Six nights on a train

We made a slightly dodgy start to the big train trip – I’d been telling Gem all the time that we were in Moscow that the train to Beijing left at 2pm, when in fact it was 9.30pm! So we actually had an extra day in Moscow that we spent in the State Tretyakov Gallery of Russian art, apparently the best Russian art gallery in the country. We then stocked up on supplies for the journey (mainly noodles, beer and vodka) and sheltered from the miserable weather in the hostel. I managed to fall over twice as well – once on the stairs of the hostel (blaming the wet conditions for that one) leaving a huge purple bruise on my backside, and once coming out of the Metro just before we caught the train. Onto to my face this time, and the fall claimed the vodka we’d bought for the trip and left blood pouring down my arm! Made the train ok though and settled into our compartment.

It wasn’t quite as fancy as the train to Moscow but still fairly spacious, and the train wasn’t full so we had the cabin to ourselves for the time being. Quite a mixture of people; Aussies, Swedes, Americans and a few Germans, but no Russians at all in any of the carriages near us, so it was a bit like being on a tourist train! We had the Chinese train for this trip rather than the Russian (they alternate), so we had Chinese carriages attendants. Our attendant was very friendly (excusing the frequent spitting!) and for the first couple of days sold us cheap Chinese beer.  Unfortunately, along with the Aussies, we quickly drank his supply dry! Click here to read more…