Tomsk to Irkutsk – 1,5 days on the train through siberian Taiga

On Sunday evening I left Tomsk for my longest ride so far to Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia near lake Baikal, which should take 35 hours.

When I went to the bus station it started to snow., which seemed to be quite weird with having more then 30 degrees two days before. Nevertheless after one hour of waiting for the departure I entered the train which took me without any complications in 1,5 hours to the main train station in the middle of nowhere – Taiga.

In the small city of Taiga there was not supposed much to be going on except waiting for my train at 3 a.m. I spent this six hours with reading “Moskau – Petuski”  from russian writer Wenedikt Jerofejew which describes the life of a guy sitting and drinking between the two cities. Lots of weird stories happened on his train. At 1 a.m. when things started to get lazy and tired one of those russian police officers, which controlled the train station, turned on the TV on and suddenly the waiting room got filled up with all people that were around. Reason for this was the final of the Icehockey World Championship where Russia played Finland. Russia should win the game 5-2.

Finally the train to Irkutsk arrived. Sleeping, reading, eating and snoring accompanied by different odors in the compartment for 26 hours. I am still wondering who had the idea to heat up the wagon to 28 degrees during night. 24 degrees during the day were quite ok…

On tuesday morning then I arrived finally in Irkutsk and made a 30 min walk to my hostel.

5 thoughts on “Tomsk to Irkutsk – 1,5 days on the train through siberian Taiga”

  1. Hallo Stefan, ich bin ganz begeistert von Deinen Berichten und habe Deinen Blog an alle unsere Kinder wei8tergeschickt, außer Andrea und Barbara, der Du selbst geschrieben hast. Das sind ja tolle Entfernungen und super Erlebnisse. Die Fotos sind durchwegs sehr interessant. Die sibirischen Häuser sind besonders schön. Ich bewundere Dich, wie Du Dich so weit weg von daheim und meistens alleine durchschlägst. Wünsche Dir weiterhin alles, alles Gute und pass auf Dich auf ! Ich denke sehr oft an Dich.
    Viele Grüße Deine Oma

  2. My dear Mister singing-club!

    that makes you nobody so quickly after!

    take yourself in eight,
    and out the mouse…

    On again see and until boid!

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