Interesting people

We left the hotel and headed for the station. I, in what would appear is my usual style these days, went into blind panic after being in the station for nearly a whole minute and not being able to locate our platform. We had established that our platform was number 1 and all the signs made reference to platforms 2-9. To cut a long story short we finally found a sign in an inconspicuous corner of the station and found it. Our carriage was number 14; the train eventually finished at carriage 13. It turns out we were waiting for the carriage to be added. When it was, complete pandemonium broke out as about 80 people clambered to get on. In our cabin there was a man in his 40s with 2 suitcases, and a younger man turned up with an assortment of luggage. Completely in the dark (the electric hadn't been switched on) we came to a strained agreement as to what to put where. Matt and I had both bottom bunks which isn't great. As it was gone 2am we made up our bunks as the 2 men watched on and muttered and eventually came and sat down on them. When they went for a smoke we went to bed and they took the hint.

The next day we chatted to a few people from a tour group on board. Half the carriage was made up of Russian soldiers wandering around topless for the most part. A young soldier, whose bottom row of teeth seemed to be entirely gold coloured, came and sat in our cabin; he dragged in his somewhat reluctant mate who was much less inebriated and possibly a little embarrassed. He seemed to be focussing on me in particular and as the language barrier was an issue he leapt up when a young girl passed, I'm guessing he wanted to use any potential language skills she may have had; anyway her mother promptly whisked her into the cabin at the speed of light. A few minutes later my soldier friend returned with a Russian bloke in tow who greeted us with 'Good evening.' I think he had gone down the carriage asking if anyone spoke English and this poor unsuspecting man had foolishly said he spoke 'a little.' I suspect the extent of his English was the 'good evening' he had greeted us with as after a few exchanges between the 2 men, he bid a hasty retreat. The soldier returned again, this time with the tour leader from the group who spoke English. He left and some women tried to sell us some furry hats; he then returned yet again after a 10 or so minute break, which he had evidently used to consume more alcohol (and, it appeared, to wet himself) as this time he told me I was beautiful and he loved me. He eventually went; he took my pencil but it was a small price to pay. This whole thing seemed to break the ice with our 2 cabin mates as we hadn't spoken all day and Matt went on to have a beer or 6 with them.