OK so I'm on the train. Gorky Park wasn't what I expected (the book I read mainly used it as a place to stash dead bodies) and was actually sort of fun. They'd turned all the pathways into a giant ice rink, with bars dotted around the place and (largely awful) music playing. I pop back to the hostel as I'm meant to be meeting my travel buddies for the next few weeks, but fortunately most of them are up for going ice-skating. Unfortunately I'm not as good at ice-skating as I'd hoped, and being overtaken constantly by Russian kids doing pirouettes whist texting isn't great for morale.

I'll be travelling with five Australians, two Norwegians, two Danes and an Irish. Its about 50-50 on gender too, and everyone is nice so I think this will turn out OK! We're shepherded onto the train by our Moscow honcho, all stocked up on noodles, soups and whatever else can be made using the constant hot water supply we've been assured of. Plus vodka. Lots of vodka. Its 4 days and nights on a Russian train after all.

So here's how the trans-siberian railway works; we're in 2nd class, which means cabins about the size of an average garden shed sleeping 4 people, each with a little table. Its cosy. When I say cosy I mean hot. Russians aren't fans of a breeze, so everything is super insulated and heavily heated. 3rd class is just one big room with beds all the way to the ceiling - I'm glad we're not here, its like a post apocalypse medical ward. We're not allowed to see 1st class because we don't know Putin.

Our carriage has about 6 or 7 cabins, a toilet at each end, a hot water tap, and our very own attendant. We've got lucky, as our attendant is very friendly.....I hope she is being friendly anyway, I can't understand a word she says and even her sign language seems to be in Russian. She smiles a lot anyway, which is a bit of a novelty for Russia. I think buying some slippers from her early on has endeared me to her a little.

We move a bit, then stop a bit, usually in some frozen wasteland of a station where a couple of old ladies are selling nuts and guerkins. There really isn't much to do, so the vodka comes out fairly quickly. And so it begins.