Into the unknown and Tone has an exchange with a Russian lady!

Yesterday we set off from Warsaw to travel overnight to Moscow via Belarus.

We had visas in our passports and knew the trip would take from 3.45 on Sunday
to nearly noon on Monday but we did not really know what to expect of the overnight train.
We repacked our bags so that all we needed was in our back packs and planned a snack lunch and
dinner on the train as we had been assured there would be a restaurant car attached once we
reached Belarus.

In the café at the station in Warsaw was a large Photograph of a lady on a horse racing against a steam engine called "Princess Louise" which was a 4-6-2 Princess Class locomotive built in Crewe in Cheshire the town where Tony was born! Why is it there? Tone

The train came in on time and our carriage was right at the back. There were other Brits on the train.
Six chaps from Yorkshire travelling from Batley to Beijing. Actually it was another place in Yorkshire beginning with B but I don't remember the name. They were in sleeping compartments on either side of ours so we got chatting straight away.

They had gin and tonic and smelly cheese and bread that they had brought with them that morning from Batley. A jolly lot apart from their glorious leader who was not interested in what we were doing as  he only wanted to tell us where he had been. It was odd really given the response we have been having.

He and his friends were well travelled and we all go on well.

I was slightly alarmed when I saw what was to be our little home for the next 24 hours. It was rather as Grandpa had described his carriage but less luxurious. Bunk beds each with a bedding pack and two pillows and the option to have a third bunk which would have meant sleepers would have been like sardines and probably unable to turn over in bed.
We all agreed that it was lucky we were travelling first class!

The loos left a lot to be desired. How can a loo which has a water supply to flush it and drains straight
down a 9" hole onto the track smell?  What is to smell. Naïve I know. Someone is missing the loo!!
And to add to the inconvenience the loos are locked at least 20 minutes before and after a station. That  is fair enough as if I lived near a station I would not want loos emptying out of train near me but we would have liked some warning!

So on we go. The train left on time and we were offered a cup of tea. We are used to drinking black tea now and it was delicious. It was served in glasses in a fancy silver coloured holder with a very ornate spoon for stirring. A pic will be in the gallery.

Then we were given immigration forms to fill in. Like the ones you fill in when you go to the USA. They always make me nervous in case I fill in the wrong space. There was an English translation which said no mistakes and no blots! Enough to make you get it wrong and make blots too.

We were warned that the loos would be shut for 3 hours as we crossed the Polish/Belarus Border and had our bogies changed.

Grandpa writes of the border crossing and says that the train track is fenced off so you cannot leave the train and if you did you could not leave the station. It is the same today!

Guards in many different uniforms with those big peaked caps came onto the train. They all have guns and are not in the habit of speaking to you let alone smiling. All rather intimidating. Tone and I were playing cards by now  to pass the time and looking forward to supper as we were really hungry.

We still had to change the bogies. The tracks which Russian trains run on are 6.5 inches wider than the tracks than the standard ones so when trains get to the Russian border they are shunted into a shed, lifted off their little bogies which are widened to make bigger bogies and the train is lowered back onto the track. All this is seeming rather unladylike and I am so sorry. But that is what happened.
We got on our way again and our lovely attendant who I will call Boris told us that there was a restaurant car further up the train.  Tone went off to reconnoitre. He was gone quite a long time and I was beginning to worry when he reappeared. He was huffing and puffing and I wondered what was wrong.

To make his way down the train he had had to pass through several other sleeper carriages. If someone passes through the carriage everyone else has to step into their compartments to let the person through. There was singing and lots of noisy people as he passed through until he came to a carriage door which he could not open. He pulled and pulled but could not get it open. On the other side was a fierce lady who was waving her arms at him and shouting, in Russian, naturally.  He pulled the door and she held onto it to stop him opening it. She shouted at him and he shouted at her and she won!

She would not let him through here carriage to get to the dining car and that was the
end of it. And the end of our plans to eat supper last night. I am sure Boris would not have been so rude.

We had some biscuits and had another cup of Boris's lovely tea and played more cards till we went to bed.

We had heard a conversation going on between the 6 chaps from Batley about who would make up their beds. They were mainly retired army from Sandhurst and the like so I expect they were hoping for a batman to appear. However in the absence of said batman they did it themselves and the conversations were very funny.