77 hours later...

I finally made it to Moscow. Four days and three nights on the train was relaxing to say the least. I put on sweatpants after the first few hours and took them off a few hours before arrival. Showering was a bit of challenge. My guidebook mentioned something about using a bit of hose attached to the bathroom sink tap (which I didn't have). I settled for dumping mugfulls of hot water over myself which drained through a hole in the floor. I suppose the whole train thing sounds kind of spartan; I was actually impressed by how clean the train was and how clean the provodnitsas (attendants) kept it.

I felt a special bond with the provodnitsas who constantly chided me in Russian. I They forced the optional bed sheets on me (I had my own in my pack, but I miraculously didn't have to pay for the ones they forced on me) and they always managed to lock the bathrooms for station breaks just when I had to go.

I shared a cabin with a mom and daughter on their way to St. Petersberg from Irkutsk. We had one or two "conversations" using sign language doodling on paper and the odd German, Russian or English word that we all happened to know. I found out that the mom, Marina, was a doctor or physiotherapist, although what she did exactly was a bit confusing to understand. Tanya, the daughter, was 12, so it was easy to understand that she was a student and went to a "schule" (Maria knew some German). They spent the majority of time playing cards, doing crosswords and playing battleship on paper. I considered trying to join Battleship with Russian coordinates, but my knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet is limited and I didn't get around to learning numbers (After starting in Korea and moving through Chinese and Mongolian speaking areas, you get lazy. Finnish is next!!!)



The provodnitsa who was always chiding me in Russian up to this point brought to my attention to Craig, the other English speaker on the carriage. He was only going to Yekaterinburg, 27 hours short of Moscow. In talking to him, I found his overland trip to be significantly cooler than mine. He was off to Eastern Europe after St Petersberg from where he would skirt through the fertile crescent and then travel down the length of Africa on its west coast to his native South Africa. we spent a lot of time talking about various things. It seems we had both taught Kindergarten (He in Taipei, I in Seoul), but he quit his job when the real estate market in South Africa went crazy and he could sell a house he had owned there for a nice profit. He did a little market research and started up a breakfast shop which specialized in a Tea that only grows in South Africa and a Sausage made there. It was met with mixed success and in the end he chose to cut his losses and spent the rest on his trip home.

When I was alone or in my compartment, I read more of the Roald Dahl short stories got through a lot of "A History of God" which has been testing my patience with the number of theologians, political figures and philosophers it mentions. I traded the Roth book for the Kipling's Jungle Book from Craig. Now that I'm off the train, it might be a while until I have a chance to read them.



One last thing I should mention... I made it to Europe! Exactly 1777 km from Moscow, in the Ural Mountains, there is a an obelisk that marks the division between Asia and Europe south of the tracks. I was looking out the window for the thing and knew the exact moment I had moved to a new continent. I've turned into such a trainspotter. I'm kind of excited about taking the train across Canada sometime.