Ministry in Australia

long day for us and we were far too tired to wait for the night to come. We went to sleep still in broad daylight.

At day break we arrived at Ulan Ude, where the train line from Vladivastok joined ours. Shortly afterwards we came to Lake Baikal. It is said to be the largest fresh water lake in the world, it was immense! We couldn't see the other side. The deepest place is 1620 m, and it contains 20% of the world's fresh water. Towards the western shore, where the lake narrowed, I saw some foam floating on the lake. It looked like industrial pollution, which was confirmed later on.

The train took three hours along the lake before we came into Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia. This was the first big city in Russia since the border. We were able to buy some cream buns on the platform and a big loaf of heavy Russian black bread. It was good to be able to stretch our legs, walking along the whole length of the train and we had a brief glimpse of the city from the station.

After Irkutsk, the nights never got completely dark. We had come close to the Arctic Circle and we had to learn to go to bed in bright daylight, and wake with the sun again high in the sky. We tried to buy some more food in Krasnoyarsk, but had no luck. Although the landscape didn't change, we saw more villages along the train line. Homes were all built from timber, and each one was surrounded by a garden with potatoes growing. At a smaller station Russian babushkas were selling sour cucumber, potato salad, sauerkraut and even strawberries. But we were too slow, it was all snapped up by the more experienced travellers.

When the four of us walked along the corridors to have our dinner, the dining car was locked. We had miscalculated the time. All time tables on the train were running on Moscow time. We had adjusted our watches according to local times at the stations, and so we missed out on a meal. But luckily we had our provisions from Beijing! We invited Don and Leslie to bread, cottage cheese, roast duck (full of bones) and beetroot, followed by plums. It was certainly better than starving!

In Sverdlovsk I tried again to buy some bread. There were two shops on the platform, both had attendants inside, but they just didn't open. I knocked at the window, but the answer came from inside: "nyet!" and that was it. It could have meant 'don't bother me now, I don't want to, why should I sell you something which means work for me, etc.' Nobody cared, although a whole train full of people wanted to buy some food, which we could see in the kiosk. I didn't like the system.

We tried three times to go to the dining car to get some lunch, but it was "nyet" again. It certainly was not our day! When it finally opened there was such a rush, that we missed out on the first session, so we decided to join the queue. Whilst waiting a Russian pointed out that we had just crossed the border into Europe. We were in the Ural mountains, and we hadn't noticed it. They were low hills, without any rough peaks. Don and Leslie invited us for a dinner which was brought to us in baskets.

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