A 24 hour train ride, many pine forests and an eternity at the Mongolian border later we were at the Russian border. Along with our Dutch room mates we were a little nervous, Russians have a reputation. They didn't let us down!!

The process began with someone literally barking at us for passports, a cabin search and then a sniffer dog. After all that, and a further eternity, they let us in!!

A toilet stop bought our first contact with a 'real' Russian. She yelled at us (in Russian, fair enough) that she had no change (to use the toilet) and banged her till up and down for emphasis. b***** you, I'll hold it I said. I did, for about an hour, then I found some change and sheepishly headed back for round 2. On entry I immediately felt bad for her, no wonder she hates her life, a s*** job in every meaning of the word.

It was here at the border we had been told to try and fix our train ticket. Apparently the carriage attendant could do it. First she blatantly ignored Emmett's excuse me's, then when it was evident he wasn't going away, wheeled around gave him a look which insinuated she wished him dead and exclaimed "WHAT!". It seems she was only helpful when trying to sell souvenirs. I like to call her Svetlana.

2 from 2 with the Russians and I was wondering if it was too late to turn back to the lovely Mongolians. Reluctantly we headed into the station to see if they could fix our tickets, and God Bless, we met a friendly Russian! With us speaking English and she Russian we muddled through and successfully (so we thought) bought a ticket for the same train from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard?

Back on the train and Russia whizzed by. The countryside is incredibly beautiful, so very green and lush. Unfortunately every now and the a village or small town would come into view. The villages were full of ramshackle wooden houses, some with hideous smoke spewing factories thrown in. Each town looked the same and they all looked deserted. Very odd.

We had almost arrived at Ulan Ude and we rechecked our new ticket. Slowly it dawned on us the ticket was for the next day. This left us arriving in a small Russian town at midnight with nowhere to sleep. Excellent. Now before you all think, "how stupid are these two?" let me explain. Obviously we don't speak or read Russian which makes things hard in the first place. Add to this the fact that every train ticket you buy in Russia is in Moscow time, which often isn't the same time as where you are buying the ticket from. Couple this with all the different time zones we keep crossing. As a result I really had no idea what was happening.

Pulling ourselves (or me anyway) together we figured in the 40 minute stop we could try and change our ticket. Considering our run ins with the Russians so far I would have preferred to pull my own tooth out. The Lonely Planet of old said there were rooms at the train station, could it be that easy?

Here my loathing of the Cyrillic Alphabet began. No English in sight and a complete lack of signs as it is. After asking numerous people and 3 laps of a multi story train station we were looking forward to a night on the street. Then this plain white, non signed door opened and a lady popped her head out and made a sleeping sign. Someone had obviously called her to advise two simpletons were sweeping the building for her beds. She was helpful, friendly and even smiled at us! Being in a train station I thought we may have to line the bed with paper to maintain some level of cleanliness. When she opened the door to a big, shiny, clean, private room I almost hugged her. I held back and told her I loved her instead.