on the train – whatleydude

And still the train keeps going

Moleskine entry: April 16th, 2011

Growing up on the relatively small land mass known as the British Isles, I guess the longest single train ride you could take would be London to Edinburgh [8hrs, in December snow]. As such, you can’t really get your head around being on a train for four or five days.

It still blows my mind.

Wooden shacks and settlements pass slowly by as our track meanders around the northern border of Kazakhstan. Having been led through tree-soaked hills and over ancient oxbow lakes, the landscape is now quite barren – we are approaching Mongolia.

I slept for about ten hours last night, maybe twelve. We’re easily way ahead of Moscow time now and drinking ’til dawn is a pleasant experience. It’s 13:30 at the time of writing. The gentle clack-clack clack clack of the tracks below make an oddly comfortable sleeping companion and rest has come easy.

We’re living in two time zones.

Outside it’s 13:37.
Inside it’s 17:37.

It still blows my mind.

The Refurb

Moleskine Entry: April 15th, 2011

I did some decorating last night. I figured as we were hosting guests (Ben and Oly have two friends on a different carriage), I should give the Czar’s/Tsar’s Retreat a once over.

What do you think?

Bits + Pieces

Moleskine entry: April 13th, 2011

QotD:

“How western are we? After an hour on a train in a communist state, we’ve already created a democracy!”
– said on the group deciding on a bar name for my room. Which, incidentally, was ‘The Czar’s / Tsar’s Retreat’

“Time doesn’t matter, we’re on a Mongolian spaceship!”
– on discovering that, even though we’re crossing four time zones, the time on the train stays on Moscow time. Amazing.

“There were some larger bottles of vodka, but they were more expensive.”
– more at eleven.