A 2-Day Trans-Siberian Diary Recapping A Trip On The Trans-Siberian Railway Russian third class, or platzkart, en route from Irkutsk to Tomsk, Siberian Russia. November 10, 2012 ; It’s approaching noon on November 12 & I’m 40 minutes out of Tomsk. I’m...
November 10, 2012, was one of those memorably forgettable travel days. Coming off a 28-hour train trip, I found Tomsk not to be the most welcoming of places to be at 2:00 a.m. One of many closed Siberian cities during the Cold War years, Tomsk felt very closed to me...
I’m riding the rails today. The Trans-Siberian rails. I’m en route to Tomsk, my next stop in Russia (still in Siberia), one time zone & approximately 1,700 kilometres west of Irkutsk on this, my second Trans-Siberian odyssey. I’ve been, and will...
There’s plenty of snow here in the village of Listvyanka on the shores of Lake Baikal, Siberian Russia. And it’s still coming down. Is it ever. It has been like this since I stepped off the bus from Irkutsk earlier this afternoon so I don’t know when...
I was really looking forward to my return to Irkutsk in Siberian Russia which, & just like back in 2006, was to be my first stop in Russia on my ongoing journey west to Europe. I was looking forward to getting reacquainted with Russia, its distinctive...
I disembarked the eastbound train from Irkutsk in Tyumen, about a 2-day, 1,800-kilometre train ride shy of Moscow. I got off there as Tyumen, the administrative capital of the Tyumen Oblast (province), is the nearest rail stop to Tobolsk, a 4 hour bus ride north. Why?...
The initial shock upon boarding a Russian 3rd class (Platskartny) carriage in Irkutsk a few days ago died off quickly enough. However, the stuffiness, lack of privacy & general discomfort compared to the higher, 2nd (Kupé) class of Russian train travel was...
OK so, let’s get a few facts about UNESCO listed Lake Baikal, a 40-50 minute bus ride from Irkutsk, out of the way. For starters it straddles a continental rift (a crack in the earth’s skin) making it, at almost 1,700 metres, the deepest lake in the world....
OK. Russia. For real. It felt weird to be here having just stepped of a train from Mongolia, somewhere obviously Asian. That’s a weird statement I know but Russia feels anything but Asian even if it is only a 20-hour train ride away, a short distance in the...
My love affair with the train continues. I’ve left Mongolia and are now en route to Irkutsk in Siberian Russia, my first stop on this my first visit to Russia, the world’s largest country. Russia: mysterious dark continent, remote, inaccessible to...
