48 hours from Irkutsk to Yekateringburg
Once again I was escorted to my train and carriage around 4pm and I had visions of a berth to myself. Well sorry for you, I was joined by a Russian couple in their 50's and another guy. She spent most of the time on the phone initially and then the 2 of them were quite touchy I thought .....this was going to be a long trip! The guy got off after about an hour and then another one got on for the duration. They were all heading to Moscow so no relief in sight. They brought out a bunch of food - bread, salad, ham which smelt delicious but I declined their offer and glad I did as the vodka bottle followed and they proceeded to toast and eat and take off for smoke breaks in between. We managed a few words like what is your name but otherwise I endured a rather noisy few hours until we settled for sleep...a really awkward moment the next morning... I had been awake for a while but then as the others rose to venture aoutside (for smoke at yet another of the many stops) and the lady was searching frantically for something turning bedding and luggage to find it... I then offered to help search and look for her rings, firstly in my food shopping bag which was on the floor and there they were - probably dropped off the table - but imagine my surprise... I think she was relieved but I will never know and for most of the day i had visions of being picked up by police at the next train stop.... it wasn't until late afternoon when her husband ( I think) started chatting to me (He is from Russia!! I am from South Africa). As one's mind wonders (or one goes out of your mind), I thought my saving grace was that they were her wedding and engagement rings and since she wasn't with her husband, but some other man, she wouldn't turn me over to the police. My imagination wanders...
I think I am safe, she offered me prawns (bought at the station stop) at lunchtime - see George food seems to be much better. In the meantime I am looking forward to getting off this train before I go out of my mind. A small respite in overpriced restaurant carriage with beer and pistachio nuts....letting creative juices flow.... no other travellers in sight. This train is full of Russians which would be ok if we could communicate. So the joy of the train experience has everything to do with other people on train (I can go on a while describing them) so I look forward to next section and in the meantime i have only 20 hours to go.
With 2 hours to go, I realised I got the best of an average lot - I could have had beer swelling okes on my left, vodka swelling army chaps on my right or family with small hyperactive kids!
And reflecting even further after arrival, if I hadn't experienced a Russian occupied train as opposed to other travellers then I could have been anywhere in the World and not in Russia!
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