Krasnoyarsk, May 23rd 2010

It is already some time since i boarded the train in Kharkov, Ukraine.

The day before departure, one of my room mates in the hostel i stayed in, Jens - who has been living in the Ukraine for almost a decade -, got me a luggage ticket for my bike. As these stories always turn out, the wagon manager did not accept either my bike nor the ticket. Jens was able to smooth things out with a 30 euro additional fee:-(

And off i went for 3 boring days. Fortunately, i boarded in the evening and was able to sleep pretty soon.At midnight, we passed the border into Russia; passports and everything were checked. They had some difficulties with my passport as i was in their view a "far-away-foreigner". So not one from the neighbouring countries. But with a few remarks about Marco van Basten en Ruud van Nistelrooy i informed them that i was Dutch:-) In these hectic moments, i did not get nor applied for a so-called immigration card.

On the second day, we crossed the European-Asian landmark and passed through the Ural mountains. Honestly speaking, i had expected something more impressive and some sloping hills, and within a few hours, we had left the mountains behind us to began to traval through the immense Taiga (forest in Russian). The landscape was dominated by birches and pine trees.

My fellow passengers were nice. Some of them spoke English, so i able to chat the hours away. The ipod which i had received as birthday present from Barbara also helped in the boring moments:-)

On May 9th i arrived in Novosibirsk. This day is also the celebration on Russia's victory over Nazi Germany, and one of the most important holidays in Russia.

Schatje, thanks for resizing the pictures for me! Love you!

View from the train as we were entering the Urals

One of the many stops were people were able to buy some refreshments or other useful items

I was located in the last wagon 

This is what the inside looked like. Nothing changed in the last 40 years, pure nostalgia!

The highway from Novosibirsk to Tomsk.

One of my camping places.

This sort of camping in actually not recommended as these woods are crawling with ticks.

A safer place is to camp on open farm lands (but trying to find one is a completely dirrerent story...)