Tomsk: The Trans-Siberian Adventure from Tomsk to Moscow

The start of the journey

After some sad farewells and numerous thank yous, we boarded the train to Moscow. The dean of Tomsk State University arrived in her fur coat on the platform with some home-cooked chicken and a huge lump of pork to last us the journey and we were off! Our journey was to take 56 hours, cross 3 time zones, and cover half of Russia. Everyone had told us it would be ‘horrible’, particularly as we had bought tickets for 3^rd class, «плацкарт», and we had almost heard enough train horror stories to put us off the idea completely.

Svetlana Konstantinova's delivery of The Pork

Nonetheless, we were pleasantly surprised. It seems that Russia has mastered long-haul train journeys. Each of us had our own 'shelf' («полка») and enough space to safely store our ridiculously large suitcases. We had enough food to last us through boredom and unexpected delays or potential snowdrifts and a pack of cards and a few books to keep us entertained. In the 56 hours that followed, not a lot happened. I struggled to keep track of time as the Tomsk time became irrelevant but Moscow time was too late. ‘Lights out’ was enforced by the train staff at 10pm. We stopped at various dreary looking stations, where it got as cold as -32˚C, and I had to run around to stop myself going crazy! Sleeping on the train was not as bad as I had imagined, except when a smelly, old man arrived on the neighbouring shelf and proceeded to snore very loudly all night. Our diet was quite limited; one member of our party ate pot noodle variations for all 7 meals.

When we eventually arrived in Moscow late afternoon on Wednesday, a man named Vasilii bundled us into a taxi and we were driven through a bustling Moscow to our hostel (which is in an old sweet factory). Coming from a small city in Siberia to an enormous capital is overwhelming, and very exciting! And my next post shall be all about Moscow...