10200 km (Иркутск Пассажирский, Irkutsk, Russia)
12015 km (Екатеринбург-Пассажирс, Ekaterinburg, Russia)
15385 km (Москва́-Яросла́вская, Moscow, Russia)
The Trans Siberian railway!
All of the guidebooks, reviews and websites I’ve read describe the Trans Siberian beginning in Moscow and heading east, towards Siberia, towards adventure. But for me the obvious decision was to start in Asia and travel west, towards the UK, towards home. Singapore is a long way from Manchester and I want to know how far.
Looking back to write this, I realise that I took surprisingly few photos during this significant 5,000 km part of the overall journey, despite doing basically nothing for a 55-hour train, and then a 28-hour train. These epic periods of speeding inactivity took us through giant birch forests, across rivers, past mines, alongside farms and fields, all blazing with life in the Siberian summer. We passed quickly through so many amazing towns (Omsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk…) but with station stops of between just 2 and 30 minutes, you daren’t leave the train for fear of being Duffilled.
Watching these towns fly past I suppress sadness at photos missed, industrial districts unexplored and beautiful scenes glimpsed for too short a moment. I’m reminded strongly of the ostensible reason for this whole journey across Asia and Europe; an attempt to feel the scale of the world at a human pace, without the 900 km/h, 11 km high, unnatural disconnection forced by air travel. Seeing these towns flash by, even 60 km/h, you might as well be flying, as those in-between places are just as inaccessible. You’re under control of the linearity of the rails and the ruthless punctuality of the timetable. Sit there, do nothing. Hurry up and wait. After a while, even looking out of the window is too much, and the cabin becomes your world.
At this point I’m also tired to the bone. Early mornings, late nights, midnight border crossings, so many people and places to try and remember.
A too-easy litre of vodka shared with oscarneill, lots of instant ramen noodles, and a beautiful documentary about LARPing watched on my laptop.
The journey has clocked over 15,000 km and is nearing an end. Europe is in sight.
The Trans Mongolian railway explains a smooth visual understanding of the transition between Asia and Europe. People, food, culture, architecture, weather, landscape, plants and animals. These are all on a perfectly smooth gradient, blurring together across the land. You really can’t tell where one place begins and another ends.
Perhaps this is why the experience of crossing a land border is always so jarring? The journey halts for hours at customs and immigration; sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, often intimidating. But the travellers can plainly see that the transitions between places are so gradual that any border is purely bureaucratic, meaningless in any natural sense. The immense size of Russia means no border crossings on this railway, and the provodnista says ‘don’t get off the train’, so those 55 hours are genuinely uninterrupted.
The experience of this transition between Asia and Europe is surely unique to Russia, the largest country in the world, spanning a vast continent.
It’s such an incredible country, and I never expected to enjoy seeing it this much.
janainaart
vaporwave
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
pixelskylines
areudirty
germansingergirl
