words from the world

There are trips which leave marks on who lived them, there are trips we'd like them to last and for which the word "the end" comes too fast, there are trips which backs up your wish to discover the world an to meet its people. The transsiberian expedition is forged with that. I write down these few words to make share it and above all, to plunge back into it.
77 hours of train, about 30 stops which hardly last a few minutes, 5185 kilometers covered, a few Russian-sounded cities such as Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Novossibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk. All these arguments would make a bad impression on a touristic brochure and wouldn't make dream an exotic place-addicted traveller. However, it's this train I get on the 18 of june at 23h25, platform 3, carriage 7, couchette n°17.




On the platform, I'm looking for foreign backpackers, I meet Tom and Mark, 2 deutch cousins who went far away from the old continent for 10 months. Checking our tickets, we see we're in the same carriage, here is a good news. We load our rucksacks onto the shoulders and approach the carriage entrance. Several people wait for the inspector authorizes them to get on the train. Peering the faces, we notice three quarters of the travellers of this carriage are european. As well as us, you have to add, Henrik and Valérie, Deutch brother and sister left to rest for 6 weeks, 2 finnish girls, 2 swedish boys Gustav and Jonas, Hugh moving away from his native Great Britain for a few months and Beckie, an intrepid English girl who, after discovering the oriental Asia, will go back through Pakistan and Iran following the silk road.
Contrary to a classic train or plane trip where everybody stays silent reading, listening to music or sleeping, we know we're going to spend a good deal of time together. The shyness is packed at the bottom of the bag and each one makes others' acquaintance. As far as I'm concerned, I've the thirst for talking after the silent week I spent between Saint-Petersburg and Moscow.
Each compartment of this second-class carriage is formed by 4 couchettes. I share mine with a Russian woman, the 2 top ones will stay vacant all along the journey. The communication is limited since she speaks neither English nor French, and I don't speak Russian. I spend a lot of time talking with my new friends and topics aren't missing. We "rebuild" Europe and the world, we compare our cultures and our itineraries, we set out our travel experiences, We chat about a lot of different topics as we were old friends and we laugh a lot.
We count the hours before the next stop always repeating to Nathalia, responsible of our carriage : "zdyess Irkutsk?" ( "here we are in Irkutsk ?" ). She always replies "Nyet". On the platform, travelling merchants hurry as soon as we get off the train. They offer us dishes, fruits, sweets, and the competition between them is hearty. A few shops complete the scene with a bigger choice of food, instant chinese noodles, chocolate, yoghurts, biscuits. Chinese noodles is a big hit and the basic food of our trip.










Except taking a shower because there aren't any cabins in the carrriages, we "live" in the transsiberian train. And it would be a real pity to make sacrifices when we know we can get on this type of train for 7 days (149h) to link Moscow to Vladivostok, on the shore of the Japan sea. With its 9289km, here is the longest railway track in the world.
Its birth goes back to 1891 when Alexander III approved the idea of a transsiberian line in order to connect numerous remote areas and to link the faraway Orient to the West. The work was divided into 7 areas and started simultaneously. In exchange for colossal work, the first links were put into operation in 1900. The transsiberian train was introduced the same year during the international exhibition of Paris. Since this date, the line was completed by a lot of ramifications and by its electrification.
In spite of the slowness of the train, time goes by fast on board. The kilometers increase and the landscapes pass by. At the sunrise of the 4th day, the train slows down and stops for the last time. The cyrillic-written sign of Irkutsk appears through the window. It's time for the painful goodbye but the trip goes on. We hope a good luck to each other wishing to meet up. And each one scatters into the crowd that has come to welcome his travellers.


The Transsiberian is an incredible adventure and before all a human experience. The fact of living together in a close space for these numerous hours intensified the relationship and increased the emotions, but above all, it showed me how much I'm keen on travelling and why I'm here. Bag on the back, full-charged batteries and a large smile on my face, I go again for the next episode of my trip.