for a few hours and headed back to prepare for the final stretch on the Trans-Siberian Railway, on to Mongolia.

Traveling on Trans-Siberian Railway: Tomsk to Irkutsk

Distance:  1,541km

Traveling time: about 33 hours

Time difference: +2 hours

When deciding on our schedule, Sahe suggested Tomsk to be our place for the first stopover. The Russia's largest college town with 5 universities,  the city for the population of 470,000 is also known for the preserved traditional wooden houses with decoratively carved window casings, commonly seen in Siberian architecture. We walked around town, getting ourselves lost as always, and finding more than what was mentioned in the guide book. People appeared more friendly and less hesitant on speaking in English.

After buying food at supermarket for the train, we decided to eat at a Uzbekistan restaurant. I know nothing about this country. We ordered pilaf and fried noodles, and they were fantastic. I may have been expecting Middle Eastern flavor, but it was clearly Asian and this was such eye opening that made me want to go to one of the "...stan"s. Maybe from Urumqi we can cross the border into Kazakhstan. How can I convince Sahe to want to go there? When should I bring this up?

Our next train, leaving on the same day we arrived, was more retro than the one out of Moscow. When we walked into our cabin, there were already people putting away their luggage under the seats. We do the same, roll out a torn-up and dusty matress on the seat, cover it up with sheets and lay down, using the valuable bag as a pillow.

Counting sheeps for a few hours until the dawn. 

Traveling on Trans-Siberian Railway: Moscow to Tomsk

Distance:  3,644km

Traveling time: about 54 hours

Time difference: +3 hours

When we began discussing the plan for the journey over a year ago, traveling across the largest country by the railway was my first nomination for things to do, and we are at the train station in Moscow, waiting for the departure time. The presumption of this ride, put together from 15 minute Japanese TV shows about various train rides, is relaxed with soothing music in the background, and beautiful scenery passing through in a window like shuffle of paintings. However, after spending a full day in a monstrous city of Moscow, and now seeing many people squatting on a platform in front of luggage piled up like a fort, the reality of 3 day train ride was finally revealing itself . With our bags strapped to our back and front, we show our tickets and passports to the conductor, and squeeze through the narrow aisle into our 4-berth cabin. The train started to move slowly, and we realize we are the only ones in the cabin. After experiencing the difficulty of having two other guys in a tiny room, this was a treat. We took everything out of the bag and laid them out, as if we have claimed our territory. It is funny how such little thing can give one a sense of comfort.

The cabin comes with two sofa-beds, two folding bunks on top, a table with a cloth, sheets, blankets and towels. Since there is no shower, we wiped our bodies with wet towel, put on our comfy sleeping wear with sandals, and were all set for the long ride ahead, local style, learned from previous rides. The dining car seemed to have an elaborate menu, but we assumed from our experience on Scandinavian trains that it would be costly. We purchased bread and cheese, apples and cookies, and in addition we went to Asian market in Helsinki to stock up on noodles. Our portable pots certainly worked out well. Cups and mineral water should also be on the must-to-bring list.

Train stays only for a few minutes at some stations, and over half hour in others, enough to get off, stretch out, and have local people crowd you with souvenir. It was nice to have the schedule printed out in advance. Otherwise time passes slowly on a train that rides on average of 60km/hr(45mph). 

Our Fourth of July this year was without fireworks, booze, and friends/family; that's one thing to look forward to when we move to New York next year. 

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Day 2 at St. Petersburg, we continued to explore around the city until the departure of our train at 22:50. We ate borsch and stroganoff, not as expensive as we expected, and prepared ourselves for the journey ahead. The overnight train, our four-berth cabin bunked us two, a young kid, and an army doctor who was unable to speak English. Reading so many horror stories on being robbed on-board did not help me relax, but both turned out to be very friendly, and at one point I think I was discussing about Russian movies with the older guy.

Around 7:30 we arrived Moscow, the capital of the largest country where wealth and power may as well be the same word. As opposed to streets in St. Petersburg neatly alined, Moscow streets spread out from the center of the city, which makes difficult to follow where you are on a map, especially when you cannot read street names. We stepped into a nearest КАФЕ with wi-fi, ordered coffee and Russian pancakes, and stayed until we knew what out plans are, and ended up spending decent amount of time there. 

After Bolshevik gained power in 1917, the capital once moved to St. Petersburg was returned to Moscow. At this time, Josef Stalin, who was appointed as the general secretary of Communist Party, saw the need to rebuild and restructure Moscow. He then tore old and historical cathedrals and monuments down, and built neo-gothic skyscrapers and the metro system. This urbanification, apparently is what brought Russia's rapid growth in decades to follow, and is clearly visible in various parts of the city.

We made our big event of the day to be the visit to Kremlin, the center of Russia's political power. Compared to architecture in the preceding capital, ones in Moscow appear to be influenced by Asian and Arabic cultures along with Eurpoean influence. Red Square was filled with tourists, probably because it is Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, we saw a few models working on photo sessions. I was also amazed, after coming from Scandinavia where all stores close at 17:00, that people work late and on weekends. Perhaps Russians do have Asian blood in them afterall.

Chapter II: Great Siberia and Silk Road

-St. Petersburg

It was before 6:00 when we boarded the express train, Allegro, at Helsinki bound for east. The train slides out of the station soundlessly, and we start to feel the need for a morning nap when customs officer came around to check our passports. The Finnish officer check our status with a smile on his face and a gun on his waist, and seeing this certainly woke us up, but the newly stamped chop indicated that our departure procedure was completed.

We sit back and soon an announcement tells us that we are at Vyborg, the final Finland station on the border. Thetrains pulls out and as soon as it is at the top speed 5-6 officers in different uniform, with no smile walks into our car, one of them reaches the hand towards us and quietly but demandingly said, "passport". I guess this is the entry procedure. After thoroughly comparing our passports, visas, and our faces (well...especially mine) over and over again, we were officially admitted to Russia. 

Three and a half hour passed the departure, we arrived St. Petersburg, the cultural and historical capital of geographically largest nation. As we always do, we located lockers to leave our backpacks during the day, but with no English instruction. We asked a few people but no one spoke English. And so our actual journey begins. The 4th largest by population, the city loved by and inspired Russia's great artists, writers, and composers such as Dostoevsky and Chaikovsky. My first impression; European-style architecture surrounding open squares with large fountains, appeared to be a common atmosphere here.

We decided to first situate ourselves, but being illiterate, we looked for a cafe with a picture of a coffee cup. Hmm...КАФЕ...is this it? It took us some time and a whole lot of imagination to see РЕСТОРАН and be able to read restaurant out of it, but we decoded their alphabet by finding words we are familiar with. For example, we saw МАРКЕТ and it appeared to be a market, so Р is R. ВАНК is bank, so H is N, and so on. It is possible to guess some things but i would never know how ЕШИОКА ЕШИТО can be my name. 

We walked around all day, which was the best way to see the city, but since it was our first day to experience summer weather of over 30  degrees, or 85F, we were comfortably tired NY the end of the day. At night, we were invited by a local girl whom we met in Iceland, for more walk. The city appeared differently at this hour with building lit, especially temples which had majestic atmosphere. The main reason she brought us out at this hour is the opening of **** bridges over rivers and canals all over the city. At first, I was questioning what might be so special about it, but I was amazed by the number of people out by canalside, guys drinking and girls striking bizzare pose to take portraits. We ended up walking around for 3 hours, and slept in the next day.