| Unexpected for Siberia, the day is sunny and hot, 30 degrees Celsius. A Russian family, parents and two children, has joined us in our cabin. They don't speak English but they smile a lot and push food on us. We teach English and receive in return Russian language instruction from the kids. We exchange looks at passports and drivers licenses with the parents. We perform charades to communicate. The train rolls onwards, passing more forest of mainly silver birch, the white trunks flash under the hot sun. In 24 hours we roll through Krasnoyarsk, Bogotol, Mariinsk, Taiga, and Novosibirsk. The train travels approximately 1000 km per day. At Novosibirsk our Russian friends disembark. We exchange addresses and they invite us to stopover at their house. We say, "Sleduyushchiy vremya" (next time). Russian can be a mouthful, it must be one of the hardest languages to say hello - "zdravstvuitye." |
