I never thought “photographing Russia” would be words I’d be typing as the country was never on my travel list. Just to think what I would have missed out on!. Russia’s got so much to offer and I’m especially glad I got to see an unusual side of it; life on the train.
Taking the train is a standard commuting method in Russia and it offered a glimpse into the lives and minds of ordinary people, something I love finding when travelling. Accompanied by my best buddies, my notebook and camera, I documented everything that I saw and felt on the train so I could look back on it and to pass the time… 80 hours is one long train ride ya’ll, no joke.
So, after a week in Russia, I boarded the Transiberian to head from Moscow to Irkutsk and what follows are some moments my lens capture. By the way, this is part two of a blog series I’ve started on photographs from the Transiberian trip. The first post covered St Petersburg and Moscow, check it out here.
This isn’t the most glamorous photo from the trip but to be honest, it’s not a very glamorous trip. It’s not a luxurious one either, it has the bare necessities as Jungle Book rightfully says and a whole lot of banter and striking scenery. We did go prepared as you can see. Breakfast, snacks, hot pot noodles and tea on the go!
When we did need emergency snacks, we got off at the stops that were every couple of hours to browse through this kiosks. We never bought anything but our Russian roommates did, dried salty fish. Yes, they ate it in our room…yes it had a smell, yes we sprayed a whole lot of re-freshener.
It was fun though, they shared it with us (and a shots of vodka and bread). The most important thing to remember whilst on the train is to be adaptable and to accept. Of course, there are boundaries but these were minor discomforts to put up with that made the trip what it is.
“How did the time pass?” is a question I get all the time about this trip. So here’s what I did; every day I wrote down impressions or things that happened in my journal. This could be people I met, to what I ate and what the scenery was like. I also spent a lot of time in the restaurant cart drinking tea and chatting with people or simply staring out the window. Time would pass gradually, you just have to be patient, but with the constant time change, the day would end before I knew it.
It was in the restaurant cart where I learned that Russia doesn’t have a happy birthday song, (shocking right? I know!) instead one person says a speech complimenting the birthday boy or girl. If you followed my Instagram stories and posts at the time, you would have read this amongst other cool facts I discovered about the country.
The train conductors gathered one day as it was one of the conductor’s birthday and cut up not one but two birthday cakes. Mind you, they were only about 5-6 people. But we got to try some which was nice :)
After 3 days on the train, we arrived at the first stop. Irkutsk, Russia. Known for being the home to the grand Lake Baikal. With only 24 hours to spare (and a long sleep starfishing on a hotel bed after a hot shower finally) we booked a tour guide to show us around. Turns out, Irkutsk is a pretty cool place, aside from the enormous beast that is Lake Baikal, it has a pretty cool architectural and ethnographic museum, a dense forest and a cool fish market.
Before I knew it, I was back on the train for a short 22 hours for the next stop: Mongolia!
Stay tuned for the next photo series from the land of yurts and cashmere.
