Trans-Siberian Railway

Ah, at last, the firm ground! The last few days I spent on a train, passing through 5 time zones from Moscow to Irkutsk in Siberia. It was alright actually, not too boring as I had plenty to read, and just staring out the window at the countryside was quite hypnotic. Most of Russia is fairly flat it seems, even the Urals were just little hills where the train passes, but most of it along the route is also covered in woods. I'm not sure if all of it or just some counts as taiga though. It was very beautiful though, with all the autumn colours, the occassional cluster of wooden houses, and from the Urals onwards, frequent sprinklings of snow.

For the whole way I was sharing the compartment with a Ukrainian guy and a Tajikistani (if that's the correct adjective) called Sergei and what sounds like Sultan respectively. Neither spoke much English, but were very friendly, the Ukrainian was even discussing the TV series about Nestor Makhno at one point, from what I gathered. And they hadn't brought any alcohol either, which I was very relieved about after all the stories of Russian drinking alcohol for whole journeys and being very offended if you refused to join them unless you claimed to be an alcoholic. The train wasn't quite as plush as the one from Novgorod, but it was fine, and there was a samovar at the end to keep me well supplied with Earl Grey and Jasmine Green tea.

At some point during the night of the 4th I passed over the geographic border between Europe and Asia, so I'm now officially in another continent. Siberia is cold, which I should have expected really, but so far at least my coat is perfectly sufficient. Tomorrow I'll be getting the bus to Olkhon Island on Baikal Lake, the biggest freshwater lake in the world (it has about 20% of the world's freshwater apparently) where I'll be staying until Friday, then I get the train across Mongolia on Saturday at 6 in the morning, so I probably won't be posting again until I reach Beijing on the 16th.