Trans-Siberian Railway - Moscow to Irkutsk

Monday 11th - preparations in Moscow

After arriving in the early hours of Monday morning, I had two nights in Moscow for preparations before the scheduled departure of our Trans-Siberian train on Wednesday evening.

	On the evening of my arrival we gathered at Masha's house to make our plans and to have an ice cream and tea supper.

My fellow travelers, (from left to right) Elena Pivchenkova, her friends Gu Shung and Yung Sheng from China who are studying in Russia, and finally Masha, who wasn't able to come with us but was a big help with the preparations.

We planned our route across Siberia meticulously. Fortunately the Russians had constructed a railway exactly where we needed it.

The Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Irkutsk

Our train, No. 10 to Baikal, departed from Moscow's Yaroslavl Station at 23:24 on Wednesday evening. There are three classes of travel on the Trans-Siberian. 1st Class/SV which has two persons per compartment, 2nd class/kupe with four per compartment, and 3rd class/platskartney with no compartments at all. It is more of a dorm carriage sleeping 54. We travelled platskartny.

My guidebook says that all of the compartments are air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter, but in platskartny that was manifestly not the case. At times the conditions were quite tropical. It seems that Lonely Planet don't expect foreigners to be travelling platskartny. Other than the heat, however, the carriage was quite comfortable enough. The carriages were arranged in groups of two or four people (depending on which side of the corridoor you are on), with one window and table per group. Each table had a program describing the services and containing a timetable which outlined times, durations and locations of all of our stops along the route.

Thursday August 14th. Kirov Station, 12:20pm - 917km from Moscow.

After our first night on the train, Lena and Yung Sheng taking advantage of our 20 minute stop.

We pass through a total of six different time zones on our 5,153km journey, but the train stays on Moscow time. At Kirov we are already in a time zone one hour ahead of train time.

Thursday August 14th. Balazino Station, 18:03 - 1,154km from Moscow.
Lena, Yung Sheng and Gu Shung munching on sunflower seeds after having taken advantage of one of the many merchants on the platform during our 23 minute stop..

Friday August 15th. At 10:54 Moscow time.
On our second day on the train. Lena relaxing with a book which was apparently about how strange English people are.
At this point, we have traveled 2,400km from Moscow and are just entering our fourth time zone, three hours ahead of Moscow time.

Sunday August 17th, 03:06 Moscow time (08:06 local time).
We are now less than an hour from our arrival it Irkutsk, 5,153km from Moscow, and there is just time for a last meal before preparing to leave the train.

Fifty minutes later, at 08:56, on the platform at Irkutsk station after leaving our train. As you can see from the head dress, there has been intermittent rain for the last few hours of our approach to Irkutsk.

Irkutsk

	The thriving metropolis of Irkutsk was situated on the opposite side of the Angara River from the station at which we arrived (and were to spend the night). However there was a convenient bridge and a regular tram service connecting the two.

Irkutsk station has two classes of waiting room. The downstairs one with the hard seats and crowds, which is free, and the upstairs one with the plush decor and, due to the charge of about 20c for using it, very few people. As we were expecting that it would be a while before we had established the transport options and made our plans, we extravagantly paid the fee and settled in to the upstairs lounge.
Here we see Yung Sheng in the upstairs lounge modeling his very fetching ninja rain gear prior to going in to town to enquire about buses. The trainers wrapped in layers of cella-tape for puddle-proofing were a particularly admired by the locals.

Irkutsk station at 14:24. Having established that our onward journey would be by bus the following morning, we decided to avail ourselves of the very cheap hostel style accommodation offered in the station. This consisted of a dorm style room with four beds at the opposite end of the corridor to the posh waiting room. Yung Sheng and Lena decided that they needed to catch up on some sleep, so Gu Shung and I went outside to explore the local area, including the hill from which this picture of the station was taken. The rightmost upstairs window was the window to our room.

The haunted mansion - an attraction you won't find in your guide books!

Later that afternoon, when Lena and Yung Sheng had revived, we caught the tram across the river and in to town. It was a bit late for shopping so we spent some time at Web Ugol at ulitsa Linina 13, checking our e-mail.

We then walked back toward bul Gagarina, when at 20:38 we came across an intriguing derelict building which demanded to be explored. (Lena assured me that if we were caught, the chances of being sent to a gulag these days were relatively small)

Having located a hole in the fence and climbed through, we started exploring in the fading light.

Having neglected to bring a torch, we had to resort to the traditional combustible variety in order to explore the pitch black passages and staircases that spiraled up into the darkness.
I didn't notice the strange apparition that seems to be hovering above Gu Shung's head at the time at the time we took this picture, but the house certainly looked like the sort of place that should have been haunted, and I am sure we were joking about how eerie it would be if something unexplained appeared on the film ....

Having failed to locate the treasure which Lena was convinced must have been hidden there during the communist revolution, (probably just as well if it was protected by malevolent forces) we continued on to the river bank, which we explored briefly before making our way, on foot (as we has missed the last tram), across the bridge and back to our accommodation on the opposite bank.

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