The great railway bazaar: BY TRAIN THROUGH RUSSIA THE STOPS ON THE JOURNEY
If you want to understand Russia, you must spend the winter there to see the snow-covered domes and ride through the taiga in the cold wind. We had a winter like that, riding the Trans-siberian from the West to the East with a distance of over 4,300 km, in the coldest time in the land of birches.
Our train departs from Moscow, the home of Red Square, considered Russia’s heart and soul. Winter comes to change the colors of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, freeze the water of the Moskva river and blow its cold breath on every street corner. The buildings are softened with warm yellow lights as in a fairytale. In Moscow, the winter atmosphere is so cherished that they used to use artificial snow at the end of the year when the weather was not cold enough to evoke the sacred feeling in the New Year and Christmas time.
After Moscow, we reached the “third capital” of Russia - the city of Kazan, where the Volga and the Kazanka rivers meet. With a history of more than 1,000 years, Kazan still retains almost the original characteristics of its architectural works, especially the Kazan Kremlin built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Kazan was covered in white snow, from the Agricultural Palace where the Ministry of Agriculture is headquartered and where you can see a beautiful mosaic of “the tree of life”, to the bustling Bauman street with many parks and small lakes, now transformed into skating places for citizens.
Continuing riding the Trans-siberian train, we stopped at Yekaterinburg - the fourth largest city in Russia, the capital of the Ural region. Located in the heart of the Eurasian continent, on the European and Asian borders, Yekaterinburg is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity. This city also witnessed the end of the Russian Empire. In 1917, in this city, the Bolsheviks murdered the family of Emperor Nicolai II - the last Tsar. The Church on Blood was built on the site where the imperial family members were shot and killed and the Ganina Yama chapels were constructed at their burial site. In the quiet moments of watching the Urals winter from the high tower, it is almost possible to hear a sigh of history that lies over the ashes of the descendants of Peter the Great.
At the end of our journey, the Trans-siberian train stopped in the city of Irkutsk, the capital of the East and also the gateway to the famous Baikal freshwater lake. At this time, the temperature at Baikal reached -35oc. Winter freezes more than 600 km of the lake’s surface length, the layer of ice so thick it can be used as a highway for cars running for half a day! On the ice, people take pictures walk, ski, fish, set fires to cook, drink vodka and enjoy the scene of “the great blue eye of Siberia”. More specifically, you can go inside the ice cave to see snow crystals that cannot be reached in summer, because these caves are submerged under the water.
THE MAIN ROUTE OF THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY BEGINS FROM MOSCOW TO VLADIVOSTOK. AT A LENGTH OF ABOUT 9,259 KM, IT SPANS SEVEN TIME ZONES. TAKING EIGHT DAYS TO COMPLETE THE JOURNEY, IT IS THE THIRD-LONGEST SINGLE CONTINUOUS SERVICE IN THE WORLD.
THE “DREAMY” TRAIN OF DREAMS
The Trans-siberian Railway mostly runs on Russian territory from the East to the West, one side connecting to the European railway system, the other touching Asia at Vladivostok.
In Vladivostok, passengers can continue their journey by ferry to Korea and Japan. And in Asia, this railway branches into two lines: the Trans-manchurian line headed to the Chinese capital Beijing, and the Transmongolian line headed to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar then crossing the Gobi desert into Chinese territory.
Once on the Trans-siberian train, your passport will have the visa stamps of Schengen, Eastern Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, etc. Some passengers choose to go from East to West (Westbound), some others choose to go from West to East (Eastbound), some travel in winter, others like summer. People board and get off at different stations, stop to enjoy at different destinations in different periods of time. Rarely anyone travels the same Trans-siberian route and few can boast of having ridden through
this legendary railway! It is still a dream of dreams, a train across the most platforms, carrying the most emotions, and marking the strangest experiences.
At each stop, people get off to smoke, do some exercise or play in the snow. Some people get off and other people board, of all ethnic groups and religions, regardless of age and gender. The whole world is gathered here, with all nationalities, languages and colorful stories. The scenery of day and night is richly different, the sunrise and the sunset change the color of life in strange ways. And anyone returning home from the Trans-siberian train will forever remember the whistle sound of the train, like it still comes back from time to time in my dreams.
RARELY ANYONE TRAVELS THE SAME TRANS-SIBERIAN ROUTE AND FEW CAN BOAST OF HAVING RIDDEN THROUGH THIS LEGENDARY RAILWAY. IT IS STILL A DREAM OF DREAMS, A TRAIN ACROSS THE MOST PLATFORMS, CARRYING THE MOST EMOTIONS, AND MARKING THE STRANGEST EXPERIENCES.