I wish to enter the Platform Europe ‘Giveaway’.
Switzerland to Moscow, then onto the TransSib.
6th Feb
Decided not to presume on the infallibility of the Pope or Swiss Railways and left an hour earlier than originally arranged. Bit stupid to risk screwing up 13000+ Kms by missing the first local connection.
Arrived in Basel and called my best friend’s wife to wish her a happy birthday. There were so many fellow travellers around and the line was so bad that my friend, who answered the phone, wanted to know who wanted to speak to his wife!
The German ICE arrived in Hannover on time, leaving me 3 hours to enjoy a 'genuine' Turkish donner kebab (curry flavoured!!).... and a really wonderful freshly pressed mango, banana and blood orange chaser.
Caught the Moscow sleeper on time just after 11p.m..
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7th Feb
Woken by train loudspeaker blasting out Englebert Humperdinck's "Please Release Me".
We stayed in Warsaw for nearly 4 hours, but no-one could tell me when we were actually going to move, so I didn't risk poking my nose outside the station (getting off a train that should already have left!).
Thinking about the forthcoming TransSiberian.... part of me is looking forward to hooking up with whoever is on the train/in my carriage/in my compartment.... another part would quite appreciate behaving like an adolescent slob and dumping my baggage wherever feels convenient (tomcat pissing in every corner). We shall see...
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7th Feb (cont.)
3pm. Still using Swiss time.
Brest, on the Belarussian-Polish border. Beautiful sunshine, but we can’t actually see the town, which is a shame.
The customs people and the immigration people were very nice… One of them was a little bit sharp with me, but that was because he presumed I was Russian. After I’d spoken to him in English, then German… and French then finally Italian, he burst out laughing… and offered me a swig from a leather-covered hip flask. I gratefully accepted, because even though it’s brilliant sunshine, it’s still brass-monkey weather!
They are changing the wheels, as Greater Russia (and Mongolia) have a different gauge from the rest of the continent. The carriages are separated from each other (a bit like the 1960s ‘Rome Express’ going onto the Boat Train, or the present-day trains going onto the ferry between Reggio di Calabria and Messina in Southern Italy). They are then lifted up hydraulically, after which, everything seems to be done by hand (in -21°C conditions!). The workers are under the carriages, fiddling with just about everything with their fingertips... no gloves possible. The sleeping-car attendant tells me in German that the accident rate (death for those under the carriages, amputated fingers for those doing the fine-tuning) is very, very, high, but that the Belarussians are fatalistic (FACT from my 'Welcome to Minsk' handbook: over 25% of the Belarus population were killed during WWII).
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Feb 8th
Arrival in Moscow.... and no-one there to meet me (I'd arranged a 'transfer' from one station to another, plus the company of the person, Mila, who had dealt with my TransSib bookings in Moscow). I have no information about how to get my phone to work in and from Moscow. Piece of feedback for the agency when/if Mila eventually turns up.....
…how to pass the 12 hours in Moscow (Moskva)......
8th Feb (cont.)
Mila had overslept, but arrived nevertheless rather laidback and then proved to be good company for the day... for most of which we spoke French.
After coffee in GUM (which was so much more elegant than I imagined and than the name suggests in English), I took a few photos: Lenin's Tomb, St Basil's with Mila in foreground, the very shallow and very frozen Moscow River, Pushkin's statue and also his favourite park walk.
Then I offered Mila lunch... a Tex-Mex bar that sold draft Guinness was not necessarily what I would have chosen, but the Meal of the Day was very pleasant... as was the Dublin flavoured Guinness.
After lunch we had to find an Internet cafe, so she could access and download the essentials about the people who will be meeting me in Beijing... better late than never?
A couple more visits to Underground stations to appreciate the artwork (not too many because people are still quite nervous about bomb threats), then another stroll along a rapidly darkening boulevard, before popping into the Salvador Dali Coffee House, where we ate savoury and sweet pancakes. Then off to pick up my luggage, buy some groceries and stand in the snow and ice waiting for the train.
A friend had made me promise to buy some vodka, but you can't buy vodka ON the Moscow stations, only OUTSIDE. Result, there was a queue 250 metres long from a liquor store just outside the station precincts. But the queue snaked across the road to within 2 metres of a store that only sold 'soft' booze... right next to the TransSiberian train.
I watched my luggage, while Mila queued for the vodka.
Which we took onto the train.
At this point there was a certain amount of confusion, as all of the train attendants were Chinese who didn't (or refused to) speak Russian. There are 4 of us in our carriage, plus 2 Chinese attendants looking like 3 star generals at least.
The other three occupants spoke to the attendants in English, so Mila thought/hoped they might prove useful to me in translating from Chinese. But even I could see that they were Japanese.
We waved goodbye to Mila as the train pulled out on time and the 3 Japanese came to introduce themselves. Not sure why, but I am sharing with the only one of the three who speaks very little English.
Tokyo University students, they had been in Moscow about 36 hrs. They'd flown over for their holidays, especially to travel back on the TransSiberian. One of them had 'done' the Glacier Express from St Moritz to Zermatt last year, another has gone coast to coast in Canada. And one of them asked if the Lick(e)y Banker still trundled up and down, near my UK home town! Members of a Japanese Trainspotting Club.... Oh Ian Allen, where were you now when I needed you? They thought it was quite unfair that I had 'copped' so many steam engines that no longer existed.
They have shared their Pot Noddles with me, I have offered them packets of my Instant Knorr Cup Soup (there is an ever-boiling samovar in each and every carriage. All of them coal-burning). See you in the morning.....