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Wednesday, April
28, 2004
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Friday,
April 30, 2004
Saturday, May 1, 2004
So we have finally arrived in Russia. To make
it as simple as possible, we convert our watches to Moscow time right away rather
than local time - in this enormous countrz that stretches over 11 time zones,
only one time applies for the whole railway network. Till could experience this
clearly on a train trip from Beijing to Moscow the previous year. On the Russian
border station in the far east of Siberia, it was 7 o'clock AM at the ticket counter,
while the clock in the station's post office upstairs showed 2 PM... Talk about
"Trainlag"!
This way, we have just left the Kazakh border station
at 5:15 PM and are about to arrive in the Russian Troicsk 25 minutes later, but
nevertheless 2:35 hours earlier at 2:40 PM. Immediately, the customs check start,
and the officer asks us for some kind of declaration form, most likely of the
kind we have had more than enough of at all the border crossings in Central Asia.
However, we have not received one for Russia in advance, and we ask the officer
to get one. He seems not to understand and fetches a paper where the custom regulations
are stated in a couple of languages, also in English. What we read is approximately
what we could guess before, however, now we still do not have a form to fill in
and shrug our shoulders. He leaves with our passports and returns them after some
time with the entry stamps. So it was fine without the form after all...
During
the time, the Kazakh diesel engine has been exchanged by a Russian Electrical
loco, but now it's 3 kV DC in the wires. The journey continues towards Chelyabinsk,
the first major city after the border. There, our train, quite short in Russian
terms, gets a couple of Russian domestic cars and now has a honourable length,
about 15 coaches. The Russian businessman gets off, and it seems that Russian
domestic travellers are only booked on the coaches that have coupled to the train
in Chelyabinsk. We get our compartment for ourselves the rest of the journey.
At
Jekaterinburg, that was named Sverdlovsk during the Sovjet era, we cross the Trans-Siverian
Railway where the trains from Vladivostok, Beijing, Ulan-Bator, Irkutsk, and Novosibirsk
run to Moscow. However, we do not continue towards Moscow, but the train takes
a different line that leads nearly as the crow flies to St. Petersburg, passing
long north of Moscow.
Jekaterinburg is situated in the Ural Mountains that
form the border between Europa and Asia. Along the Trans-Siberian Railway, at
the kilometre sign 1777 (1104 miles) counted from Moscow, there is a huge obelisk
that marks the border. We do not know if we are going to pass this famous monument
or if our line diverges before. We watch out carefully but it is already dark,
and we hardly see anything. Till had the same bad luck theu autumn before as he
definitely passed by the obelisk on the train "Vostok" Beijing - Moscow,
but even at this occasion, it was dark and impossible to see something...
But,
at midnight on the dot, we are back in Europe after exactly 4 weeks and on our
straight way home.
After having passed Perm in the early morning,
we arrive in the town Balesino, where we have to change the loco - from here,
it is 25 kV/50 Hz again just as in Kazakhstan. In the Soviet Union, early electrifications
where performed using the 3 kV DC system, among others around Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Jekaterinburg and Novosibirsk, as well as in Latvia, Ukraine, and the Caucasus
region. Senare gick man över till 25 kV/50 Hz. On the way from eastern Siberia
to Moscow, the trains pass three system borders!
The journey continues westbound,
always at a moderate speed of 80 to 100 km/h (50 to 62 mph). The Russian railways
are dominated by heavy cargo trains, and fast express passenger trains would reduce
the line capacity significantly.
In the same coach as we, there is also a retired
high-ranking military officer. He has visited relatives at Astana and is on his
journey back to St. Petersburg. He talks a lot and tells about the huge privileges
such as enormous pensions that politicians receive in Russia, while normal people's
pensions are hardly enough to live. It is the same complaints as we know from
at home, but if you look at the level of normal Russian pensions, this has a different
dimension. Sure, pensioners have discounts on public transport and a couple of
other things, but anyhow... And he is definitely not one of those in the worst
poverty.
That was the third night on this train, and the
23rd and last one we have slept on an overnight train. Today, we are going to
arrive in St Petersburg.
But before this, there is one more loco change in
Babaewo, about 6 hours from St. Petersburg. With 3 kV DC, we move on and finally
approach the suburbs, where we stop on a small commuter train station that seems
not even yet to be opened. The line appears new-built or at least thoroughly renovated
- that may have to do with the new station that is used by the trains to Helsinki
as well as by our train. The former Finlandskaja terminus is now only used by
local trains to Viborg.
It appears that there is a power interruption in the
overhead line for a while, but after nearly an hour, we continue. We finally arrive
at the brand new station Ladozhski Voksal with a moderate delay.
We have a
bit over four hours time, too little for St. Petersburg, but too much to just
hang around at the station. We are quite impressent that the employee at the left-luggage
office speaks fluently English. We simply take the first tramway we spot and travel
a bit randomly around.
As we are back at the Ladozhski station, we have still
more than two hours of time, and Till takes the chance to make a ride on the metro
and to have a look at some of the other terminus stations of the city. The time
is enough to see the Baltic station and the Vitebskij station, where trains bound
for Belarus leave, as well as the October Railway's station, terminus for the
line to Moscow. There, Till sees the express train "Aurora" to Moscow
being shunted into the station, one of the fastest Russian trains hauled by electrical
locos of the class ChS6, that may go at up to 160 km/h (100 mph). Even faster
are the 200 km/h (125 mph) fast motor cars ER 200, the autumn before, Till saw
one of them in Moscow.
It is at the time to return to the Ladozhski station,
Bengt is waiting and has during the time actually met a representative of the
travel agency that has booked our tickets to Helsinki - David Berghoff has arranged
it from Almaty. We board the finish train "Sibelius" to Helsinki.
On
this line, the custom checks work much more pleasantly and smoothly than usual
elsewhere in Russia. The Finish chief of train collects the passports shortly
after departure, and at Viborg, the only stop before the border, the Russian border
guards board the train. The controls are performed painlessly in the running train,
and we get our exit stamps with a nice steam locomotive on them. The train stops
only briefly at the Russian border station, and the guards get off. Then the European
Union has us back, we arrive at the Finish border station Vainikkala. During the
Soviet era, this was the only place in the world to make legal photos of Soviet
electrical locomotives, as the loco is changed on the Finish side. Unfortunately,
we do not get the chance, as we have to stay at our luggage until the finish customs
checks are completed. The loco has already been exchanged during the time, and
we continue towards Helsinki.
At Riihimäki, we get off as we change to
a northbound train in direction of Toijala where we change again to Turku (Åbo),
where we arrive in the late evening. Olli Savela, a friend of Bengt, is waiting
for us and takes the picture you can see on the start side www.iran-by-train.net.
We
go to a hotel we have booked, and Olli and we talk until late in the night about
the long journey that is about to come to its end.
The next morning, we get to the harbour and take
the huge Viking Line ferry to Stockholm. The 11 hours long crossing via the Finish
island of Åland and through the extensive archipelago of Stockholm is a
calm termination of this journey. We have been on our way for 5 weeks, have travelled
about 20 000 km (more than 12,000 miles) and have spent some 2500 US-$ each. We
have crossed 14 countries, met many pleasant people, seen a lot of interesting
railways, however not that many "conventional" tourist sights, but nevertheless
got at least a touch of some different cultures. We made quite some contacts,
and are going to send photos to people we have met in Hungary, Turkey, Iran, and
Uzbekistan. And overall, we have not had any real major trouble anywhere.
In
the Stadsgård harbour in Stockholm Gun, Bengts girlfriend, is waiting for
us. We take the bus and metro to the station, and Gun and Bengt get home to Kista
in the northern suburbs of Stockholm, while Till takes the train home to Västerås,
an hour away.
