"Beautiful Russia" a Russia Travel Page by malinaberg

Me and my boyfriend (both of us speak Russian) travelled from St Petersburg via Moscow to Chabarovsk. Thats six amazing days on the train! We continued by train and boat to Sachalin, where we turned and went back via the beautiful city of Irkutsk by Bajkal. During this trip we hade the most fantastic encounters with Russians; I have never met such a friendly people. The Russian cuisine is also great; even for vegetarians!

The russian trains are excellent and, as opposed to the Californian, electric. We bought the tickets in St Petersburg, and boy, that was an experience! It took us a while (read hours) to figure out the queue-system, but other than a few weird looks we were treated like any Russian traveller. We chose 'platskartniy', the cheapest ticket, which means you get your own bunk but share the train car with about 50 people. There are walls that make up 'compartments' with 6 bunks, but there are no doors. This, my friends, is the best way of getting to know people!

There is one samovar in each car, and it's keept hot day and night; perfect for making tea and coffe. We had brought soups, but when we got tired of it we resorted the tasty pirogues sold by babushkas and dedushkas at the train stations (~10 cent). They also sell all kinds of interesting items; pastries, candy, nuts, pancakes (bliny), fish and more.

Our fellow russian train-mates ate mostly noodles, the kind that is cooked with hot water only.