Anyway, doesn't really matter until we have to get off the train at Irkutsk, the Paris of Siberia, which we should reach in a couple of hours at 7am local time, which is 2am Moscow time. Blackberry indicates it is 10pm now....not sure in which time zone though.
Major accomplishment: washing your hair Siberian style! Waited till everyone made its way to the dining car, sneaked in the bathroom and occupied it for a looooong time, but with groundbreaking results! Mastered it!
After some slight hesitation, attacked (yes like a tiger in a zoo) a smoked Oblyoma (which translates in Russian fish, no one seems to know what kind) and had it with beer....delicious. As was the Greek salad which lacked every ingredient other than pamedooree (tomatoes) and agortsee (cucumbers). As the Provodnitsas, also the babuschkas found very good and thankful, well paying customers in the occupants of our carriage. Blinis, pigs in a blanket, fish, dumplings, peevas (beer): it all tastes as good.
The Russian classes in the train also start to pay-off. Cheteereh (4) is not as difficult as it seemed, asking the babushkas whether it is a kaputska (cabbage) or kalbasha (meat) blini...no prob. Hundreds of rubles are spent while enthousiastically practising our new learned phrases as "shto eta" (what is that) and "skolka stoit? dorogah!" (how much is it, followed by a well meant "that is expensive!!") The provodnitsa frowns everytime her group enters the carriage with loads of smelly food. Fkoosnah!!
The most important phrase however is yischo pazhalsta: one more round please. Imperative to know when you are playing cards while enjoying vodka at high pace!
The landscape is changing: tundra (too bad it is too warm for snow, mustbe sooo pretty), hills, little villages with pretty little houses where people drive around in ladas, industrial towns but also still the white birches.
From Irkutsk, the journey continues to Listvyanka on the shore of the famous largest drinkable water lake on earth, the pearl of Siberia: Lake Baikal. 646 x 60 km i.e. banana shaped, frozen in winter and never warmer than 15 degrees celsius....the train is great but a real shower, big bed, fresh air....hmmmmm!
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