Irkutsk – Near the great Lake Baikal

As we left we felt pretty happy and contend. Things were looking good and we believed that after our visas were in order everything was in control. we didnt see anything troublesome. We felt like this peacock – happy and carefree

Peacock in a large park in warsaw

That changed though. In warsaw we managed to get to the right track, platform and sector although the only number they seemed to use was platform. We were a little worried when the train didnt show on the track monitor 2 minutes before departure… were we on the right track (!?) 5 minutes earlier some polish message was spoken in the loadspeakers which made 9/10 leave the tracks and move somewhere else so that had us a little worried. A quick ask around ensured us that everyone else was also waiting for the train to moscow. 10 minutes later (it was delayed), the train rolled in and we got on.

We were worried that the tickets for this 20 hour train ride was only for seating, not beds but when we got to our numbers we got very happy – it was beds and we had the room to ourselves! We quickly praised lady luck again and took some picture

view from the train (and a smiley face?)

Then the troubles started rolling in. We were met by the conductor and after inspecting our “tickets” he wasnt happy. they were not valid. We later found out that apparently they were russian train system vouchers that had to be changed to real tickets first… and here’s the kicker – it has to be in russia! basically that means that tickets going from warsaw to russia are useless as you first have to be in russia to validate them – crazy russian train system.

We tried asking if there was a way to stay in the room but he said no – even after we starting waving some roubles. He was nice enough to let us ride on 2nd class (normal seats) instead of kicking us out. Then we could get to terespol (by the border where the train holds still for 45 minutes). This should be enough for us to buy new tickets. Luckily he didnt simply kick us out!!

We got there and quickly got in a heated argument with a polish train ticket saleswoman that didnt know what to do with the (in the polish eyes) worthless vouchers, a random nice polish/english speaking woman and us. After some swearing and aggitated voices we were told to follow another (calmer) ticket lady to the platform. We had to wait a little away since it was practically a border we were standing on but the ticket lady was allowed to go there and she talked to the conductors. She then came back with the information that were only valid in russia. Meanwhile I snapped a picture of the border while noone was looking

Well to make a long story short, we had to buy new tickets and then we got on the train and had to get our tickets and visa checked (it ran us 220 eur for two tickets to moscow but maybe its not so bad as we might get our old tickets refunded)

The visa check took about 1hour by a beatiful border patrol woman and after asking us what was in our bags (private stuff and vodka) she accepted our passports and walked away. We got them back about half an hour later.

We thought that we now could relax (we had gotten new tickets with a room similar to the old room so still the nice comfort) but there was one more surprise waiting for us.

When we arrived in Brest, hordes of babushkas, boarded the train with pivo (beer), sok(juice) and all kinds of bread and chicken. They competed intensely with each other, talking hectically and a haggle between what we wanted, how much it should be, and which of the ladies we should buy from started. At the same time we had to move room (the conductor asked us) and I was extremely tired.

After a whirlwind of russian and absolutely no english we had a beer, some peanuts, some juice, some deep fried chicken and some bread. Actually a lot of it. we ended up paying about 1500 RUB, which is approximately 225 DKK (30EUR). Not very cheap relative to what it was but okay compared to the situation and that we were very hungry 🙂

We ate the food and looked out the window. It was pretty nice that we could open the windows and stick our head out without anyone minding. Everyone seemed pretty content with us doing whatever so that was nice.

We waited about two hours for our train underwagon to change as the tracks are different in belarus. They basically lifted up the entire train on huge jacks and rolled these things in under us while we were all in the train. During this time (visa check + train change) of approximately 3 hours, we couldnt go the restroom. Which was pretty much the only thing the conductor DID mind… which is understandable as the feces would have fallen straight down in the workshop 🙂

We then went to bed (Nikolaj wasnt done partying and went looking for someone to party but there was noone to be found). The night passed as we rolled by Minsk and left Belarus behind us. Arriving in Moscow at 11:45 in the day.

We are now checked in at our hostel, the weather is good and the hostel seems nice. Although – apparently hot water is “en by i rusland” as there is only cold water. It’s a saying in Danish that means “a city in russia”. You say that when it’s very unlikely you’ll get it – as unlikely as finding yourself in that exact city somewhere in all of russia. Which is kinda ironic as we are in fact in a city in russia 🙂

As one should always end on a stong joke – this will be the end of this post!

Tomorrow is day 1 of the actual trans-siberian railroad. Exciting stuff

Returning from our trip (see: 2 day trip in Mongolia ), we reached Ulan-bataararound 4pm but since the gobi hostel was fully booked we had to find another hostel. We decided to meet with the swiss for dinner in the evening and went on our way to the new hostel.

The new hostel was called Lotus and was run by orphans which is really an appealing fact about this place and something great to support. When we got our room it was shared with a bunch of australians and the next room was with a whole bunch of volounteers from Edinburgh.

Sidenote: The reason for the volounteers is that Ulan-bataar is one of the most polluted towns in the world – even more than beijing. Especially in the winter. It has 6 power plants inside city limits which produce alot of pollution as well as traffic. Furthermore, since the winters can be extremely cold, a large part of the nomads move to the city in the winther but when they move away they simply burn everything they leave. This also pollutes. Finally, as the capital is also the coldest capital in the world (because of the insane cold in the winter and nights), the cold works as a dome around the city, pushing the pollution “down” so to speak. This means that you can’t see more than 3-4 meters in front of you and even inside houses you can see the blurry effect that comes from pollution.

Well, anyway. The australians seemed merry and we shared a few shots of vodka and decided to meet up at a microbrewery in UB (ulan-bataar) later in the evening but first we went out to meet the swiss.

We met with the swiss and went for mongolian grill. An all you can eat for about 10 EUR each. This involved a very large buffet with 5 kinds of meat: sheep, goat, horse, beef and chicken. You took your raw meat (and salads) to a central grill where the chef would then cook it for you. Very very delicious. They also did a show where the chef threw around his knives and there was music and a light show and things like that. Much like the japanese Teppanyaki.

In the evening we went to the microbrewery where amongst others I talked to a mongolian couchsurfer host and a canadian journalist. After the brewery, the party continued at the hostel (I had stopped drinking though) which included hair-cutting, story telling from our travels as well as fairytale storytelling by a dutch woman (Nadine) that had the sweetest mix of dialect coming from her original dutch accent mixed with australian. She was a special kids teacher so I guess having a nice calming voice really comes in handy.

We also met: Garreth, a hilarious type that had to catch a plane the next day towards new adventures. Jonathan the canadian journalist who never once during his travels in russia said he was a journalist. Harry who left us a very nice note, was generally pleasing to be around, and michael and emily an engaged couple travelling on to russia who were also very sweet. Evenings and people like these are why travelling is amazing!

The next day (wednesday) we were going to relax as we had to catch the plane next morning at 7 and real work (monday) suddenly wasn’t so far away anymore. We saw a monument raised by the russians, celebrating the soviet union and the black market (not because it was actually stolen goods – the name was literally “the black market”), a huuuge market in ulan-bataar which sold everything. Everything.

View from the soviet monument

Below is a picture from the black market in the “stoves department”. Every single ger had stoves like this inside:

As usual, we took the public transportation:

Finally, for the danes out there. This is probably funny to you!

After we got home, it was late. We had some korean food and went to bed.

The next morning at 3:50 am we got up and took the taxi to the Ulan-bataar airport. As a last reminder of how mongolia is much different from denmark, the taxi driver drove with the high beams on for the full trip (and yes the normal lights worked), flashed her lights in anger maybe 10 times, drove in the wrong side of the road while fiddling with the radio (she was honked at because she was driving straight towards another car) and finally ran two red lights in a mere 20 minutes.

26 hours later (midnight, danish time) we arrived home. Tired. Very tired.

This marked the end of one of the most adventurous trips I’ve ever embarked on – going from Copenhagen to Ulan-bataar by land. 3 weeks of extreme experiences crammed into so little time! One week of this kind of travel would be enough for a full vacation but we had 3. I’m ready to go back to work now but only to recharge until I’m ready to leave again!

Hello!

Today we woke up in Warsaw! Not only did we hitchhike from denmark to warsaw in a about 30 hours, we also ended up meeting the nicest truck driver and his family. His name is Cristoph and at the time of writing we are sitting at his computer in his house with his kids running around and all is good 🙂

This is Cristoph:

As luck would have it, their neighbours daughter were having a party and we were invited. Its the one in “red” that just turned 21.

.

We brought some danish “1enkelt” and some polish sobiesky vodka and we were good to go.

But to sum it all up we are now ready to embark on more adventures in Poland. Including the whole “getting our passports” problem mentioned earlier. The only thing we know is that the mail with our passports have been “delayed”..

That’s it for now!

Andreas

ENGLISH: This is the only post from my trans-siberian railroad adventures that is in Danish. Skip it if you don’t know danish! 🙂

Okay.

Det er dagen før afrejse. Alting er pakket. Ferien er planlagt. Arbejdet har sagt god for at man er væk 3 uger, og de sidste opgaver er løst. Ingen hængepartier, og selv skraldet har man været ude med.

Det er så her vi løber ind i problemer, for vi har da et par småting som ikke er helt som de skulle være.  Lad os starte fra begyndelsen.

Vores store forkromede plan er at tomle fra København til Trelleborg i Sverige og videre med færgen fra Trelleborg til Swinoujscie. Derefter skal vi tomle til Warszawa, hvor vi let og elegant henter vores pas med Hviderussisk visum i på den hviderussiske ambassade, og fortsætter rejsen med tog mod Moskva gennem hviderusland (26 timers togrejse).

Vel ankommet til Moskva går turen med den transsibirske jernbane fra Moskva til Ulan-Bataar i Mongoliet. Dette involverer 2 stop i henholdsvis Yekaterinburg og Irkutsk, tager 2 uger, er ca 4½ dags ren togrejsetid og omkring 8000km. Turen går gennem både den sibirske tundra og den mongolske Gobi ørken. Til sidst flyver vi hjem og ankommer tilbage i København 3 uger efter vi tog afsted.

Tilbage til problemerne, eller rettere problemet. Vi har ikke vores pas, og vi har ikke fået vores hviderussiske visum endnu. Begge dele er nemlig på vej til Warszawa i et brev. Forhåbentligvis har de processeret det hele når vi kommer derned. Vi skal afsted med tog onsdag fra Moskva, så visummet skal ligge klar tirsdag. Ambassaden siger det tager 2 dage med ekspress, og post Danmark siger at brevet er dernede 2-3 dage efter det er sendt (også med ekspress). Lægger man det sammen giver det 5 dage, og vi sendte brevet onsdag (altså har vi torsdag, fredag, mandag og tirsdag som fulde arbejdsdage). Der er ikke meget plads til problemer! Derudover lykkedes det os ikke at finde ud hvordan man betalte, så pengene de 80 EUR ligger bare nede i konvolutten.
Nu er det så bare at vente. Forhåbentligvis når brevet frem, forhåbentligvis brokker post danmark sig ikke over at der er kontanter i brevet, forhåbentligvis mangler vi ikke noget dokumentation til den hviderussiske ambassade, forhåbentligvis når de at blive færdige med det inden vi skal med toget videre mod Moskva, forhåbentligvis er det ikke et problem at krydse grænsen til Polen uden pas, og til sidst forhåbentligvis når vi at komme til Warszawa på tommelfingeren inden tirsdag…. forhåbentligvis.

Alt i alt en spændende start, men til det er der kun at sige:

Og jeg mangler stadig at gå ud med skraldet…