Dead tsars and drunken Russians

It is raining when we arrive in Yekaterinburg. An appropriate setting for the purpose of our visit to this city, which is known for the massacre of the Romanov family a hundred years ago. At the place where the Bolsheviks murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children, the last Tsar’s family, you can now find the beautiful white Cathedral on the Spilled Blood. A tribute to the Tsar family, this has become a real pilgrimage. We wander through Yekaterinburg for a day, which, in addition to an impressive lookout tower over the city, also has memorial sites for the Romanovs, some museums and especially many industry areas. Still a good place to stretch our legs during the Trans-Siberian journey.

Fellow wagon companions

After two days, we get back on the train, very curious about who our next fellow wagon companions are during our longest continuous train journey of 37 hours to the unknown Krasnoyarsk. When we enter the coupe, there is a Russian named Sasha. Although; he introduces himself as Alexander, but after five minutes we can call him Sasha. That’s how it works in Russia; once you become friends, you call someone by his shortened name. Which does not seem to make sense looking at his full name, but for the Russians it makes sense.

Sasha has just bought a nice cold beer in the dining car. A large, empty liter bottle of vodka can be seen below the bench. He proudly shows us which food he brought on his journey and puts cups of pate, crazy dry sausages and more indefinable food on the table. Slightly disappointed, he also shows the empty bottle of vodka, but; “My table is your table!”, he says smiling while pointing to his food. The alcohol fumes are difficult to ignore in the small coupe. Fortunately, Sasha also brought salami with him, which overtakes the beer and vodka fumes somehow. I still do not know what scent has my preference.

Siberian vodka

It’s easy to become friends with the drunken Russian. Within an hour he decides that he wants to explore Krasnoyarsk with us, despite that his destination is quite a bit further down the way. A few beers later we have more and more trouble understanding his limited English, but his hug attempts make it clear that he still likes us. Yet we see the disappointment in his watery red eyes whenever we decline to be drunk with him. Funnily enough we just bought a bottle of Siberian vodka just before this train ride, to share with possible friends in our wagon. But it seems like a good idea to keep that bottle well hidden. Especially since you can not only offer a single glass to a Russian; an open bottle must be empty. This particular Russian does not seem to be an exception.

Around midnight, Sasha announces that he will leave us alone. The beer is gone, so he goes to the dining car looking for more and for a few drinking buddies. Hours later he comes back, falls down on the bed and falls asleep. His snoring exceeds the noise of the loud Russian train, which is quite an achievement. Sleep is obviously out of the question for us.

Yoga Mistress

Deep in the night, a blonde Russian lady enters the coupe. She looks annoyed at our Russian friend who is snoring loud. But she herself begins to engage in an excited phone call as soon as she lies in bed. It’s probably all pretty normal. The next day, Sasha is told off by the provodnik, the train stewardess. Of course, we understand nothing, but his guilty look and the window which then opens tells us that the scolding is about his constant state of drunkenness and the alcohol penetrating the air.

The blonde lady appears to be called Ludmilla, a yoga teacher with a lot of makeup, that will follow a course of Shamanism for several days at her final destination. Full of enthusiasm she tells us about the spiritual way of life. That’s what we think at least, for most of her story is in Russian.

Moscow Time

Meanwhile, our train is several time zones away from Moscow and we begin to understand the system. This is because the train travels through Russia in ‘Moscow time’. In the beginning we thought that the people from the train shop simply indicated the Moscow Time +4. Like ‘just figure out what time the train really leaves. Many kilometres from Moscow, we learn what it really is about. The train always travels according to Moscow time, and you have to figure out how many time zones your stop is away from the Russian capital. In the train hangs a clock that shows what time it is in Moscow, while locally it is several hours later. Constantly switching, because you cross time zones. Besides, in many places in Russia at 04.00, it is already light outside which just adds to the confusion.

Intoxication

Around 10:00 in the morning, Sasha wakes up. With a “I will go out”, he announces his departure to the dining car. To return a few hours later being completely drunk, smelling of vodka.

Then the yoga mistress has reached her final destination. Sasha takes out Ludmilla and carries her suitcase, gallant as he is. When the train leaves, we do not see him back in our wagon. For a moment we hope he may have missed the train. That would be bad, but it also means that our coupe would be free of vodka and beer fumes for the next 24 hours. But probably he just walked to the dining car and he followed his nose to more alcohol.

Not much later, Sasha is in fact sleeping off his intoxication of the third day. The provodnik passes, stops in the doorway, and is shaking her head pityingly. Fortunately, our clock is not on Moscow time, ‘just’ half a day to go on this train…