This extremely useful phrase was taught to my on the train by Fiona, fellow brit and fellow female solo traveller, who by lucky coincidence I ended up sitting opposite in the overnight train carriage from Moscow. It was really nice to have someone to chat to and swap stories and tips, and it turns out we are visiting a lot of the same places, although not necessarily at the the same time.
There were actually quite a lot of brits on the train – we met group of retirees on an organised trip to go on the Trans-Siberian railway who were in neighbouring compartments in our carriage, and a family who were visiting friends in Belarus who we got talking to on the platform. The Russian lady and her son who were sharing the compartment with Fiona and I were also really nice, and we communicated as best we could with a mix a smiles, gestures, and bits of broken German and English.
Things got interesting when we crossed the border into Belarus. First, the customs lady came into the carriage and started pointing at bags for us to open (this was easier said than done given that there wasn’t much space in the carriage and the bags were mostly packed away under the folding seats.) Then suddenly, she left before we had managed to open most of them, and never returned, leaving us wondering what all the fuss was about! Second, the border guard came in and started checking passports and handing out immigration cards to fill in. The immigration cards caused all kinds of confusion (the whole carriage was involved, and equally confused) the main point of contention being whether “exit date” referred to exit date from Belarus (the following day) or exit date from the Russian federation, of which Belarus is a part. We went with the latter. Thirdly, the train had to go into the train depot, for us to change over the gauge it was running on. This basically involved a lot of shunting and men controlling various bits of machinery to do things to the train. We walked up to the front of the carriage to watch for a bit and it was quite exciting and interesting to watch. I’m just an interested tourist but I’m sure train enthusiasts would be having a heyday to watch it!
After 18hours and a good night’s sleep on the train we arrived in Moscow. I said a temporary fairwell to Fiona (we had already arranged to meet up the following day to do a free walking tour together) and set off to find my hostel.
The one thing I can say about Moscow is that it is BIG. I don’t know about city limits or population or anything but just the buildings, monuments etc. are all HUGE. You really get the feel that the people who commissioned them wanted to make a power statement. It also doesn’t feel particularly friendly, probably partly to do with the very visible police presence, most of whom have fixed stern impressions and wave their truncheons menacingly at passers by. Once you get used to this, however, there are some nice things to look at and visit. I also amused myself by giving my brightest smiles to all of the police that I passed by!
On Saturday (yesterday) I walked around the city centre with a free walking tour, had lunch in a Russian fast food chain serving typical dishes such as filled pancakes, savory dumplings, and soup, and visited The Kremlin in the afternoon (which is a collection of churches and palaces from the Tsars, as well as the seat of the government.) By chance, it was turned out to be Moscow City day, so there were free orchestral and opera concerts and dance and theatre performances in the park during the day time, and fireworks in the evening, which really put the cherry on the cake!
Today I am going to catch the first of the real long-distance trains of the journey, heading to Siberia – I will be on the train for 4 days! I have a good stash of books and snacks to keep me occupied, and am looking forward to seeing the scenery pass by the windows. I have also heard rumours that taking these trains often involves sharing vodka with the russian locals who travel on them. We shall see…
Dancing in the Dawn 