The rest of the days on the train went much the same, it was slow and uneventful. Often my kindle and phone would run out of battery so I had no choice but to just watch the world pass by the window. I have never felt so relaxed, being stuck on the train was probably really good for me, I'm never still for 5 minutes, I'm always working my way through a list, a few projects on the go, trying to achieve some New milestone. Now all I could do was just sit and enjoy the moment, and I loved it, I didn't want to be anywhere else, I think this is called being content, but its my first time so I'm not quite sure. Mostly we read, drank, played cards, and made up games using whatever we had to hand like an elastic band or fruit.
Every now and again we would stop at some tiny station and everyone on the train would get excited and be peering out the window like kids, trying to get a glimpse of the new stop, then we would all pile out and just stand on the platform. At every station people would turn up with boxes or carts and try and sell you stuff, they obviously put a lot of effort in, knowing that the train is coming and there will be hundreds of people who have been stuck on a train for at least a day eager to stock up, one particular lady must of thought long and hard about what she would offer us, no doubt stocking her stall in anticipation for all those potential customers, she had every kind of s*** you could never want, but no food no drink and no toilet roll, she had puppets, backscratchers and huge paintings which I'm sure would have looked great in our cabin but I'm not sure i would have liked to eat it or wipe my arse with it, don't think ill be seeing her on the next series of Dragons Den or the Apprentice. At another station I saw some strawberries and got way too excited, and Dan showed us some doughnuts he had bought, i couldn't contain myself after days of powdered meals that you added hot water too, it seemed too good to be true, i ran around looking at the ladies boxes trying to find the one full of doughnuts. I was so excited I got back on the train early to tuck in to my culinary delights. As with most things that seem to good to be true it was, my strawberries were rotten and biting in to my doughnut I found that it was full of offal. I've decided to make a new rule, never eat anything with a name that sounds disgusting or rhymes with awful, I confronted Dan and told him i felt betrayed and deceived, I guess it was my own thought for taking advise on food from someone that ate kippers in brine from the tin.
The scenery was mostly just green vastness and a lot of Christmas trees, dotted with funny looking towns with only mud roads and weird houses. Every house was different but the most popular design had an upstairs that was dome shaped and bigger than the downstairs, they looked like windmills, but without the sails. At one point I woke up and Steve wasn't around, we had stopped so I went to look for him, I found him in a shop and asked for some money to go to the toilet, as I came out of the toilet I tripped up some steps big style, all over the top like only I could, it was ok only a handful of people sore, I got up and went out of the exit trying not to make eye contact with the people laughing at me. In front of me the train was preparing to leave, I ran towards it and climbed on, as I did I realised that all the Chinese men running the train looked a lot more Russian and feminine than when I left, realising I had got on the wrong train I jumped off, I couldn't figure out what had happened, this was exactly where my train was, they are always quick to go and they make it clear that they won't wait. I started to panic, I couldn't see any of the other passengers from my train. Then I realised that the whole platform was back to front, when I came out of the toilet I must have come out on the opposite side, I ran around the main building to see everyone getting on my train and Katut pulling the steps up, I jumped on relieved that I hadn't been left behind. I got to our cabin and realised Steve wasn't there, I checked the toilets, no sign of him, the train was now making the noises it makes just before it pulls off, ill admit I may have been slightly histerical now, I started asking everyone on the train if they had seen Steve, a couple of people started helping me look up and down the train and out the windows, me and Dan went to tell the guard, but he just kept saying no, I tried to get off but Katut wouldn't let me, I've seen this kind of thing in films and I knew what I had to do, I was considering pushing Katut off the train and using him to land on, then running across the platform to rescue Steve, scooping him up and carrying him whilst running to jump on the back of the train as it pulled off. Just when i thought i had no option but to open up a can of whoopass on Katut i spotted Steve, he was far down the platform. I'm sure if I would have been close enough I would have heard him going dum dee dum la la la. I was shouting and waving like a crazy at him, seeing me he ran (slightly walked faster whilst moving his arms to make it look like he was running - you know the way all old people and Steve do) and Katut lowered the steps for him to jump on. Realising the panic he had caused on board he naturally blamed me, and played it down. So after that i didn't dare close my eyes for the rest of the trip in case be wondered off again and got lost, but apart from that it was pretty uneventful.