Trans-Sib Part One: the people you meet

5,185 km from Moscow and nearly 4 days on the "Rossiya", we pulled into Irkutsk this morning - it was a fantastic ride, one I almost didn't want to end.  This particular train is one of two that runs the classic route from Moscow to Vladivostok - another 3 days and I would have been in the very far east of Russia!  How to even sum up the trip across Siberia?

I was riding a bit on nerves, showing up at the Yaraslovsky train station in Moscow - I hadn't seen a single backpacker on the metro in 2 days, nor at the hotel either, so was a little relieved to run into a gentleman sitting among his bags on the platform as the sun went down and we waited for the sign to show our departure points- it turned out he was taking the #4 train (the Chinese train that runs from Moscow to Beijing, that I hope to ride partway), but it was great to talk travel plans and preparation and what the weather in Mongolia would likely be.  Talk about first inspiring person of the trip: he was laid off and is taking his severance pay and traveling for 8 months- he is Finnish, and is traveling by train to China, where he will buy a bicycle and ride through China, SE Asia, and then try and get his bike to India, for another 2 months of riding around.  He is keeping a blog, though not much on it at this point: http://blogs.kilroytravels.fi/tahkis/home

I think this is one of my absolute favorite things about traveling, especially on routes that attract grandiose plans and downright crazy intentions - the people and the stories are so inspiring and wild and out of the ordinary.  I had no idea who might be sharing my compartment for the long ride, so as our platform number lit up, I was scanning the crowd of Russians and the few backpackers and wondering...  Each train car has its own "provodnik" - usually a woman - who rules the car for the duration and dictates according to whim.  Our provodnik gave me a compartment number and I bulldozed down the aisle with two rucksacks and a bag of groceries.  As I stuck my head into the tidy blue 4-berth room, a slight blonde Russian woman looked back at me with quickly disguised horror when she realized her companion was a somewhat grubby backpacker...  a few minutes later, another girl, about my age with short wild brown hair and two backpacks of her own stepped in and we worked through introductions:

Irena, originally from Vladivostok now living in Chita (next big city east of Ulan Ude, about another day beyond Irkutsk) and returning from visiting her family in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  She's tiny, with expressive blue eyes, little makeup, and doesn't look her age of 49.  Her English in minimal, so in the beginning she and I mostly speak Russian.  My other companion is Mariette: French, 27 and just quite her job at a design firm in Belgium to ride across and into China, then down to Vietnam and a year in Australia.  She spent an exchange year in Arkansas, but still speaks with a quasi Brittish accent that is pretty damn cute.  When the two of us began gabbing away, Irena's eyes get big and she wanted to know how Mariette speaks so well.  This is the beginning of 4 days of multi-lingual communication that is just sooo much fun - sometimes part charades, part invented dictionary and part smile/nod. 

We were in a family car of all Russians - 3 different families at least.  I think most backpackers were on the #4, which has something of the "party train" reputation.  Although sometimes I felt we were too mellow for the great occassion of crossing Russia, I am glad to have had the experience with less of a tourist aspect.  On our first night, Irena brought out a bottle of Cognac, which became more ceremonial in the evening than a means to get drunk (not so much some of the Russian men on the train, especially a military officer next door, who was pretty heavy on the beer for most of the trip).  Between the three of us, we covered work, family, love, divorce, solo travel and Russian trivia, and were content with our own social bubble.  The time passed much more quickly than I thought it would, with our communal picnics (of bread, cheese, sausage, chocolate, and fruit), drinking chai, reading, writing, staring out the window at the country, and then back to talking again.  On our last night, we all exchanged contact info and Mariette and I teased Irena that she would be happy to have a peaceful compartment again once we left.  She teared up just a little and said: I am very happy to have met you in my life.  Which almost made me tear up- I feel I have been so lucky to travel in this company.

I did not have a specific plan for a place to stay in Irkutsk my first night, so I went with Mariette to the hostel she had planned, and we spent some time today fighting a brisk wind and snowstorm and are now back at the hostel, where there is the classic traveling scenario: a few fellows from Sweden that will be taking 4 months to end up in Nepal, a pair of guys from Manchester who will be following the trans-mongolian route with 3 weeks in Mongolia, two Swedish women I haven't yet had a chance to really meet, and all of us wanderers talking plans over a bottle of vodka and plate of veggies and sausage while the storm keeps blowing outside...