Day 16 - 6/8/11 - Saturday

What day is it, is is Thursday, or Monday? Well, it is actually Saturday. One of the joys of travelling is realising that you don't really know what day of the week it is. Without work, and also internet, newspapers, TV and radio, there is no pattern to each and every day. As the Dandy Warhols joyfully sing "Every day should be a holiday". The only refernce I have is realising I haven't heard any AFL news for about a week, so it must be close to the weekend.

With so many different time zones in Russia, the next question is what time is it? I can't really answer that, except to say I have temporarily realigned my watch to Moscow time, as the train runs on Moscow time. At least this will hopefully allow us to alight the train on time......which appears to be my job, as Cinthia sleeps as soundly as a Siberian log.

The stop is of course Yekateringburg, and it is about 2 hours away. It is meant to be a nice city, it's height of fame in the 20th century was that it was the location of the assasination of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, by the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin. From 1917, after withdrawing from WWI, it took the Bolsheviks a further 5 years (1922) to conquer the rest of the country, as they met resistence from the Cossacks and the White army.

The scenery is still pleasant, however our taste buds have tired of noodles, and Cinthia has eaten all of the remaining M&Ms. It is a long time since we started the trip with a Mongolian beer, a packet of chips and card games, with the sun setting the the trees rolling past. The cabin table, monopolised by Cinthia and I as we are on the bottom of the 2 cabin bunks, was just large enough to play Mexe Mexe, Cinthia's favourite game. 1 all was the score this time, luckily I'm not that competitive!

Russia not only built this engineering marvel (the Trans Siberian) however also proceeded to build many other spur lines, and as such has the 2nd most train track after the US. Like the U.S. the East West route is well used for carrying freight cross country, hence it is a frequent occurance to see freight trains passing our window every 10 or 15 minutes.

Some of the other tracks were probably not justifiable in terms of their expense and current usage, however under Stalin's 5 year plans.... who was going to argue?

Soon to get off the train, and I think my legs are looking forward to standing, my body stretching and my lungs inhaling non air conditioned oxygen. Ah well, the girl in the next cabin is doing a single stint, Vladivostock to Moscow, which equates to about 7 straight days on the same train.