By Rick Chapo
After deciding to move to Siberia for a year to teach at theChita State Technical University, I embarked on a travel odysseyunlike any other. In this entry, we pick up the trip leaving thetrain station in Khabarovsk.
A Train To Nowhere?
In deciding to travel to Chita, Siberia, I had originallyestimated a travel time of three days. Okay, maybe three at theoutside figuring time changes and such.
As day 4 of the trip headed into the afternoon, I was finally onthe train that would take me to Chita and figured I would bethere in a day or so. I would finally get to see the beautifuland extreme landscape of Russia. To make things even better, Iwould get to brag to my friends about riding on the famousTrans-Siberian railway. This was going to be great. As is oftenthe case with anticipated events, reality threw an ugly wrenchin the proceedings.
Stop…Go…Stop…Go
In California, there are two types of trains you can take. Thefirst is an express train that pretty much takes you from pointA to point B with few stops in between. For those travelingshorter distances, there is a “slow train” that stops at everylittle town and station. In Russia, we were clearly on the slowtrain.
As we pulled out of the train station in Khabarovsk,anticipation was in the air. The train slowly gained speed. Westared out the window as the city started to pass at anincreasing pace. After about 5 minutes, we stared out the windowas the city started to pass at a DECREASING pace. After a fewmore minutes, we stopped at another train station.
Ah, there are probably two big stations in the city and it makessense to pick up everyone for the trip across the country. Soonenough, the whistle blew and off we went again. Smiles spreadacross our face. These disappeared roughly 5 minutes later as westopped again.
My god, how many train stations are there in this city? I cantell you there are at least 5 since we stopped at that many.With time spent sitting in each little train station, an hourhad passed and we weren’t even out of the city!
As I stood at a window in the hall, a Russian man heard memuttering and decided to practice his English. We chatted. Iremarked on the number of stops. He grimaced and told me thetrip to Chita would take 3 plus days. I grimaced. And nearlycried like a small child. Three days in a train compartment nobigger than a closet. Oh, my.
Then he told me the food car on the train was closed for thetrip. Since this is a clean web site, I can’t print the words Iuttered at that moment. Just picture the reaction of HomerSimpson on learning there is no more beer in Springfield.
My new Russian friend smiled and said, “What does that wordmean? We never learned that.”
Read more of this Russian Travelogue at NomadJournalTrips.com.
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