The bubble burst

Our private cabin bubble was burst last night as we were booted out and had to go back to our 'official' 4-berth cabin, again shared with 2 Russians. Unfortunately for me, (but probably not that unusual amongst Russians) they seem to be sausage fans - fair enough except they chose to keep it out on the cabin table (ready for all emergency sausage requirements I guess) filling the cabin with a permanent porky aroma. Even putting my head at the wrong end of the bed away from the offending product I was still trying to sleep with nostrils full of meatiness. Still, it tuned out to be the least of my worries as the cold I've been battling with for the last couple of days turned into a full-blown fever overnight - complete with alternating hot and cold sweats, splitting headache and achy body. Combined with the insanely high temperatures they seem to like to keep the trains (it must have been over 30C in this cabin last night) I was really feeling quite sorry for myself this morning when our cabin-mates decided it was time to get up and unceremoniously opened the blind and started playing Russian pop music through a mobile. Still being on Moscow time (the train runs on Moscow time) to us this felt like 6:30am. To be fair to them it was really 9 or 10:30am in the current time zone. So fair enough. Though when she tried to push my legs and bedding aside while I was still in bed so she could use my bed as a seat I'm afraid I was less than obliging!

So tomorrow at 4:40am Moscow time, 9:40am local time, we arrive in Irkutsk and the most epic part of our train journey will be over. We then have a couple of days at Lake Baikal where we're hoping to be  able to do some kind of winter sports - hopefully some variety of skiing, if not then some dog-sledding or the like. According to the book the place we're staying has 2-3 bed rooms so I'm praying that this is really the case and we can avoid dormitories for just a little while!

Gotta go blow my nose now...
M

Train life:

A day in the life of a long distance train traveller:
09:00 wake up and lie in bed wondering why your bed is moving slightly
09:30 desperation for the toilet drives you from your bed towards the loo which might be in use or locked because we're at a station (the toilets vent their 'waste' directly onto the tracks).
09:45 fill cafetiere (yes, we have one) for fresh coffee (vital for healthy movements) and a brekkie of muslei, UHT milk, banana, juice, and little croissants with jam in.  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
10:30 wash up breakfast stuff, brush teeth on and complete toilet
11:00 commence morning activities this may be scrabbling, puzzling, listing to audio books, looking out of the window, dozing, chatting to fellow passengers, getting of at long stopping stations (20-40 mins) for a stroll.
13:00 lunchtime.  Cheese and tomatoes on pumpernickel (ultimate travel bread) followed by an apple and a biscuit
14:00 commence afternoon activities this may be scrabbling, puzzling, listing to audio books, looking out of the window, dozing, chatting to fellow passengers, getting of at long stopping stations (20-40 mins) for a stroll.
18:00 beer o'clock! start guzzling beer and crisps purchased from the station.  Beer is considered a soft drink in Russia so is readily available in 3l plastic bottles, great to share!
19:00 pull in at a station for a 40 minute stop when you're bladder is full to bursting forcing a long performance of the weewee shuffle.
20:00 dinner. either a trip to the 'dining' carriage for smash and some kind of heavily fried meat product or a pot noodle in the room (surprsingly more palatable than the food the dining car offers).
21:00 post parandial discussions on the days activities and cultural exchange with fellow passengers (normally feeble attempts at Russian that aren't understood at all).
22:00 night time watching of some tv on the laptop followed by bedybyes.

and repeat..

It's actually not as dull as it sounds because of the slightly limited space it's a bit like camping on a train.  You have to spend lots of time packing to keep things ship-shape and you all know how much I love packing.
There is also the opportunity to meet some interesting Ruskies.  I met one that spoke pretty good English, he was an ice-hockey referee which is clearly cool.  He said that he's done most of his international work in Italy which surprised me somewhat...

Anyway the forced downtime is good.  I feel like I've caught up on my sleep and am raring to get some activities going.  I'm hoping we can hire some cross country skiis at lake Bikal, load up a nice picnic and head out into the wilds for a day.  I'll let you know what happens!