Training for the Trans-Mongolian

We left Sheffield at about midday on Thursday May 3rd on our first of many trains through Europe. We arrived in London, caught the tube to Waterloo, and were met by Matt, Ellie, Alexis, David, Tom, Jen, Robin, Lee and Chris.

After a few drinks, we were ready to catch our first international train, the Eurostar, to Brussels. We said goodbye to everyone a few times, and then boarded our train. Matt and Ellie had kindly supplied us with a bottle of champagne and some Ferrero Rocher, so we started in style!

Arriving in Brussels, we found the platform for our overnight train to Berlin. We had only bought seat tickets, not sleepers, so the journey was quite uncomfortable, but we managed to get some sleep.

We had a few hours to kill in Berlin; we had some breaky and coffee, and read a little. There was a slight panic when we found out that our train to Warsaw had been changed and was now leaving from a different station, we had to use the local train system, but eventually we were on the 6 hour ride to Warsaw.

The train took a bit longer though, as apparently there was a fire, which we discovered was also the reason for the station change. We arrived in Warsaw tired and hungry on Friday night, and after a traditional Polish meal of pizza, it was time for sleep in an actual bed.

Our last train for a few days was the 24 hour journey from Warsaw to Moscow, passing through that pesky Belarus (it required a transit visa, even though we were not leaving the train, and the visa was specific to one day, so if for any reason we had been delayed, we would have had to go to Moscow via Latvia and Estonia!).

On this train, we had a sleeper, we were meant to share with a Polish woman, but once she saw ua, she changed rooms! So we had the whole place to ourselves. After some practice of sleeping on trains, dealing with border control (Corey's non-European passport was always doubly scrutinised) and eating snacks as main meals, we were ready for the marathon Trans-Mongolian train!

We know this blog is very behind, internet access so far has been a little difficult. You should see our paper diaries! We are now in Japan, so in the next few days should be able to get up-to-date and put up some photos!