About 36 hrs on the train now. I am used to long train journeys, but this feels different. It probably is the acute difference in temperature – it is +25 inside and according to my British neighbors, -40 outside this morning. The windows are freezing literally – what moisture remains has stuck to the window and frozen overnight.

It is probably because I am cooped up in the compartment unable to do much. Probably it is because the scenery outside is a constant whiteout peppered with dried out conifers braving the winter. I am not sure. But I need to sit in for another day before I get off at Irkutsk.

The sunrise and sunsets are beautiful. And the photo ops are excellent if u are willing to run out in the icy weather to look for them. Train rarely stops for more than a few minutes to explore.

I think my sense of time is lost. Trains are running at Moscow time and my watch is calibrated to Vladivostok time. I am guessing I have passed 2 time zones but I have no way to tell. I have no idea what station I am passing by. Unable to read or understand when someone is trying to explain.

Being lost is space and time feels liberating if I were able to be outdoors knowing what to do. But that being not the case, I am spending my time staring out of the windows waiting for Irkutsk.

Related posts:

1. A very long train ride
2. Train journey – Vladivostok to Irkutsk
3. Losing sense of space and time
4. Enroute – Moskova
5. Russia – Stations and Trains

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 8:23 am and is filed under Russia, Trans-Siberian, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.