29 April: Trans-Mongolian Train (Krasnoyarsk to Nizhneudinsk)

Wow, I have realised just how difficult it is to set your clock to a completely different time (like more than one or two hours) when you don't have a plane trip in between! I thought for sure I'd wake up at one of the 7 or 8am (local time) station stops. Some how we always seem to wake up at a stop. But, I didn't. I slept right thru and woke up at 10h45 when we arrived in Krasnoyarsk.

I am watching a gorgeous sunset while I write. Unbelievably absolutely no effort is made to clean the windows. I think it'd be such a simple thing to do on each of our stops. Hell, I'm sure if they just put out a bucket of water with a squeegee thing, the travellers would do it themselves! Apparently it's just not a priority tho :P



So, anyway. Being that I am now running on an alternate timezone to the train, the restaurant car wasn't going to be open for the pancakes I was craving anytime soon! So I had another of my apples.

I didn't end up eating till quite a bit later actually. But I did finally have those pancakes again :) For dinner I tried "Asia" with Bird. It was fine, but so far my favourites are definitely the pancakes, the borscht and the chicken fillet with cheese. Tomorrow will be our last day with the Russian Restaurant carriage and then we'll be trying new things off the Mongolian and Chinese ones :)

Other than that, today really has felt like the longest day so far. I'm trying to ration my reading. Will probably finish Book 2 this evening and then I'll only have one more left!

Also, although the scenery has changed a little, it's greener and there are more hills, it is still very much the same: tall trees as far as the eye can see (well, for the most part between the little towns).

I napped again today. Had some vodka with 7up. Yes, that's my first Vodka in Russia!

Tomorrow my alarm is set for 05h45 in the hopes of waking early enough to see Lake Baikal. I expect the scenery from there will also change as we head South towards Mongolia.

And below is a picture of Nizhneudinsk station showing the temperature at 4 degrees!