Across Russia Leg 2 -- Moscow to Yekaterinburg

Leg 2 (of 4) had us aboard the Severobaikalsk -- Moscow train.  As it is not the official "Trans-Siberian" Railroad, it was filled with predominantly Russians.  This leg was 25 hours in total.

When we got to our "kupe" the top bunk was already made so we knew we had other travelers with us.  One was a young girl who didn't say a word and got off at the town of Kirov, about 12 hours in.  The second, an older Russian Man, who was with us our entire 25 hour journey.  Both were quiet and kept to themselves.

Looking up in the "kupe", you'll see that everyone gets a mattress sheets and a blanket.  The top bunk gets their storage up in that top shelf.

On the train, you live by the published schedule.  One also lives for those stops that are more than 2 minutes.  The stops that last more than 10 minutes are times when you get off the train and stretch your legs.  A couple things of note.  First, the trains are punctual...arriving and departing within a few minutes of the published time.  Secondly, all times are Moscow Time.  So even if you are advancing time zones, you keep your watch to Moscow time.

At the longer stops, you can get off and buy food.  I was under the impression that there would be people selling hot food, such as soups and stews.  But it's all dried and packaged goods.

At Nizhny Novograd the train crosses the Volga River, which is Russia's Mississippi.

On this leg, the train had a nice communal dining car, where we could hang out.  While eating our ramen, D and I met Jan.

D got DIGITS!!!  Although we didn't get a picture with Kevin (our name for him since we couldn't figure out his real one), Kevin was another character we met.  We were out on the platform at a stop and he just started chatting us up.  He was on his way home from Moscow to a town in Eastern Siberia.

Jan spoke little English, but he did his best to work with us since our Russian at this point, non-existent.  And yes, he was drinking and offered us vodka.

We also met Marina, who was on her way to her hometown of Tyumen in Western Siberia.  Five years ago, she moved to St. Petersburg and is now is a rower, professionally, meaning she gets paid to train as an athlete.

Scenes from the train.  The eastern portion of European Russia is quite flat and is forested.  We pretty much saw this scene the entire time.

Occasionally we would see small towns.

Kids are all over the train.  We made a friend with this little guy.  Russians generally do not smile.  However, kids are kids and run around like kids all over the world.  We found that we always could make friends with the little ones.