Lewisham, United KingdomDeparture from the UKBremen, GermanySchuelpBack to BremenChristmas in the HarzDriving in the HarzAround Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in GoslarWinter Tourism im HarzAnd home againViennaNew Year'sSightseeing in Vienna Day 2More sightseeing in Vienna and some plansArrival in BudapestTickets Booked!Bath HouseTrain to LvivWe made it to Ukraine!Leaving LvivOdessa, UkraineEventful arrival in KievMorning in KievOn the train to MoscowBrief stop in MoscowOur first trip east of the KnownOn the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up onkazan - at an ungodly hour of the morningOn the train to YekaterinburgOne night until SiberiaSiberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of TyumenDay trains5 Hours from IrkutskSafe arrival in IrkutskLake BaikalBack to IrkutskGoodbye to BaikalAn Experience in Ulan-UdeCrossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia DayPlans changing in HarbinEnchanted with BeijingBeijing WanderingsCrashingMore CrashingSam's almost better againSecond last day in BeijingLast day in BeijingTianjin, ChinaIncheon ArrivalSeoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying SeoulI still love SeoulRainy and grey in BusanUnvalentine's DayInfinite turtlesDry land againA Perfect EndCoolangatta International Airport, or lack thereofBrisbane, AustraliaMum and Dad's
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Location
Tyumen', Russia
Siberia, so far, has been exactly as you imagine it, almost eerily so. Out the window I can only see endless stunted and gaunt trees, with a little cluster of snow-covered wooden houses appearing every twenty minutes or so. Imagining living out here is enough to make us realise why the Russian train system is so good. They need people out here delivering resources to the rest of the country (the rest of the world), so they must have some efficient and affordable way of transporting them.
At the station at Tobolsk this morning, there were two whole trains' worth of gas, loaded into cylindrical gas transport carriages, waiting to go. Timber appears to be another industry and Sam tells me there is also some mining out here.
The men opposite the aisle from us are drinking vodka and conversing expansively. One man brought the vodka, his friend has served out some sausage. We haven't yet come across anyone who can even speak English on any of our trains, let alone other foreigners. We've been travelling third class, and our fellow passengers have certainly been predominantly male. There are always women, but they're invariably outnumbered. In this carriage today, it's especially the case. The men are all a bit rough-looking, a bit large and intimidating. We're not sure where this train has come from, but it seems it's made a long journey from the north. I'm quite thankful we're only on this train for four hours. At Tyumen, we change onto our Irkutsk-bound train that runs along the Trans-Siberian route (but our train finishes at Irkutsk, I believe). Hopefully the passengers will be a bit more varied. At this stage, I'd also really like to meet someone who has at least basic English and a willingness to use it. There's so much we don't understand.
It's still trees and snow, trees and snow out the window. Where there aren't any trees, you know there must be a body of water. We held up quite well in the low temperatures, yesterday, although our longest outside stint without going indoors was about two hours. I had on three pairs of socks, two of them with high wool content, which certainly helped. Our thermals and ski gear are more than enough to keep our bodies warm, it's only hands, feet and face that suffer. I've watched with great interest how people keep warm here, and the use of animal products seems justified, from what I can tell. People wear a lot of fur, they wear leather with wool inside. They wear fur on their heads, around their necks, even on their feet sometimes. We first came across fur shoes in Tobolsk. They weren't mink or anything like that. The fur looked like coarse hair, like a deer or something similar. It covers the boot from the tip of the toe to mid-calf. I don't understand, though, how they keep the sole warm, because it's the most vulnerable part, the closest part to the cold ground. Other people were wearing thick woollen boots, woven somehow about half a centimetre thick. The boots are huge and clunky, like they could have another shoe underneath, but I'm not sure if that's the way it works. Sam thought maybe they were just so think that they looked clunky. Maybe they just wear huge socks.
The Provodnitsa (the woman running our carriage) just came around selling snacks and was quite jolly about it. She hassled the poor man opposite it until he bought some biscuits and two more little individual packets of coffee (if she could have offered me brewed coffee, I might have wanted some). She asked us where we were from (well, she asked if we were English – we still don't understand the question “where are you from?” We have to wait until they give us options and we can understand them saying, “Anglichanki,” or “Germani”). We explained Australia, and from what we can tell, she suggested we buy some of the Russian snacks and joked with some of the men on the carriage about sharing their “Russian vodka” with the Australian man. Eek. Luckily, they understood it was a joke, and I think that, as Sam protects me, I protect him, too. A man travelling alone would probably be subjected to more forceful suggestions that he join them in drinking vodka. The Provodnitsa then joked that we might like a book of Russian word puzzles. She seems to enjoy her job.
We just passed a wide river and another two gas trains. The bridge gave us a better view over the flat landscape. But we could just see more trees and more snow.
As soon as we arrived in Yetaterinburg, Gazprom became a prominent brand. I'm not sure why we didn't notice it so much in the other towns, because the Tatarstan Republic (of which Kazan is the capital) is an oil-rich area. But from Yetaterinburg onwards, the logo has been everywhere. There was a Christmas tree outside a Gazprom building in Yekaterinburg and on top, instead of an angel, was the Gazprom logo, which we found entertaining, although it's probably not so unusual on Christmas trees outside corporate premises. There was a young man who was on our bus into the centre of Tobolsk yesterday morning who was wearing a Gazprom jacket. Sam tells me Russia's gas reserves are astronomical. I suppose that's for the best, considering how cold it is out here. But what am I talking about, “out here.” We've only just entered western Siberia. There's still more than half of the country to cross!
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