Freak Show

Day 12: Yekaterinburg (RUS) – Omsk (RUS). “The people don't look very Asian”, Karen said as we huddled in all our clothing layers and walked along Pr Lenina against the falling snow. It was a fair observation. As the continent's first major town travelling from West to East, Yekaterinburg felt very European. In fact, it felt more European here that it did back in Moscow; many of the signs were printed using the Roman alphabet, a few more people could speak English and the restaurant staff weren't quite so rude!

We had chosen to spend a day here simply to break our long train journey but actually, it was a really nice place. Historically, Yekaterinburg has an infamous past; for this was the place in April 1918 where the Romanov's were imprisoned, tortured and later executed. It was also the focus of world attention again in May 1960 when Gary Power's U2 spy-plane was shot down from an altitude of 68,000 feet just 20 miles south of the town resulting in the collapse of the Summit Conference in Paris. But today, as Russia's fifth largest city, it feels very cosmopolitan, modern and welcoming.

The intense cold limited our sight-seeing activities to blocks of about an hour before seeking refuge in the warmth of a café or shop. But that worked for us as we had to stock up in preparation for our next train journey; a 53 hour marathon that would take us from our current location down to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal. Most of the Trans Siberian Trains are equipped with restaurant cars, but everybody takes a picnic on-board to 'graze' during the long journey. As we wandered around the supermarket, I gazed into our shopping basket and it reminded me very much of when Karen and I were students: Bread, cheese, mushroom soup flavoured crisps, vodka, fizzy fish, nuts, water and the Russian equivalent to 'Pot Noodle'. Bliss!

To add to the confusion of Trans-Siberian travel, all trains in Russia run to Moscow time (rather than local time) and so at 14:34 we boarded the 12:34 train to Irkutsk. Instantly, we became the source of the locals entertainment as we brought our western style 'freak show' to Service 64. I tried to introduce myself to our Russian cabin-mates using a mixture of English, German, diabolical Russian and sign language whilst Karen was getting to know Maryna our cabin attendant: Maryna, determined to collect all of our train tickets - Karen only wanting to offer those tickets for this leg of the journey. Unable to explain their respective points of view, each grabbed a corner of the wallet and fought over it like two dogs would contest a bone. People swarmed into the corridor to watch this entertaining spectacle – Great Fun!

(By the way, I think Maryna's got the 'hots' for me! - She been asking for my email address and showing me glamour photographs of herself! Perhaps it's my new beard that I've been cultivating since leaving Steeple Morden. I think it gives me a certain 'lived in' look!)