Irkutsk: Mile 4819

On Tuesday night I headed out with 5 other people from my hostel to the station for the first leg of the Trans-Siberian railway. Leaving Moscow at 21:35 and arriving at Irkutsk a little over 3 days later. Traveling second class you get 4 beds per cabin with the bottom bunk doubling as seats, I was sharing with an English guy who was traveling to Irkutsk like me and a Russian man and woman who were getting of at earlier stations. They were both very friendly, with the man (apparently an officer in the Russian army) very keen on English football, unfortunately neither myself or Ben (my cabin mate) know much about English football players so much of the first night passed with us agreeing that the players he liked were very good?. They both shared their food and drink with us and the lady gave me a horn from a buffalo that had been turned into a cup. As the train traveled through the Urals and into Siberia, we spent our time watching the world go buy, eating pot noodles, buying food from the locals at the station, drinking vodka and playing cards. The time passed quickly with our Provodnitsa making sure we were back on the train after stops, keeping our cabin clean and keeping the carriage heated to an overly warm 27 degrees (by shoveling coal into the boiler 24 hours a day). The view was a mix of snow, trees and industry. We pulled into Irkutsk at 5am local time which is Moscow + 5 (GMT +8), things must have gotten warmer as it was only -20 degrees centigrade.