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donations
Despite the hassle of packing our bicycles in boxes yet again, our second Russian train journey (this time between Perm and Novosibirsk) was much more relaxing than the alternative of cycling 2,000 kilometres through mosquito infested swamplands.
Besides eating a wide range of snacks, gazing out the window and playing a mega champion game of Gin Rummy (Emma won) these are some of the other highlights of our short Trans Siberian experience:
- Within minutes of the train pulling out of Perm a fellow passenger clad in typical Russian camouflage clothing gave us a gift of our first ever un-shelled pine nuts, our verdict? delicious but a lot of effort, how do the bears do it?
- Sharing our berth was a mother and her extremely well behaved young son. They shared a few words and some chocolates with us
- Word quickly spread through our carriage that we were from NZ and had huge boxes with bicycles inside (not flat screen TVs like most people had assumed)
- A lady a few seats down excitedly brought us the magazine she was reading which had an article about New Zealand. Amazingly one of the photos was taken from close to Justin’s house in Devonport, Auckland but I don’t think we managed to convey how weird this was
- After a few stops we discovered the train schedule showing how long the train would halt at each station and realised some longer stops of 20mins plus would give us time to leave the train and station. In Omsk we nipped outside for some yoghurt and snacks
- During the Omsk stop we saw four huge St. Bernard dogs emerge from a carriage a few down from ours with their tiny owners in tow. We wonder about the fuss over our bikes in comparison to the huge dogs
Not much else to report, so here are some glimpses of the 2,000 kilometres that we didn’t cycle:
related posts to “A Night On The Trans Siberian”
Rushing To Moscow
It is raining as our ferry pulls into Sochi and we couldn’t help but compare it to our auspicious arrival in Santander a year ago. Here too the town is shadowed by a mountain range, but in low clouds we don’t see a hint of it. We waited to clear the customs and immigration into Russia’s Rivera standing in a cold drizzle, wondering how we’d managed to arrive in yet another resort town in unseasonably bad weather. – Posted by Emma
In And Out Of Kostroma
Needing a decent wash of ourselves and our clothes after a week of cycling and camping, we had finally crossed the mighty Volga river after our dead-end detour to Ples, and cycled around the central part of Kostroma searching for a cheap hotel for the best part of an hour before giving up. – Posted by Emma
Banya To Banya
Leaving Kirov our cycling aches and pains have been eased after enjoying a Russian banya (sauna) at Hotel Sputnik, however as we failed to locate any bike mechanics during our stay the niggles and noises from our bikes are still in the fronts of our minds. We had calculated a rough 400km distance to our next major city Perm so were surprised when the first road sign we see reads 520km to Perm. With another steamy banya and a friendly host waiting for us in Perm we figure that a string of 100km days is required to arrive on or near our agreed dates. – Posted by Justin
Meandering Around Moscow
Our arrival into Moscow by train is in the early evening but after assembling the bikes and locating our first night’s hotel its already 9pm. At least the long daylight hours mean the sun is barely setting. Making a hasty dinner we review the route to our Warmshowers host for the following morning. He has asked that we arrive before 10am and with 30km to cover through Moscow city streets in rush hour we plan an early start. – Posted by Justin
Turkey By Numbers
The observant may note that we’re still in Turkey. As winter approaches and our bicycles are getting accustomed to an indoor life, we thought it was timely to summarise our cycling adventures from Edirne to Cappadocia and back to Istanbul. Over a month on the road we tapped into a tiny part of this huge land, were amazed by the scale of the landscapes we cycled through and the never ending generosity and curiosity of the people we met along the way. – Posted by Emma
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route map for this post
The map below shows the waypoints for this blog post. To view the details of our trip to date take a look at our complete route map.