Trains, again

The train to and from St. Pete’s was a Soviet relic, replete with a red star on the front and humorless staff.
I mentioned in an earlier blog how my friend, Elina, smirked at Russian trains. Now I know what she was talking about.
I’m about 6 feet tall, which must be above average because nothing made during Soviet times really fits me. I remember reading about how the Central Committee (or whoever was the authority over this) designed all toilets made in the Soviet Union around Mr. Khrushchev’s proportions: “if it fits me, it will fit everyone.” They must have taken that same spirit when they were building beds too because my feet always hang off the end.
The bunks on the train have dividers at head and foot so it’s a bit like sleeping in an open-air coffin. I woke up sweaty and feeling like my spine had been compressed a bit. For one of our Canadian fellows who is 6 foot 4” it was rather uncomfortable.
During the evening before bedtime, everyone sits on the bottom bunks around a small table and plays cards, chats, eats weird Russian sausage and herring, and drinks heavily. It’s really common in Russia to go to lunch during the middle of the day and to see people drinking alcohol. Not just beer, but liquor. The family across from me wasted no time in breaking out the beer and becoming merry.
If you want to smoke, you have to go stand between the two wagons. So of course, the passage was always full of people and when you opened the door smoke billowed out and filled the rest of the wagon.
Russia is not highly esteemed for its toilets, and the bathroom on the train definitely fell under the “only for emergencies” designation. There was no toilet seat, which is no big deal for us guys but woe to you females. There were shoe-marks on top of the toilet where evidently one is supposed to squat in a rather undignified position to excrete in a rather undignified hole.
At the end of each car there was a samovar with hot water from which the kids would make ramen noodles.
The train station in Moscow looked exactly the same as the station in St. Petersburg. It was hard to tell you had arrived. On the walls there was a big map of the different routes. You could take a train from Moscow to Budapest or Prague (about a 24 hour trip I would imagine).
I’ve been talking with friends about making a trans-Siberian trip by train- that is Moscow to Vladivostok. It takes 7 straight days to get there. Now that I know what to expect, Let’s go!