The Lev Tolstoy

On my way to Russia!

As I boarded the Lev Tolstoy train I couldn’t believe this would be my 11^th trip to Russia. It was hard to even grasp all the stuff Russia and I had been through during our eleven times together. Most of it was all love, but there’d been some rocky times together, like the time it betrayed me and endorsed Trump, or the time I was told I couldn’t leave the nation because my visa had expired. But this was all behind me; it was time to move ahead into Russia.

Although I was still in Finland when I boarded the train it felt like I had entered Russia! So, what constitutes feeling like Russia you may ask? It’s hard to really explain, but probably the number one thing that stands out is the definite smell of cigarette smoke. Although Russian trains are supposed to all be no smoking it seems somehow the train attendants must find a way to smoke in their rooms because there’s always that hint of smoke on board.

Usually for all my Russia to Finland needs I take the high speed Allegro train from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. The Allegro makes the trip back and forth in a mere 3.5 hours. But this time I’d be going a lot further, to Moscow, plus The Lev Tolstoy was a lot slower than the joint VR (Finland Rail)/RZD (Russian Railways) Allegro, so instead of the usual 3.5 hours just to Petersburg it’d be a whopping 17 hours!!  Luckily I had booked a really nice cabin so I’d get a good night’s sleep before I arrived in Russia.

As we slowly made our way toward the Finnish-Russian border, it dawned on me that unlike during summer and spring where there is no time difference between Russia and Helsinki, there was definitely one this time. Oddly enough because Russia has gone permanently to daylight saving time they are one hour behind Helsinki even though they are further east! Strange how time zones work isn’t it?!

Russia-Finland border

Once we got to the Russian/Finnish border the train lurched to a stop. First up on board would be the Finnish passport control people. They came by my cabin and looked over my passport a few times looking for my EU entry stamp. My passport has so many pages (the Icelandic passport control agent referred to as a bible) that it can be rather tough to find what you’re looking for, especially when it’s not exactly very bright on board. Eventually they found it and stamped me out of the EU. About a half hour later the train lurched a few more kilometers into Russian territory!! At last I was back in Russia!! The Russians boarded the train and looked at my passport. Luckily besides a few minor errors I’d made filling out my entry and exit card things went down pretty smoothly.

My cabin

Eventually the Russian passport agents finished their work and we were off to Moscow. The train stewardess stopped by my cabin to give me a bit of a tutorial on how to pull my bed down and to make sure my small little dining table next to it did not fall into me while I was sleeping. I listened carefully in Russian and pretty much understood everything………at least I thought….. Eventually when it was time for me to go bed I went to push the table next to me over to the side, only for it to swing back toward me every time the train made the slightest jerky movement. Eventually after trying several times unsuccessfully I figured I needed some intervention, so I called for an attendant to help me. The guy showed up and wasn’t exactly friendly about helping, but got it anchored in place so that it wouldn’t hit me while sleeping in the middle of the night.

The night went by fairly quickly, but due to jet lag I woke up at about 4:30 am and basically cat napped here and there until we arrived in Moscow. As the sun rose I was treated to a winter wonderland of nothing but snow and ice for as far as the eye could see. Although the calendar said it was still technically autumn, it appeared as if fall had left Russia loooooong ago!

After 17 hours on board “The Lev Tolstoy” train we arrived in Moscow. Luckily my beloved friend, Vanda, who is the front desk girl at the hotel I stay at in Moscow had arranged for a taxi to pick me up. I exited the train and expected to see my name somewhere on a name board (after all the driver had been given my wagon number and train number), but there was nothing except for some guy standing around with a name written “Sive”. I once again looked around but did not see anyone else holding a name board. So I figured that “Sive”, must mean “Steve” and approached the man. And sure enough he was here for Steve and had just misheard the name and written it down incorrectly when told it by the dispatcher.

When I started walking reality really hit me, it was cold….not just cold, REALLY cold!!! It was not as if Helsinki had been balmy either, but this was a whole another level of cold. I quickly did a mental assortment of all the winter clothes I brought with me and started to worry that I had underestimated the Russian winter! Never underestimate the Russian winter! After all Napoleon and Hitler did this and it did not turn out too well for them!