Second day in the train. Today we crossed the border between continents, in Ekaterinburg. They said it was marked by an obelisk and I would see it from the train. I starred my eyes out for that, unsuccessful. Maybe I looked on the wrong side?

Ekaterinburg welcomes us with cold. A small foretaste of what waits for us in Siberia.

I forgot one thing to take with me. Gloves.
It will be the first purchase I will do when possible.

The temperature waives around 10 Celsius degrees. But it’s much nicer in the sun.

We have finally found the beer for less than 30 RUB per bottle. What’s wrong with this Russia? Vodka is also so expensive. Will we get drunk only in Mongolia?

Constant landscapes outside the train: birches, birches and birches. So many birches in Russia. Sometimes a building.

Sometimes, something else than birches appears. Rarely though.

I lose at cards. I fail even at solitaires. Does it mean something?

In Tyumen, we witness the first significant shuffle of passengers. The prim and proper Moscow left. Now we have Russia, the real one. We have potatoes, kielbasa, checked sumkas, fat women, big men, long tipped shoes, aspics, eating on the newspaper, roasted sunflower seeds, a lot of seeds. No vodka. Maybe because it’s expensive?

There are two 220V sockets, constantly occupied by charging cellphones. Only one piece is allowed per socket. Provodnitsa yells when I want to use my adaptor, to plug more than one device; according to her is steals the light.
She yells when I smoke between the carriages. She also runs twice per day with a mop and orders putting legs up – if one reacts too slow, she yells.
In general, when I don’t see her, I don’t hear her. But when I see her, she is always yelling.

Time. Outside – it’s after midnight. In the train – around 9 PM. My watch shows 7 PM.
It doesn’t matter anyway, it’s dark. But you can see some trees outside. Birches, I suspect.

In 12 hours we are in Novosibirsk. And in 24 hrs we’re back in the train.

Good night!