They say that if you want to understand Russia, you have to experience the Russian winter, see the snow-covered domes with your own eyes and walk through the Taiga forests in the cold wind...
People say that if you want to understand Russia, you have to experience the Russian winter, see the snow-covered domes with your own eyes and go through the Taiga forests in the cold wind... We had such a winter, taking the Trans-Siberian train from West to East, a distance of over 4,300 km, in the coldest weather in the land of birch trees.
Trans-Siberian
The main route of the Trans-Siberian Railway begins in Moscow, running through Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita and Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. Spanning 9,259 km, spanning 7 time zones and taking 8 days to complete the journey, the Trans-Siberian is the third longest continuous railway line in the world.
Stops on the journey
Our train departs from the capital.Moscowwith Red Square - considered the heart and soul of Russia. Winter comes to change the clothes of Saint Basil's Cathedral, freeze the surface of the Moskva River, and breathe cold breath on every corner of the street here. People light up the buildings with warm yellow lights that give off a fairy-tale feel. In Moscow, the winter atmosphere is so familiar to the people that this place has to use artificial snow at the end of the year, when the weather is not cold enough, to evoke emotions for the sacred moments of New Year and Christmas.
After Moscow, we came to the "third capital" of Russia - the cityKazan, the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers. With more than 1,000 years of history, Kazan still retains almost intact the unique features of its massive, epic architectural works, especially the Kazan Kremlin complex built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. The entire Kazan is also covered in white, from the Agricultural Palace, where the Ministry of Agriculture is located, with its prominent mosaic of the "tree of life", to the bustling Bauman pedestrian street and many parks with small lakes, now turned into ice skating rinks for city residents.
Continuing the Trans-Siberian train journey, we stopped atYekaterinburg- the fourth largest city in Russia, the capital of the Ural region. Located in the center of the Eurasian continent, on the border of Europe and Asia, Yekaterinburg is rich in cultural and ethnic diversity. This place also witnessed the end of the Tsarist monarchy. In 1917, in this city, the Bolsheviks assassinated the family of Emperor Nicholas II - the last Tsar in the history of Russia. The place where they were executed was later built into the Church on the Blood ("church on blood"), and their burial place is now the Ganina Yama chapel. In the quiet moments of watching the Urals winter from the high tower, it seems like you can hear the hundred-year sigh of history on the ashes of the descendants of Peter the Great.
At the end of our journey, the Trans-Siberian train stopped in the cityIrkutsk, the capital of the East and also the gateway to the famous freshwater lake Baikal. At this time, the temperature in Baikal has reached -35oC. In winter, the entire 600 km of the lake's surface is frozen, and the ice is so thick that it can be used as a highway for cars to drive across the lake in half a day! On the ice, people walk around taking photos, skiing, fishing, lighting fires to cook, drinking by drilling holes to pour Vodka into, and enjoying the artistic "blue eye of Siberia". What's more, you can crawl inside the ice cave to see the snow crystals, which are inaccessible in the summer because these caves are submerged under the water.
The “dream” train of dreams
The Trans-Siberian Railway is short for the giant "trans-Siberian" railway network, which runs largely across Russia from East to West, with one side connecting to the European rail system and the other touching the tip of Asia at Vladivostok.
At Vladivostok, passengers can continue their journey by ferry to South Korea and Japan. Meanwhile, in Asia, the railway branches off into two more branches: the Trans-Manchurian branch heading to the Chinese capital Beijing, and the Trans-Mongolian branch heading to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar and then crossing the Gobi Desert into China.
Once you board the Trans-Siberian train, your passport will be stamped with visas for Schengen, Eastern European countries, Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, etc. Some passengers will choose to travel from East to West (Westbound), others will choose to travel from West to East (Eastbound), some groups will travel in winter, some will prefer summer, people will get on and off at different stations, stopping to enjoy different places with different periods of time. Rarely anyone takes the same Trans-Siberian journey and rarely anyone can boast that they have traveled the entire legendary railway! It is still worthy of being the dream of dreams, the train that passes through the most stations, carries the most emotions, and marks the strangest experiences.
At each stop, people get off the train to smoke, stretch their legs or play in the snow. Some get off, some get on, some get off, all ethnicities and religions, countless ages and genders. The whole world seems to gather here, a bustling mix of nationalities, colorful stories, a variety of spoken and non-spoken languages. The scenery is rich and different day and night, welcoming the sunrise or seeing off the sunset changes color every day, life recedes in strange ways… And anyone returning home from the Trans-Siberian train will still imagine the rumbling of each wheel, the sound of the train whistle, the screeching of the cymbal each time it moves, dynamic yet very still, as it occasionally returns in my dreams.
More information
Book train tickets:
- Websites like Seat61 or RealRussia can help you find out in advance about train types and train times between stations.
- Train tickets can be purchased directly from the website of the Russian State Railways (RZD). Tickets are sold a year in advance and are sold at the original price in RUB. In addition, RZD also has a mobile app for passengers to manage their accounts, allowing for quick changes or refunds/cancellations.
- Each time you buy, you can choose tickets for up to 8 people, choose your own bed or compartment according to your needs, which will clearly state which compartment has air conditioning, how many bunks, whether meals are included or not, and even whether dogs and cats are allowed on board.
Services on board:
- You can dine in the dining compartment, which serves European food and Russian specialties; or buy food from the carts with a variety of bread, noodles, and drinks.
- Not only food and drinks, the carts on the train also sell coffee pots, crystal cups, enamel mugs and many unique souvenirs.
- Some ships have guest bathrooms for about $3/use.
