Having arrived, flustered and flushed, the SteppeSister Family made their way down the musty, narrow corridor to our rooms. Soviet-style trains used all throughout the former CIS are dated in every respect. The curtains are made of dingy, fraying synthetic material, every crack and crevice has greasy, sticky grime embedded deeply within, and the stench coming from the toilet overpowers each passenger as they make their way along the car. Running down the length of each car along the corridor is a long rug. It is cleaned once each day with a wet broom. Filthy would not even begin to describe it.
The conductor’s job involves many things including taking tickets, managing the transient peddler’s, “cleaning” his car, selling and distributing each passenger’s bedding bundle, operating the car’s lights, heating, or A/C (when those are working), keeping the hot water in the built-in coal fired water heater that passengers use for tea or instant noodles and scheming whatever other ways he can to turn a profit.
Upon entry the first order of business is to stow away our bags and boxes. Above each set of the top bunks is an open compartment for things you have brought on board. Sending one of the kids higher up, we assembly-line style stowed some of our stuff. The other things ended up under the lower bunks in the storage areas there. These spaces are horribly inconvenient, as not only are the “lids” (which are beds), incredibly heavy, but a hassle to get in and out of. No one likes their bed torn apart and remade over and over. One sack always remains under the little table that sits under the window between the 2 lower bunks. In it would be our food and water for the 24 hour trip.
Oh! It’s so hot in here! I know! Let’s open the window! Oops, too bad! Suffer on Riders of Despair! After stowing the luggage, it’s time for the typical inevitable arguments to ensue: Who claims which bed? The obvious answer would be big kids up, little kids and parents down. But sadly, this decision will in part have been made for us long before we even got to the station. The SteppeSister Family needs 6 beds when going by train, but regretfully, there are only 4 beds to each coupe. The unlucky 2 would have to be banned to a room with strangers. If the 2 roomies are women, the two would have to be either SteppeSister and an older girl, or the 2 older girls together, or Mike and Andrew if they are men. On this particular trip the two that ended up being outsted were the 2 older girls. Since their roommates were older “Apas”, they took the top bunks and got themselves settled in.
The rest of us decided that Andrew and SS would take the tops, The Water Guy one of the bottoms and the 2 littlest would share the other. Everyone seemed satisfied with the arrangements and soon after the conductor came around with our bedding bundles- 2 sheets, 1 pillow case and 1 hand towel. The mattresses and blanket, pillows are permanent fixtures that never get washed and are changed out even less frequently. Perhaps they’ve been around since Noah used them in his ark. These things give me the serious heeby-jeebies, and I daresay would skeeve out the most intrepid traveler.
The joy of making beds always falls to SS, and it takes about an hour to do all six. Somehow it doesn’t bother me; what else is there to fill up 24 hours with? No sooner had we gotten settled and made our beds all neatly that the fist “visitors” came swaggering up the corridor, obviously targeting our coupe. Find out next time, who these visitors would be on the next chapter of Riding the Rails of Despair.
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