Transiberiano; Camino de Irkutsk / Transsiberian; on the way to Irkutsk

Una vez solucionado, todos los problemas para conseguir el visado y con mas de tres meses de retraso con lo previsto el 7 de diciembre de 2009 cogi en Barajas el avion que tras previo paso por Roma, me llevaria a Moscu. Moscu es la capital de Rusia, pero estamos hablando del pais mas grande del mundo, y mi destino final, Irkutsk se situaba aprox. 5.200 km al este.

En un principio la idea era llegar desde Mieres (Asturias) a Irkutsk (Rusia) utilizando medios de transporte terrestres, principalmente el tren. Sin embargo por su excesiva duracion, y la incopatibilidad de ello con el programa EVS, el trayecto terrestre se redujo de Moscu a Irkutsk, utilizando algo mas de la mitad de la linea popularmente conocida como transiberiano que une Moscu con Vladivostok.
Los motivos principales para ello eran en primer lugar que no tiene sentido acudir a un lugar a trabajar como ecologo, si no predicas con tu ejemplo. Y es que el avion contamina mucho mas que el tren. Y en segundo lugar, tampoco entra en mi cabeza el conceptode mudarme a vivir a perdiendome todo lo que hay en medio, sin poder ver los cambios en el comportamiento de las personas,...
Para recorrer estos 5.200km se necesitan algo mas de 4 dias en el tren. Pero para evitar un colapso nervioso por inactividad, decidi parar un dia en Yekaterinburgo y otro en Novosibirsk. Ademas asi poder tener una idea mas amplia del concepto Siberia. En conjunto desde que llegue a Moscu hasta que finalmente alcance mi destino final transcurrieron 7 dias.

En Moscu ya habia estado dos anos atras, y con un solo dia disponible me limite a recorrer zonas de la ciudad desconicidas y a regresar a otras que me habian gustado. Plaza roja, el paseo a lo largo del rio y calles centrales principalmente, parando de vez en cuando para tomarme los cafes mas caros de mi vida, y es que Moscu de barato no tiene nada.
Mas tarde por fin me reuni con Katia y Ania, las hijas de una amiga de mi profesora de ruso, que muy amablemante me habian ofrecido ensenarme la ciudad y alojamiento para mi noche en Moscu.

El dia 9 de diciembre a las 16.00 de la tarde hora de moscu (Y es que Rusia es atravesada por varias franjas horarias, lo que quiere decir que la hora varia dependiendo de en que region te encuentres, pero no para el tren, ya que en todo el pais el tren sigue la hora de Moscu), comenzo la aventura desde la estacion Yaroslavski y camino de Yekaterinburgh.
Se habia acabado la seguridad aparente que te da el tener un numero de telefono al que llamar en caso de problemas, y el poder recurrir al ingles en caso de aprietos. Ahi estaba yo con tres cincuentonas, avidas de saber como es la vida en espana con toneladas de comida que no dudaron un minuto en ofrecerme y lo mas importante una botella de conac armenio. Una vez comidos, bebidos y su curiosidad saciada cada uno se dedico a sus menesteres, dormir, leer, beber te del omnipresente samabar...
Las noches en el tren son mucho menos pesadas de lo que cabe esperar, ya que cada persono dispone de cama con su respectivo colchon, almohada y sabanas. Unicamente la gente que al pasar roza tus pies puede molestar, y esto solo ocurre en platkart (Es la clase mas barata, en la cual los compartimentos no estan cerrados), si el viajero requiere mas intimidad simpre puede a costa de un mayor precio disponer de un compartimento coupe, aunque este en mi opinion es mucho menos interesante.
A mi llegada a Yekaterinburgh mas de 1 dia despues de haberme montado en aquel tren, me esperaba Alex, un couch surfer que me habia acogido para pasar la noche en la ciudad. Tanto el como Anna su novia, con la que vivia me acogieron como si de un viejo amigo se tratara. Anna preparo una deliciosa cena durante la cual tuvimos unimadas conversaciones, esta vez mezclando el ingles con el ruso acerca de la vida en los Urales, la vida en Espana, y repasando la actualidad mundial como la guerra de Chechenia, Kosovo....temas controversicos y mas estando en Rusia, pero que pudimos debatir en paz. Despues de esto pasamos la noche los tres en la misma hanitacion, tipica salita-habitacion de tiempos sovieticos, eso si ellos en su cama y yo en la mia.

Ya por la manana ellos se disculparon una vez mas por no poder acompanarme en mi visita por la ciudad, pero sus obligaciones se lo impedian. Eso si Alex me llego en si shiguli de 30 anos al cual le fallaba un "poco" el embragre, los frenos, y despedia un denso humo por el escape, pero que consiguio sortear la trampa matinal en que se convierten las calles de Yekateriburgh cuando la gente se dirige a sus puestos de trabajo.
Yekaterinburgh es una ciudad de mas aprox. 1 millon de habitantes, cuya calle principal, para variar se llama Av. Lenina y cuenta con una gran estatua del revolucionario. La ciudad es famosa fundamentalmente por dos cosas, ser la rica capital de los urales y por haber sido el lugar donde los bolcheviques acabaron con el zar, su familia y por tanto con la monarquia rusa. Para conmemorarlo y solo post union sovietica se construllo una iglesia.
La temperatura ya se asemejaba mas a lo que se puede esperar de Rusia en Diciembre (Despues de los decepcionantes 6 grados pasados por agua de Moscu), pero la nieve todavia no hacia acto de presencia.


Tras las visitas de rigor, me hice con comida ya que me esperaba de nuevo un dia entero en el transiberiano camino de Novosibirks. Esta vez me toco una babushka (Abuela) y un dadiuska (Abuelo) que no estaban dispuestos a hablar demasiado y atajaban mis preguntas con afirmaciones y negaciones, probablemente era el primer extranjero que veian. Tras varios intentos me di por vencido, comi algo y a dormir.
Poco mas tarde, tres chavales con pocas ganas de dormir y con muchas de juerga que habian dado cuenta de una botella de vodka, comenzaron con sus canticos, a respetarse mutuamente en voz alta y demas. Uno de ellos sucumbio bajo el vodka, mientras que los otros dos cada vez estaban mas excitados. Y mira tu por donde que uno de ellos me pregunto algo, y al percatarse de que era extranjero, me hice centro de su excitacion. Por lo que me fue imposible rechazar la invitacion a un par de vodkas, a responder un monton de preguntas con poco o ningun sentido, y a escuchar su punto de vista (Y el del vodka) como era vivir en Rusia.
Uno era checheno pero su mujer vivia en Novosibirks y se dirijia a verla y el otro era un ruso medio de unos 30 anos, con una hija que cuidaban sus padres mientras el "se esforzaba" por sacar el permiso de conduccion de locomotoras.
Cuando la conductora del vagon se canso de las voces, y nos llamo la atencion por cuarta vez, yo les convenci para cambiar de sitio e ir entre los vagones donde hay un pequeno habitaculo donde se puede fumar. Al rato querian volver al vagon, pero de nuevo les convenci para tomar una cerveza en el vagon-restaurante, que por desgracia acababa de cerrar. Por lo que fuimos de vagon en vagon intentando convencer a alguna conductora mas permisiva de que nos vendiera una cerveza, y como quien la sigue la consigue aparecieron dos conductoras a las que les gustaba ser aduladas, por lo que ambos utilizandome a mi como pretexto se pasaron 1 hora diciendoles lo guapas que eran y lo buenas que eran. Para mi ya era suficiente y aunque no fue facil al final me permitieron irme.

En Novosibirks me esperaba Johanna una couch surfer alemana con la que habia coincidido en una reunion de CS en Gijon, y que habia estado de profesora en Novosibirks los ultimos tres meses. Y justo la noche que yo iba a pasar en Novosibirks era su ultima noche en Rusia.
Nada mas llegar cogimos un taxi hasta la casa de sus amigas donde habia pasado la ultima semana, y donde yo tambien pasaria la noche. Alli dejamos mis cosas y recogimos a sus 2 I amigas ldiko y Carolin, y sin tiempo para una ducha, acudimos a la presentacion de un festival de cine aleman al que ellas habian sido invitadas, ademas tambien acudimos a la primera pelicula del mismo "krabat"(Entrada de cine mas cara de mi vida por cierto, casi 10 euros). Pero que mas tarde por hazar recupere con creces. Y es que al final de la pelicula, habia un bufet para invitados VIP, con todo tipo de esquiciteces como caviar, salmon, pato y todo ello regado con buen vino y champan... debido a un calenton del alcalde de la ciudad invito al grupo de alemanes con el que yo me encontraba, sin darse cuenta que un espanol mal oliente (Recordemos que mo me habia duchado los ultimos dos dias, ya que en el tren no hay duchas) y hambriento se colaba entre ellos.
Despues un grupo de VIPs junto conlos dos actores principales de la pelicula, decidieron ir de fiesta, llevandose consigo al que creian un trabajador del consulado alemana unos o un consagrado actor espanol que habia trabajado con almodovar otros.

Novosibirks, es la considerada capital de Siberia, titulo que le arrebato a Irkutsk. Cuenta conunos 2'5 millones de habitantes, por lo que se extiende ampliamente por el territorio, no asi su pequeno y poco interesante centro que cuenta con un teatro (Mas grande que el Balshoi de Moscu, dicen) y... buena compania para tomarme un cafe. Y es que para entonces me habia encontrado con las hijas de otra amiga de mi profesora de ruso.

Como agradecimiento a las amigas de Johanna (Para entonces ella se encontraba camino de Alemania), les prepare la tortilla de patata mas rica que existe regada con un vino espanol en cuya etiqueta aparecian la silueta de un toro y una bailaora de flamenco, adquirido a precio de rioja reserva.

Y por fin, ultimo tren antes de mi destino final, eso si, era el trayecto mas largo, un dia y medio con dos noches. Fue ademas el menos interesante de todos porque me toco en el sitio mas incomodo posible, paralelo al pasillo (Mas cortos por lo que no entraba de largo) y al lado de la puerta del servicio que borrachos, fumadores y meones utilizan no menos de 500 veces en una noche (Sobre todo una chica mas bien feona, peliroja y su novio que iba de lado a lado, los cuales pasaron al menos 50 veces en cada direccion), y ademas rodeado de ninos recien llegados de un torneo de Moscu, a los cuales no les atraia en absoluto la idea de escuchar a un estranjero.
Pero la verdad que tampoco necesitaba hablar demasiado esta vez, estaba sumido en una conversacion conmigo mismo en la que trataba de imaginar detalladamente lo que me esperaba.
Por fin, despues de un precioso amanecer siberiano, en el cual los colores rojizos y anaranjados se mezcalaban con el azul del imenso cielo, llegamos a Irkutsk!

Alli me esperaba Natasha, la encargada de mi progrecto, que me condujo primero a mi casa para el siguiente mes y medio (Una residencia para estudiantes), y la oficina.

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Once solved all the problems for getting the viza and delayed more than three months, the 7th of December of 2009 I took the plain at Barajas airport, which after doing a transfer in Rome lead me to Moscow, Russias’s capital. Though we are talking about Russia, the largest country in the world so that I was still 5.200km away to the west from my final destination, Irklutsk.

In the beginning, my idea was to get from Mieres (Asturias) to Irkutsk by land means of transport, mainly by train. However because it would be to long and that was uncompatible with the programme “EVS” I was gonna carry out, we decided to reduce it from Moscow to Irkutsk, using a bit more than have of the worldwide known transsiberian railway, which links Moscow and Vladivostok.

Mainly I had two reasons not to fly directly to Irkutsk, on one hand it has no sense to go over a place to work as environmental scientist, if you don’t lead with the example. Because, the plane is by far more contaminant than the train. And on the other hand I don’t see the point of moving 10.000 km away from your hometown if you don’t see at least a bit about was going on in the middle and also without feeling how progressively people’s behavior changes.


Normally about 4 days are needed to cover this 5.200km by train. But in order to avoid getting bored on board, I decided to stop a day in Yekaterinburgh and other one in Novosibirks. Furthermore I would wider view of what Siberia is. All together it took me 7 days to reach Irkutsk from Moscow.



I had already been in Moscow two years before, and having this time only one day available I decided to walk along the city center over some unknown places, and go back to others I had already been but I liked. The red square, the walk along the river and the streets in the city center, stopping from time to time in order to drink the most expensive coffes in my life, Moscow is not a cheap city at all.


Later on, I met Katia and Ania, the doughthers of a friens of my Russian teacher, who kindly show mw a bit around and host me the night I was going to spend in Moscow.


The 9th of December at 16.00 in the afternoon, Moscow’s time (In Russia there are several time zones, which means that depending on where you are the time may be different from other parts of the country, but not for the train since it always follows Moscow’s time) started the adventure from Yarovslavski station on the way to Yekaterinburgh.



The apparent security of having the possibility of calling to an acquaintance in case of trouble disappeared, or to turn to speak in English. There I was with three women in their 50’s, willing to know things about how life is in Spain and having loads of food and what is more important a bottle of Armenian coniac. Once we all had already eaten, drunk and got the answers we wanted each of us did our own stuff, sleeping, reading, drinking tea from samavar…

Nights on board the train are not as tedious as you may think, every person has a bed with it’s mattress, pillow and sheets. The only thing may disturb is people pushing your feet when passing next to your bed, and that only takes place on the plastkart (It is the cheapest class, on where the compartments are open), but if the traveler requires more privacy there is the possibility of getting a place at the more expensive and less interesting (In my opinion) coupe class.


On my arrival to Yekaterinburgh more than a day after getting into that train, Alex was waiting for me, he was a couch surfer who accepted me to spend overnight at his place. Both Alex or his girlfriend Anna treated me as anf old friend. Anna prepared some food and we had a delicious dinner while we were speaking about Russia, Spain, and other current issues like the war in Chechenia,Kosovo… Topics which could have been conflictive, but we were able to discuss peacefully. Afterwards we spend the night all at the same room, but of course, not in the same bed, it was one of this typical sovietic rooms where the living room and the room are all together.

Already in the morning, they apologized for no being able to show me around, but they had obligations. But Alex was nice enough to take me right to the city center by his Shiguli 30 years old. It didn’t matter if the clutch and brakes weren’t in the best conditions, or the thick smoke from the pipe, he succeed escaping from the traffic trap that the streets became when everyone head to work.


Roughly 1 million people live in Yekaterinburgh, which’s main street is called Ul.Lenina not for being too original, and of course there is a statue of the revolutionary. The city is famous mainly because of two things, It is the reach capital of the Urals and for being the place where bolcheviques killed the tsar, his family and with it the monarchy in Russia. In order to commemorate it a church was built.The temperature was closer to what I expected from Russia in December (After being so disappointed for the wet 6 degree in Moscow), though there wasn’t snow yet.


After visiting the most important highlights that the city may offer, I got some food for the next step on board the transsiberian train on the way to Novosivirks, This time I shared the place with a babushka (Grandma) and a dadiuska (Grandpa) who weren’t willing of talking more than necessary and from whom I just got affirmations and negations. Maybe I was the first foreigner they had ever saw. After some tries I gave up, I ate something and fell asleep.



A bit later, three guys who didn’t feel very much like sleeping but in the mood for parting and after drinking a full bottle of Russian water (vodka), they started to sing quite loudly, to respect each other and so on. One of them surrendered to vodka, while the other two were feeling more and more excited. Eventually one of them asking me something realized that I was foreigner, what made me the center of their excitement. At was impossible by any means to reject their invitation for drinking a couple of vodkas while answering loads of sense or senseless question that they in turns asked me, and also I got to know their (And vodka’s also) point of view about how life is in Russia.One of them was Chechenian and he was heading to Novosivirks to visit his wife and the other an average Russian 30 years old who had a daughter, but his parents where taking care of her while he was struggling to get the license for driving trains.


At some point the wagon’s stewardess got fed up with us, and after some of her complaints and threats I manage to convince them in order to change the place and go to the place between the coaches where it is possible to smoke. After a while they just wanted to go back to the coach but again I could convince them to go instead to the restaurant to drink a beer, which unfortunately was close. They decided to go from coach to coach to try to find a permissive stewardess to get some beers from her, and after a while two of these stewardesses who liked to have three young men around appeared, after that the two Russian guys spent an hour saying how beautiful, intelligent and so on the stewardesses were, but this was too much for me, it wasn’t easy but after that I got to escape back to my seat.



On my arrival to Novosibirks, Johanna a German Couch Surfer who I did met once before in a CS meeting in Asturias and who was living in Novosibirks working as a teacher, was waiting for me at the railway station. And that day was also her last day in Russia. We took a taxi and headed to her friend’s, where we both would spend the night and we picked them up, Idiko and Carolin, and without time even for a shower we jumped back in to the taxi and went to a German film festival presentation. There we also watched the first film that they showed “Krabat” it was by the way the most expensive ticket for a cinema in my life (who the hell said that Russia was cheap?). Though later on I got all the money back, because after the film there was a buffet for VIP’s with all kind of delicatessen like caviar, salmon, duck, good wine and champanscoe… and due to I still don’t know why, the city mayor invited to it the German group which I was with, I guess he didn’t realized that an smelly, hungry Spanish guy was among them (It is goof to remember at this point that I didn’t had a shower last two days, since there are not at the train).


And it didn’t end up there; afterwards one of the real VIP group, which eventually didn’t know we shouldn’t be there and we weren’t as VIP as they were, including the two German actors who played in the film we had just watched, invited us to go to a party. How not to invited important workers at the German consulate in Novosibirks and a young Spanish actor who was acting for Almodovar…


Novosibirks is considered Siberia’s capital, title which snatched from Irkutsk. About 2,5 million people live there. And it is quite spread out along the territory. Though there is a lack of tourist and interesting highlights, since the city center is rather small. The most interesting thing maybe the theater which it is said is the biggest in Russia, even more than the Balshoi theatre in Moscow… and it’s people, at least the once I knew, which again were my Russian teacher’s friends daughters.


I very much appreciate Johanna’s friends (Since by this time she was already back in Germany), so I decided to prepare one of those typical Spanish omelets and also bought some Spanish wine with a bull and a flamenco dancer on the label which cost as much as a good Rioja.



At last I found myself taking the last train before the last destination, though it was the longest one, a day but two nights. And it was the less intereting one also since I got the most uncomfortable place on the train, parallel to the corridor (Shorter than the transversal ones) and right next to the toilet and smoking place, where drunk people and smokers were heading every 30 seconds (Most of the times a red- haired girl and her drunk boyfriend who pushed me no less than 500 times) and also I was surrounded by loads of children who were coming back home from some competition and of course they weren’t attracted at all to talk to a foreigner who was not that easy to understand as their friends.Anyway this time didn’t bother me, because I had the time to think and imagine about my future in Irkutks.


And at the end, after a colorful Siberian sunset we arrived to Irkutsk. There Natasha, my host’s organization coordinator, was waiting for me. After that she took me new place for the next month and a half an my work place for the next year.