It really is beter if things go wrong at the beginning of a trip. Then they can only get better. And the euphoria of overcoming the various challenges and getting things on track turns it round and reminds you that travelling is OK. Really.

When you’ve had an ecstatic first week or so and then everything falls flat its a Bit Much and one is tempted to get into the whole “well I always knew it couldn’t REALLY be that good…..” thing.

So there I was, down in the dumps about stuff from my real life, not even enjoying wallowing in misery, A whole week’s catchup of the Archers certainly failed to do the trick (WHY would I think it would????). “Sleep” music on Spotify faied to do the trick. The effects of my glorious wallow in the bath wore off. I felt bombarded with negative stuff. Disgruntled. Demotivated. Couldn’t sleep.

Writing this has reminded me of a different sort of downer I got in Katmandu about 35 years ago, I wrote a poem in my diary, I can still remember it:

In Katmandu I got the blues
This doom and gloom was mine to choose
The time and space the luxury
Of wallowing in misery

And there you have it. When you travel things happen and you have time to just be, whatever being is. So buggar all this being online and keeping up with my other life!!!! Just being sounds good to me!

I’m off the train! Every now and then I do a little sort of lurch. Is this the same as sailors get when they set foot on dry land after being at sea?

Said goodbye to my various train companions, with warm wishes to visit Switzerland (will they come and visit our Welsh mountains? I hope so) and from my Russian cabin companion for the last 2 days a blow up   Russian FIFA balloon! How cool is that! And very thoughtful as it weighs nothing.

My hotel here in Ulan Ude – which I chose for it’s rave reviews – may be international and impersonal but it’s 2 minutes from the main square,  they speak English and do laundry, do delicious food and oh bliss – a bath ! With a plug that works! Oh joy ! Did I mention it’s as cheap as a dorm bed in London ?

That’s Lenin by the way.

That’s it for a couple of days now

Have I said that Siberia is stunningly beautiful? Three days of trees. Leaves shining in the sun, mainly what look very like silver birch for the first day or so, then with scotts pines creeping in and now more prevalent. Its just glorious. What a landscape and it just goes on and on – yes there are occasional big cities, some small towns, some scattered smallholdings, the odd road but mostly just unadulterated, glorious, forest. Around the towns there is evidence of some cultivation of the areas of grassland in the clearings – huge areas, all unfenced, presumably cut for hay or silage. They must have cattle somewhere, they eat inordinate amounts of meat, but they aren’t out grazing anywhere we have seen – we’ve seen 2 small herds of cattle in 3 and a half days. Well they couldn’t let them loose there would be nothing to stop them wandering to the artcic or to vladivostok.

I never thought it would be beautiful. Daft really, after all, I have read – and am reading – Tolstoy (and LOVING it) and he portrays the Russian landscape with such love.

And now when the train stops we are accosted by lovely women selling wonderful food on the platforms which they make themselves, its still hot, and delicious and unbelievably cheap! As so often happens when travelling its the unexpected impromptu no frills meal which delights so much more than yet another restaurant however rave its reviews.

OK lets get this over with. And a fitting one for post no 13. You want to know, how are the loos on the train????? Come on, admit it, thats why you are really reading this……will you stop once you know????

The answer, I am delighted to report, is FINE! As good as it gets. In fact this Moscow to Vladivostok train’s loos are even better than the Paris to Moscow train for all that that one was supposed to be the positive royalty of trains with its showers and electronic locking compartments. Our loo on this train has a plethora of antiseptic wet wipes to wipe the loo seat, tissue seat covers for the squeamish (or the dextrous), soap, towels, hot water, clean walls. And one of those thick rubber mats with holes in it so if there is any spillage (there wasn’t) you don’t have to stand on it and anything can drain out onto the tracks below via a hole in the floor. The flush is formidable. Best not to drop anything down the loo, it will get atomised!

With my delightful next door neighbours (Swiss German) we ventured along the train to the restaurant car, through 2nd class (same as our 1st class but 4 berths instead of 2 – a bit cramped, I’ll be having a go at that before too long, don’t worry) and 3rd class with people kipping everywhere (mostly very nearly completely undressed, well it was hot) on shelves in an open carriage looking for all the world like the aisles in a supermarket. Sorry to disappoint you, I’m not going to try that one.

Sleeping is lovely. Rocked gently and lulled by the muted train sounds, cacooned in my cabin, I am happy. We have pristine white sheets and towels.

A notice on the wall in the corridor displays the stops along the way – decipher it if you can! (Now we are nearing Omsk where we will arrive at 13.20 Moscow time – all times are displayed in Moscow time – which is 16.20 local time and stay for 42 minutes – a chance to jump off and stretch our legs or buy food supplies).

This is our closest point to India so a wave to all my Indian friends far to the south across Khasakstan…………..

People ask me why – why I do it. Whole books have been written about this and about people who do proper travel and exploration and mountaineering very far removed from my meanderings which are very tame by comparison. I read one which asked women why they do it.

And the answer was always the same and is my answer too. They – we – don’t know why we do it but we just have to.

Today, stepping out of the train during a longish stop for some fresh air, there were people hawking stuff to passengers – big fur hats, huge teddy bears, shawls, stuff. A woman caught my eye. She was small, ordinary, middle aged. We smiled. And there you have it – a connection, for a moment, with someone whose life is so different from mine and will go on unaffected by mine the minute I’m gone – for that moment we connected, there was nothing in our lives but each other, 2 women connected by a smile.

Oh yes, and my insatiable curiosity. I want to KNOW what is round the next corner, over the next hill and what it feels like to be there.

Getting reacquainted with Tolstoy. Fabulous!

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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