A Trans-Siberian Christmas Part I

*Hello Friends! (*pronounced: gutteral hawking sound - eh? - low) 

I need you to brace yourselves. This is potentially going to be one of the longest posts of all time. I have been through our photos a hundred thousand times at least (an activity I never tire of) and have been having trouble categorizing and selecting what to share with you. I want to share everything. Photos of snow and ice. Friends we made. The train. The cities. Details on windows. A million "from the window" shots. I want to put 500 photos on a slideshow and have you look at all of them. But don't worry, I'm not going to do that to you. I will be selective and I will try to share relevant stories in some kind of coherent structure but this trip is a biggie folks. When we went to NZ I decided to make posting easier by splitting it into two islands... the North Island here and the South Island... I still haven't posted. Fail. How am I going to get across Russia with you? One very very very very very very long post? I may have to split it again. Either way, brace yourselves. Here we go:

  Россия 

P-O-C-C-back to front N - back to front R

pronounced ROSSIYA

means RUSSIA

It was also the name of our train. The 001 - Rossiya from Vladivostok to Moscow. Our journey consisted of three train legs and all three of them we managed to do aboard the Rossiya. 

Derrald on the tracks somewhere between Vladivostok and Irkustk. Notice the name on the train ROSSIYA

It was chilly outside compared to the super warmth inside the trains

We started out with a lot of blue skies but it got gray-er as we moved Eastward.

Our Lady 

All carriages have an attendant who checks tickets, makes sure the boiler has enough hot water and vacuums everyday. They also get off at each stop and start hitting the train with an axe. There is a Russian name for these people, begins with P, can't pronounce it, can't remember it, so I simply call her "our lady". Here's our lady of carriage 5 scraping ice from beside the stairs. She also climbs underneath the train. Dear woman.

PECTOPAH = RESTAURANT

This is the Restaurant car. For some reason they never had any food available. It didn't really matter however because we bought most of our food off Babushkas on station platforms. 

бабушка

pronounced BABUSHKA

emphasis on the Baaaaaaah-bushka

means Granny or Old Lady

they tend to look a little something like this:

This Dear One was outside the platform in Vladimir, near Moscow. She was not selling food.

The ladies who did sell food on the platform would do so out of their purses. No joke. You would get off the train, stretch your legs...

Stretching

... and the Babushka would walk past you on the platform mumbling a bunch of unintelligible words (that, Derrald assured me, were words like "pelmeni and vereniki") and you would give them a look, find out what they had, perhaps they'd even give you a peak at the goods, you make your deal, pass over your money and then they would yank a bunch of pelmeni (Russian dumplings) or boiled potatoes in plastic baggies out of their handbag! You take your food, say thank you, jump back on the train and enjoy! The first time D got boiled potatoes I didn't know what to think. Who eats a bunch of boiled potatoes out of a plastic baggie from some random woman's purse? Um, WE DO! They were delicious. The wonderful woman had slipped some butter in the baggie. Add a touch of salt and we felt warm and happy.

Bundled, warm and happy.

Back inside the train, pretty much every carriage looked the same.

The hallway. 

It wasn't unusual to find people standing in the hallway watching the scenery pass by, of course,  you want to catch the views on both sides of the train!

Our "roomies" Ilia and Andre looking out the hallway window. I took this photo from my bunk inside our room. You can see, it's a very shall we say intimate space. Tight squeeze!

From the reverse angle, looking into the room. 

Remember I mentioned that "our lady" maintains the hot water boiler? Yup. This is the boiler. 

Derrald demonstrates turning the tap.

We made many a delicious meal here, including instant noodles, instant potatoes, oatmeal, tea and hot chocolate.

Breakfast 

This is what you look like after a night on the train...
*with a little maple syrup to add to the oatmeal, Mum you thought of everything!

Christmas Pudding - hot chocolate, chocolate and Christmas cake

There are three "classes" of carriage on the Rossiya. For simplicity sake I will call them third, second and first. We chose to travel second class. That meant we would share our room with two other travelers. Third class meant sharing an open carriage with a whole caboodle of other passengers, and we were nervous it wouldn't be as safe or as comfortable. First class meant a little room just for two but that's no fun! Sharing a room meant we got to make friends and Derrald got to practice his Russian!

But our first friend was a Japanese girl, Hiroe, who I noticed even before we had even left the station in Vladivostok. 

Владивосто́к

pronounced VLADIVOSTOK

Population approx. 592, 000

9,289km from Moscow

Our starting point for the trans-siberian railway (although usually considered the ending point)

I'm so glad we started in Vladivostok. There were plans for beginning in Beijing and skipping this city altogether but in the end it was easier to plan this more traditional route. Vladivostok was FREEZING. -16 degrees celsius when we arrived, but with the added wind chill factor, it felt MUCH colder. We bundled ourselves up and took a wander around the oceanside town. One of the most spectacular sights of the trip was the ocean all frozen in Vladivostok. 

One side of the peninsula - remnants of summer linger in the deserted carnival and lonely beach. The water is frozen.

The frozen water seen more clearly here - I don't think those boats will be going anywhere for a while!

Derrald wanders out on one of the docks

It seems like the ice goes on forever

That sneaky wind trying to get inside my clothes!

The ocean through the trees

He never gets cold...but he was feeling it this time!

They are building two big bridges, one of which is supposed to connect the mainland to Russky Island. This is one of the bridges. I'm not sure which one but it looked so awesome just suspended in mid air over the buildings like that.

"suspension" bridge

Our train left Vladivostok station around 10:30pm on Christmas Eve. We would spend the next 80 hours on the train for our first leg.

Back to Hiroe. She followed us all the way from Vladivostok to Ekaterinburg. We bumped into her on our "leg stretches" off the train and she even got off in Irkutsk and stayed two nights in Listvyanka, just like us!

Hiroe spoke english. We connected easily!

She was traveling alone and so she shared all-female rooms. We never had another female roommate. It was me and three men every time!!

Our first roommates were wonderful.

This is Iliya. He was going home to Tyumen for the first time in 4 years. He is in the Navy based out of Vladivostok. He reminded me of my brother. He was SUPER tidy and could lift himself onto his bunk like a monkey using only upper arm strength. We love Iliya.

Bunk-buddies. 

This is Andre. He is from Kaliningrad. He is a fisherman. Not only would he spend 7 days non-stop on the train from Vladivostok to Moscow, he would get on another train in Moscow to journey on to Kaliningrad!  He always worried about us and made sure we were on the train before it left a station, called us to see good photo opportunities and shared a delicious smoked fish with us.

Andre helped Derrald a lot with practicing his Russian. 

This is the smoked fish "omul" from Lake Baikal. A popular delicacy of the region, it was very tasty but very strong smelling. Check out the incredible knife - made by Andre's friend, it has a deer hoof for a handle!

Ирку́тск

pronounced IRKUSTK

Population approx. 587,000

5,153 km from Moscow

Our first stop on the trans-siberian. 

The sign says "Irkustk" but I don't know what the rest means.

Irkustk had a lot of old wooden houses in many colors with intricate window details and trimmings. Many were also falling apart and looked very old. The only time we spent in Irkustk was on our last day before heading to the train station so we carried our packs around with us.

Go green. 

All across Russia we found parks that had ice-carnivals or ice-festivals. Families and children would come out to play on slides made out of ice and to look at the sculptures.

Look at that dear old couple. Don't they look SO Russian?

Welcoming in 2012, Year of the Dragon

Mini slide plus child

Derrald debating whether to join the children in the ice maze

Big people slide... going up!

...going down!

The ice carnival in Irkustk also had reindeer!

Rudolph? And a camel! Do you see it? Behind the white pony bearing that militia looking man...

And Stalin.

Sharing a facial expression 

All the ice had little green leaves that looked like sea weed frozen inside it. Perhaps they made these ice monuments out of ocean water? Or maybe lake water? Either way, it was beautiful.

Alright friends, I think we'll need a second installment. The journey continues in A Trans-Siberian Christmas Part II.