Trans Siberian Diary (cont.)

July 6th 10AM
Today, we hopped off the Trans Siberian Railway and spent the day in Tomsk. Tomsk is a university city known for it's beautiful traditional Siberian 'wooden lace' architecture.

July 7th, Noon
Our train from Tomsk to Irkutsk has a much more retro feel to it than our first train. We're sharing our cabin with two Russian guys. Vladimir is a student at Tomsk State University, the first university in Siberia. He's on his way home to Ulan Ude, the capital of the Republic of Buryatia. Ulan Ude is home to many Buryats -- the largest indigenous group in Russia. It's going to take Vladimir three days to get home. Can you imagine? From Vassar, it only took me two hours on the Metro-North! I think he's really excited about seeing his family. He keeps saying, "Two more days, I home. One more day, I home." It's really cute!

The other guy, Alexander, well, he doesn't speak a word of English so it's hard to get to know him. I wish I spoke some Russian. The only Russian words I know are 'da' (yes), 'nyet' (no), and 'spasiba' (thank you). I should probably try to learn some useful phrases.

Vladimir in our cabin

A little bit of history about the Trans Siberian Railway. Construction of the railway began in the late 19th century, mainly to foster industrial development in Siberia. And after more than 10 years, the railway was completed allowing millions of people to migrate to Siberia.

Now there are three lines that branch out of the main Trans Siberian line: the Trans Manchurian, the Trans Mongolian, and the Turkestan Siberian. We will be traveling on the Trans Mongolian line to Ulaanbaator and then to China. Apparently, there are plans to build a Trans Korean line but tensions between North and South Korea is delaying the process. A train trip through Eastern Russia, Harbin, and Pyongyang sounds tempting!