Snakes on a Train

I just returned from a trip to Kazan' and Ulyanovsk, two cities on the Volga River in central Russia. They contain high levels of the Tatar people, which gives the area an interesting twist. Photos and further reports about the trip will be given in later posts...

Kazan' is about a 15 hour train ride from Moscow, but a few friends and I decided to take a weekend to explore the area despite the long ride. We rode on the плацкарт (platzkart), which is a train car consisting of beds set up that you sit/sleep in. Trains offer a surprisingly high level of comfort-with beds instead of seats, available snacks, and some really sweet toilets (don't ask). I was on the top bunk for this trip, and spent most of my time hanging out up there reading, watching movies on my computer, and looking out the window at the landscape of Russia's heartland. I should say that a large reason I took this trip was to get a good view of the real Russia, not just the capital.

As night came on, I found myself looking up to the sky as we slowly crept along the steppe. The Moscow sky constantly hides the stars from the Muscovites (in answer to Ryan's question on a previous post, no I never see the stars). This night was cloudy as well, but just as the train was rocking me to sleep, I saw a single star poking through the clouds. The effect of tiny star on my mood shocked me. I snapped wide awake, searching for other stars to fill in the blank spots on the sky. As the train moved forward, more and more stars began to pierce through the clouds until the entire sky was completely filled with a surprising pallet of stars. My face came close to pressing against the frost bitten glass of the train window as I looked at the incredible scene.

Eventually the sky was hidden again by the surrounding trees, and cloud cover-but this one brief moment impressed me in some quite personal ways. I love living in the Moscow megopolis so far, and honestly really I wouldn't mind staying. However, there are definitely things I miss about the impressive natural arena that I grew up around.