travelling the trans siberian railway as one of the worlds great journeys, crossing transcontinental Russia.
Author: Distil Ennui | Post Date: 04-12-2020
Early in 2019 I took another trip on the trans Siberian train from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, which over three days carved over these now hallowed tracks.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is one of the most impressive engineering feats in modern history. Begun in 1891 complete in 1916, it's the longest railroad line in the world. The 5,772 miles of track connect Moscow to the Pacific port of Vladivostok stopping along the way. Expansion of the railway system continues as of 2020, with connecting rails going into Mongolia, China, North Korea, and Japan.
The journey was being taken to Krasnoyarsk to open the 'Dark Vat' artist residency, connecting from Moscow it was just cheaper to take the train. This was going to be an expensive project and I had a close guard on the budget carefully so it was an easy decision to make.
At the station the bags were helped onto the train by a porter working freelance at the station, ushered directly to our second class coach by the coach attendants Vasilly & Nina. The cabin was clean and certainly cosy, Anna and I had taken upper bunk options and over the course of the next few days a steady stream of new passengers boarded and left the lower bunks.
I used the time to prepare for the project and worked steadily through the journey, taking occasional walks outside at the station we stopped at to smoke a cigarette. With our carriage door open you could watch the many varying characters joining us for shorter legs of the journey. Self made tea or coffee was always available via the hot water from the wood burning stove, each carriage had one and made for a good meet an chat point for travellers.
If you prepare yourself in advance for such a journey you will thoroughly enjoy the trip I assure you, the landscape passing by becomes a dream like panorama drifting by. The landscape this line passes through is thrilling to see. We decided to bring our own supplies for the whole trip to include the common sense things of wet wipes, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, food and a bottle or two of vodka. However we ran out of food before the journeys end which was unfortunate.
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