"Surviving a violent attack" Our hopes were to only spend one full day in Ulaanbaatar. It was cold, and we wanted to move on to Beijing. Mongolia is a country better seen in the summer. The plan was to meet the Swedes and the Australians at the train station in the morning to buy tickets to China. I could not find any of them when I got there, after walking the 40 minutes it took to get down there. I figured I should try to find my ticket, and starte...

"What, did you take the bus?" On the train out of Irkutsk I met the Swedish guys, Adam, Victor and Victor, and the Australian guys, Luke and Pete. The first thing we did was to eat. Pete and Luke had planned that everyone should bring a dish, and some beverages for this train ride, so we did. The Australians brought different Russian food, including a salad, some Pelmini, and let me not forget the 18 eggs Luke had so perfectly boiled. (This was the f...

"Irkutsk: 5185 km / 3221 miles east of Moscow, by train" There is no doubt that Irkutsk is the most beautiful of the Russian cities I have visited. The city is bigger than Oslo, but even in the city center there are small wooden houses, from long before Soviet times. They have great wooden carvings all over, and they are painted in many different colors. A huge majority are falling apart, which provides many opportunities to take interesting photos...

"An international conglomerate" The train ride from Omsk to Irkutsk turned out to be a really funny one. Different nationalities were represented; among a couple others there were Russians, a Norwegian, Swedish, Australian and Italian. This train ride was about two and a half day, so I had lots of time to get to know all kinds of people in the train. The only ones I did not get to know were the Soviet Army Soldiers who stayed in my train car. The...

"A royal flush" At the train station in Omsk, a city of over one million people, my host Alexey met me outside my train car. A very steady man, despite of his slippery, but shiny shoes. He wore a leather coat with a nice fur collar, and a nice Russian style hat. Always looking strong he kept his back straight. He insisted to help me carry my bag, and he helped me buying a ticket to Irkutsk. Alexey took me home to meet his lovely wife Tanya. They got...