This is it! I’m on the train to Siberia! The train is quite old fashioned in some ways although we have a TV in our compartment. I got on, found my berth and who should walk in but a MAN. Now I’ve paid a lot extra to be sure of sharing with a woman so went out to have a conversation with our carriage attendant. She commandeered the help of a colleague who helpfully had a translation app on his phone. The results were hilarious and bore no relation to anything that was happening in our little sphere. The train was packed with happy football fans. I returned to my seat to find I was in the wrong place (der – dumb or what???) – I’d gone by the big no 5 on the door not the smaller no 5 which refered to my berth. Problem solved! So I bunked in with a lovely woman from Panama on her way to watch Panama play England in Nizhiny Novgorod just one night’s journey away.

Arriving in Moscow yesterday was about as good as it gets for the traveller – I was freshly showered (yes, there was a shower on the Paris to Moscow train), clean clothes on, full of a good breakfast, a full bottle of good water in my bag and my insides behaving in exemplary fashion (so far…..ha ha can’t tempt providence). What more could a girl ask for?

(Written on the train Moscow to Ulan Ude)

I quizzed my young Moscow friends on life and democracy. Which they have never experienced. And they are content with their lot – they have good lives and jobs and each other and they like Putin – he saved Russia – they said (sorry no quotation marks on this Russian computer) while acknowledging they couldn’t stand in front of the Kremlin on a soapbox and proclaim anything negative about him! They said he put Russia back on track after Gorbachov and Yeltsin. Our companion from Hong Kong said yes he supported the rallies for democracy there 4 years ago but was too nervous to take part. Can’t blame him. Our Moscow friends hadn’t heard about any of that.

Moscow is just lovely – clean, beautiful, happy, a wonderful atmosphere with the world cup. I stood in the Red Square and felt so happy to be there. Russia generally seems to be big square functional buildings with occasional absolutely beautiful ones in between, some with fabulous and ornate carved stone and some, like in the picture on my previous post, just amazing in every way, like something out of the Arabian nights! And  they are making lovely new places just to hang out – but not manicured formal gardens, their spaces are natural, even a bit wild, reminscent of the forests that surround Moscow. Lovely!

I’m in Russia and its brilliant! Having spent half my life with the shadow of the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall, the Cold War, spies defecctig both ways and  images of Russian soldiers in tanks, and readig Soszhenitzin, you can undersatand why I might feel a little trepidation…….. This all countered by falling in love with Russia and Russians through reading Tolstoy et al, And of course my lovely Russian friend in England.

and its world cup! And far from being the anticipated nightmare its chokka with people just there to help, in the stations, everywhere, welcoming and explaining and generally making life easy – and in addition just people offering help. Wonderful! And the most extraordinary thing happened, I asked some young people the way – they are locals out to enjoy a Saturday afternoon here in town with all the excitement and insisted on taking me, plus a boy from Hong Kong, another new arrival, on a tour of the sights of Mosscow! How wonderful is that! Apart from their extraordinary generosity it was just greatt to see Moscow through their eyes.

And yes it really is all golden domes and fabulous buildings! And the most brilliant atmosphere with everybody out to enjoy the world cup.

VERY hot and sweaty – apparently its  not usually.. I’ve made a cock up over my entry thingy and worry i might no get back in after mongolia. Have also lost my glasses (so forgive all the typos!)

I know which country I’n in because my phone sends me messages “Hi from EE! Great news! While you are in Poland…….ec”. Huge areas of farmland roll by – no fences just like the Czech Republic where, they told me, all the fences came down under the Soviet regime and they all had to farm co-operatively. And forests Miles and miles of trees!

Its wonderful just watching the countries roll by, I worried it might be boring but its a a chance to just be, to take in what it feels like to be hee, and not to be constantly mentally organising my life or even mulling over any cncerns or conundrums in my life. Just being. It’s good!

The most delightful staart possible on my journey wih a posse of lovely friends to see me off at the station and good people to spend time with in London, everything went well. I love St Pancras and treated myself to a glass of champagne.

and if you wan to know what its like on this train which goes all the way from Paris to Moscow its all here on this delightful website: https://www.seat61.com/paris-moscow-express.htm

i”d booked, as I thought, a cabin to myself but in the event i was joined by the most delightful, trendy, and on the ball young man who tried his best to a) swap so his femail companion could share with me or b) bunk in with his 2 companaions in their compartment. but our carriage attendant was firm and it was difficut to negotiate “do you speak english, french, german…..?” “this is Russian train. I am Russian”. ‘Nuff said. They were fun, they got off in Berlin, leaving me in solitary spendour.

Very bravely, I got off the train at one stop to stand on Belarus soil (and get some fresh air – ha ha it was thick with smoke from all  the smokers desperate for a drag)

And that’s enough for now, sorry it’s so long. I’ll date these posts the day the were written but they will get potsed when i get internet (intermittent). 

Rucksack packed, ready for the off……………………..
People have been sending me the most lovely messages wishing me well (thank you all, so much). Won’t I feel a proper charlie if I get to Paris and something daft happens and the whole thing gets aborted. That’s probably coming from the fact that I was going to do this 10 years ago with my niece (and write a blog called ‘Travels with my Niece’ – !! – you might have to be as old as me to get that one) and had to pull out at the 11th hour because I got sick. Last night was for luxuriating in the bath, today, deep breath, rucksack on, and off I go……………..
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A week to go……..

I’ve been on a practice run to the fabulous Orkney Isles – on the sleeper train! A wonderful trip, the Folk Festival was brilliant, Orkney stunningly beautiful and it felt good to be on the road! Back home its all emails and lists and printing out many tickets and hotel vouchers. And there is a pile of Stuff for Russia slowly growing…..

Paid a visit to my Russian friend so we could talk Russia, we spread a big map out on the floor and talked practicalities. So, we talked about loos and electric sockets and taxis and food on the trains, and she has given me some small change for those little essentials on arrival and I have recorded her saying, in Russian, such useful things as “Can you show me where the station/toilet is….” which should fulfil my every need and if I don’t manage to learn them I can always whip out my phone and play it to some poor unsuspecting passerby………………She has reassured me greatly that – contrary to popular belief and edicts supplied by guidebooks, websites and travellers tales – its NOT necessary to drink vodka til you drop, all the time, or risk being deemed persona non grata. This is a huge relief.

You may or may not know that I indulge in a bit of activism for Tibet. So there I was yesterday, annoying the Chinese in their embassy in London, waving a placard on the Panchen Lama’s birthday (Not that he was celebrating – he disappeared when he was 6, abducted by the Chinese – the world’s youngest political prisoner, and has never been seen since). My fellow activists wrapped a tibetan flag round my shoulders and instructed me to take pictures of it hoisted it right across Russia and Mongolia. Will do!

I was in London to give my fingerprints to the Russians, a requirement for my visa. Along with bank statements for the last 3 months, my son’s passport number and the date my father died (35 years ago). Oh yes and shedloads of money.

Feeling somewhat down with all the news of escalating hostilities between my country and Russia and wondering whether a) I will be able to go and b) it would be wise to go, not helped by lots of people saying “you’re going WHERE??? RUSSIA???? Are you mad?” or similar.

So I rang my lovely England-inhabiting Russian friend who said it will be fine and the ordinary person in the depths of Russia is no more interested or supportive of their powers-that-be’s anti English activities than we are here of our powers-that-be’s various activities which do not seem to represent the general population of this country AT ALL.

She invited me round to spread out a huge map of Russia on the floor and talk traveling!