As we approach day 4 on the train, everyone starts to appreciate the occasional stops a little more - if only to remind us why they keep the carriages so effing hot. The coldest recorded temperature so far has been -21. It makes your eyes water and then your tears freeze onto your face, and also makes your joints and teeth ache if you stay out there longer than about 20 minutes. We entertain ourselves with little strolls or mad dashes to the supermarkets if the town is big enough and time allows - although losing sight of the train does inspire a certain fear, these aren't towns you'd want to be stuck in. We've even had a close call where we thought we'd lost Irish in some dark looking little town. Turns out she was drinking beer with some Russians in 3rd class, working ever so hard to perpetuate the stereotype.

There is also a restaurant carriage, where most of the action happens. On night 1 we witness a full-on, if short, drunken brawl. We've also hosted a Siberian giant who downed half a bottle of our vodka before spewing it against the carriage door later in the night, and the friendly train waitress Olga wandered in completely smashed and forced us to eat a trayfull of melted ice-cream before she would leave. Our train attendant despairs of all this, and reprimands us regularly now - sometimes physically. This is Russia I suppose.

There was also an unsavoury incident with a stolen laptop and some terrifying scar-covered skinheads, but it'd be unfair to tarnish the whole country with this. Every country in the world has its a*******s, and these are really to first we've come across in five days.

We leave the train tomorrow, which I'm sort of sad about, unexpectedly. Its sort of home now, and its incredibly cold outside. Plus I've bought enough noodles to see me through another month.

It is sort of pretty out though, maybe it'll be good.