Train Travel

After several days sight seeing in both St Petersburg and Moscow getting on the trans-siberian train for a few days was a welcome break and a rest from the cities. It's a great way to travel, very relaxing sitting around all day watching the scenery gradually change as we travelled from Europe into Asia, reading and playing cards. So relaxing I've completly lost track of days and time, but I think I was on the train for 3 days, 4 nights. Travelling across into different timezones everyday (and not knowing where the chages occurred), but with the train and stations still running on Moscow time just got too complicated. This wasn't helped by the carriage attendents seeming to bring meals at random times of the day and never being quite sure whether it was suppossed to be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Instead of judging things by normal time I've been working on distance from Moscow instead, as beside the track there are posts marking every kilometer.

Arrived in Irkutsk, in Siberia (5185km from Moscow) this morning. It's a bigger city than what I was expecting and have just spent the day walking round it as everything seems to be closed on Monday. Heading off to a nearby place called Listvinyanka tomorrow to get out into the countryside for a few days treking.