Sunday Morning on the TSR

It’s Day Two.

That was a bucking bronco of a night train! We’d occasionally wake when the G-forces got extreme. Amazingly, though, we both slept well, even with the rocking of what Fred called a demonic nanny!

We awoke near the town of Tyumen, shown on the map above.

At our noon stop at Isham, we met Maria and Tibor from Toronto and a French couple who live 70 km north of Paris. As we watched, Michael (from Poland) crossed the tracks to get a snack at the run-down station shop. When another train came between the station and our train, we began to worry about how he’d get back, thinking about how dangerous it was to crawl underneath a train. Of course, he just hopped across through the offending train. It’s not the first time we’ve been reminded of what novices we are as far as train travel!

While there, we stretched our legs and bought some bananas at a kiosk. We are wondering where are the ‘babushkas’ with homemade treats that we had read so much about. We were looking forward to the process of choosing and buying the very basic and local food! Kiosks mostly have packaged stuff like instant noodles, potato ships and other junky items. At a couple of stops they have real baked goods…I want to try some!

We tried the chicken borsch for lunch… and it was very good. My dinner was the chicken cutlet and a very nice colorful salad with fresh tomatoes, red pepper, cukes, olives mild white onions. Fred had beef stroganoff, with potatoes, no noodles. He had beer, I thought I’d get wine. Not too bad.

At every meal, there are cucumber slices and I’m reminded of my dad’s cucumber story. My parents took this Tran-Siberian rail trip, accompanied by my sister Judy and a friend of hers. It must have been back in the eighties, when the USSR was very primitive compared to the US. My parents complained about the train food, saying they didn’t get a decent meal on the entire route. Though he was not a man to complain, Dad was particularly bitter about this. He hated cucumbers, probably because of the repeat they cause. Every meal came with cucumbers. There were no other veges. Nowadays, there are other fresh veggies, but cucumbers come with every meal, including breakfast. I can’t help but think of poor Dad.

Four days without exercise is kind of torture for me. So I created a little train yoga workout… a full minute plank, side leg lifts upward dog against back of bench, dancers pose, camel, ab crunches, hamstring stretch etc. the firm seat makes a good platform, and it felt good to get some blood circulating.

With trusty Google translate, I was able to arrange for a shower, 150 rubles, $2.00, escorted briskly by our own attendant 2 cars down to shower boss, who took my cash and cheerfully explained all of the functions in Russian, demonstrating for me. It was a roomy shower with a nice dressing area, plenty of hot water. It was a nice treat!