8000 km by train, a trip from China to Holland (part 3)

Welcome to the third part of my train travel all the way from Beijing to Eindhoven, Holland. In this previous blogs you were able to read about my shenanigans in China and in Mongolia and also the reasons why I was travelling by train on a one-way flight towards Beijing.

https://steemit.com/travel/@karinxxl/8000-km-by-train-a-trip-from-china-to-holland-part-1 is where you can find all my China adventures.

https://steemit.com/travel/@karinxxl/8000-km-by-train-a-trip-from-china-to-holland-part-2 tells you what I did in Mongolia and how I had mixed feelings about the country, seeing fantastic life on the countryside and also hating the capitol Ulan Baator.

Its crazy how far this journey was travelling so far across the globe

The train towards the Russian Border

The whole trip from Ulan Baator to Moskow was going to be done in 1 session. This means I got a private cabin, and stocked my bags full of food preparing for the worst on the train. It was told that the trains would have kettles inside with boiling water, so anything in that range was a good to take with me. Instant noodles, tea, instant mash potatoes, powder coffee, think about those kinds of things. But how much to take?? I had no idea. What also was said, is that when the train stops on the bigger train stations you are able of stepping out and buying food on the platforms. Of course on the first platform I didnt get out, I was way too afraid that the train would leave without me haha.

The Cabin

In the train are different kinds of travelling classes, it depends on how much luxury you want, how much you will pay for it. There is one main coupe where everybody sleeps in one big area. As you can imagine this is the cheapest class, but also the one that for me seemed a little bit too much for a 4 day train travel. So I decided to spend a little bit more, and had a private hut. In the evenings the host of the train car would come to shift your couch into a bed, including making up the bed. In the morning he would also turn it back into a couch again. This really felt like travelling in luxury! Pretty fast conversations with the neighboring cabins started and beers were opened. In the back of the train was a restaurant part in one of the train cars including a bar.

Smuggling

After departure in Ulan Baator the strangest scenery started. There was a lot of activity going on, and I mean lots. People were walked around, merchandise was unpacked, hatches in the train were opened, curtains were replaced. I didnt understand what was going on. But when the train was nearing the Russian border it started to occur to me, these people were all hiding their merchandise to avoid customs. An old lady even walked into the coupe where I was asking if she could temporary stall some stuff of hers under my pillow. Naturally I felt very unease of this, because this was one big smuggling operation of merchandise across the Russian Border. But the funny thing was, even the official guards of the trains were in this whole operation. They were helping and pointing out where there was more space to stall stuff. When nightfall came and everything seemed to be into place, the train calmed down and peopled prepared for acting like they were sleeping for when the Russian Customs would enter the train.

I was actually pretty tired, but with all the activity going on, I couldnt sleep at all. With a firm knock the Russian Customs banged on the door and took our passports. All the officers were ladies and they really looked like people you dont want to mess with. Eventually we also had to get off the train and wait at a little station. The train drove away with all my stuff inside, and the customs had all passports. I can tell you, this is not really a reassuring thought when you are in the no-mans-land between Mongolia and Russia. After like an hour or so the train came back, and we were allowed to step back inside. What I did not know is that the train had to change the wheels, because the train tracks in Russia are different. So while the train was gone, mechanics were changing the wheels somewhere outside the sight of us ordinary people. This also gave customs to take a good like inside, but I did not see any measures taken after customs came in. After all of this night excitement I had a good sleep in the constant wobbling of a moving train.

Passing Lake Baikal for hours and hours

Days in a train

So, when you spend 4 days in a train non stop, what do you do?? My main task of the day was to stare outside of the window, seeing the landscape passing by me. And the landscape changed every day! Also I was more comfortable getting out of the train when I had small stops in tiny train stations. The funny thing is, you can see also the people changing with the landscape. I was not aware for instance, that Russians who live in the far east part of Russia look more like Chinese people. The further that you go to the west, the more people start to look like Eastern European people.

I was also reading a lot of books, and talking with other people in the train coupe about life and the future. My neighbors were Australian and Canadian, and after years now, I am still following them on Facebook for instance. You actually have time to really dig into subjects, because there is nothing else to do in 4 days; you have all the time in the world. The days flew by, I loved it!

The landscape

Ohhhhh, the landscape, what beauty!!! First major impressive passing was the Baikal Lake, the largest fresh water lake in the world, with a total surface area similar to all of the country of Belgium (wikipedia), imagine how big this is!! Well, I was able to see that while from inside of the train, it took hours before we had passed it.

Irkutsk was the next city after thing, where we walking around on the train station. Also cruising through the suburbs of the city we were already able to see the influences of the tsaren. Bright palaces with golden castles. After leaving Irkutsk i totally lost track of what cities we stopped in, and because of the Cyrillian writing of the Russians, it was quite difficult to read anything, although I got the hang out it for a bit ( hey I had the time, right).

The landscape turned into birch trees, endless and endless birch trees, miles past by. Another day and another night, and then we reached Moskow.

You didnt visit Moskow if you didnt visit this baby!

Moskow

I absolutely loved Moskow!! I was staying in an apartment in a neighborhood that was used to house the Olympic athletes in 1980. It was not really central in the city, but it was next to a subway station, and that was just perfect. Subways are such universal institutions. even if you do not speak a word of the language to still can find out where to go.

Of course all the touristy spots like the Red Square and Kremlin were visited, mausoleums, boat trips across the city, and restaurants and local bars. It was summer so all the residents of Moskow were in a good vibe, the sun was shining! But also when you are not stuck to a schedule its cool to wander around and end up in unexpected beauties. Of of those was the VDNCh park. This park used to be a former exhibition of the Russian colonization, so there were a lot of monuments which all of them were referring to a different state in the former USSR. When I was walking there, there was also a funfair and I also found a space-museum. Yuri Gagarin was acknowledged here a lot as well as Laika, the first dog in space. This was cool because I also visited a Epcot Center in the States in that same year, which was of course totally different in background ;) wink wink

What I found most interesting about Moskow, was the difference between young and older people. Youngsters were acting like the sky was the limit, and older people were way more in the background. I was talking to a local lady there, and she was telling me that was mostly because the older people had more experience in living suppressed, so they were acting more moderate. She also told us about spies back in the days, and standing in line for a new pair of shoes. And she seemed like such a modern lady, so this was really strange to hear that even she had still experienced this. Moskow, the city of contradictions and new wealth. Talk about espresso for 6 Euros in the city center, and a sandwich for 50 cent in the suburbs.

The road home

After Moskow the next stop to actually step out would be my hometown of Eindhoven. This would take a 24 hour travel by train, stopping in the cities of Kiev, Warsaw, Berlin and Dortmund. Compared to all the rest of the trip this stage was piece of cake, and I enjoyed every second of it. From training through the city of Kiev, it seemed very gray and unattractive, Warsaw tasted like it deserved a real visit. Berlin I had been a couple times already before so that was a nice reunion.

And stepping out of the train in your hometown of Eindhoven Holland, after stepping in in f&kking China. That is still too ridiculous to realize. Thank you all for travelling with me through 7 countries by train.