Good morning Fedi 🌄 !

I had an excellent night and my  sleeper arrived in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai on time.

Despite amenities on the train, I was too sleepy and my bed was too cuddly to motivate myself to have a shower before arriving.

The morning arrival of the  Special Express 25 in the morning always is a spectacle : All passenger leave and jointly walk to the ticket office, queue up and all request the same, a connecting ticket to 🇱🇦 Vientianne. The queue dissolves quickly, not even 10 minutes after the arrival all passengers were issued their connecting ticket for the  Rapid 133.

Why all of this ? I have no clue. The ticket office in Bangkok could also issue the tickets and you can buy them online. Maybe all the Lao people are fond of paper tickets as much as I am 🤓 ? Who knows 🤪. Anyways, I now obtained my connecting ticket and will hopefully also be able to purchase a ticket for my  train once arriving in 🇱🇦 Vientianne later.

Now I have two hours in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai waiting for my connecting train. The station is very comfortable, with a minimart, toilets, even showers and some little cafés.

My train was meanwhile shunted over to platform 2 where it's waiting for its departure back to 🇹🇭 Bangkok in the evening.

While there are minibuses and tuck-tucks to 🇱🇦 Vientianne every few minutes which would allow me to take an earlier  LCR train to 🇨🇳 Kunming, my inner purism wants me to wait for two hours to actually travel every little bit possible by rail.

At least I will spend the two hours looking for some breakfast !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #CrossBorderRail #Thailand #Laos

Meanwhile an adorable  type NFK DMU for the  Express 76 arrived and suddenly the station was empty.

#FOSSRail #Thailand

🇱🇦 Laos, or as I call it : Difficult border crossing 🙃.

Not that anything could ever go wrong here but it's slow, chaotic and random. Always plan two hours of buffer. Train arrival at 9 a.m. and connecting train at 11.30 a.m. can end up in a speed run.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Definitely not on my bucket list for today : I won an overnight stay in 🇱🇦 Boten, the special economic zone right at the border to 🇨🇳 China.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

After the border check in 🇱🇦 Vientianne Khamsavath railway station took 2 hours, I sadly missed my  train to 🇨🇳 Kunming - the last one of the day. Without train timetable, internet or language knowledge I decided to at least travel as far as still possible today.

In particular, that means I bought a new ticket for the  C82 train ending in somewhere in the Lao mountains close to the border to 🇨🇳 China. To be honest, I don't understand why this train doesn't proceed to 🇨🇳 Kunming : The later of the second train across the border arrives there at 9 p.m. - this one arriving at 10:30 p.m. would be a good addition to the chronically overcrowded trains between the two People's Republics.

Arriving in in the middle of nowhere around 5 p.m. was definitely an experience : Neither do I speak Lao and Mandarin, nor did I have Lao kips to pay or internet. Internet could be arranged after buying a SIM card at a kiosk, but when I tried to buy a connecting train ticket for tomorrow I sadly had to realize how Alipay didn't want to work. All the currency exchanges only did Yuan to Kip, whereas I could not exchange any Thai bath anywhere.

I finally discovered an ATM and could get my train ticket to 🇨🇳 China for tomorrow.

After all, I also found a hotel, got some food and could rebook my remaining journey to match my delay.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Traveling from 🇹🇭 Bangkok to 🇫🇷 Alsace, day 3 :

I had a relaxed morning, good breakfast and arrived at the immigration checkpoint before the arrival of the passengers from 🇱🇦 Vientianne so that the passport check went smoothly without any queue.

My destination for today is 🇨🇳 Kunming, the city of spring. I'm looking forwards to discover the beautiful sides of the city after @iamejp warmly recommended to to give the city center another try - because so far I had only seen the ugly new development district south of the city on my outbound journey.

The journey by  D88 train takes about 5h30 even though one hours comes to the border check in 🇨🇳 Mohan.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Laos

Immigration in 🇨🇳 Mohan went smoothly, now waiting for my train to continue its journey through the 🇨🇳 Yunnan province to 🇨🇳 Kunming.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

My journey northbound goes on : Today, I will tackle 2.000 km by Gaosu Dongche high-speed train from 🇨🇳 Kunmingnan Zhao to 🇨🇳 Beijingxi Zhao followed by a 1.500 km Zhida Tekuai leg onboard of the luxury 🇨🇳 Beijing Zhao - 🇨🇳 Qiqihar Zhao train.

The  Huxing Hao is uncomfortable and shaky as any Chinese-built train but lucky me could still buy a wickedly expensive upgrade to Business Class onboard where at least the seats are comfortable enough to survive an 11 hours trip after with the stress and exhaustion carried over from the past two days.

I'm looking forwards to reaching northern China enjoying the more relaxed atmosphere in Inner Mongolia since I'm not a huge fan of the busy and crowded south and west coast.

#FOSSRail

If you're wondering why I don't toot any picture of sights, the landscape or just anything not related to trains, please keep in mind that I'm transiting not any country but China - with all its implications.

Everything I'd share here, everything I'd show or advertise here would be a political statement. A statement contradicting my values. While I will just be silent while I'm traveling here, I'm looking forwards to sharing experiences later.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

From 🇨🇳 Beijing on, I took the  Kuaisu train to 🇨🇳 Qiqihaer in the far north east.

I was lucky to get one of the rare first class Superior Soft Sleeper compartments available on few selected trains. While the rolling stock was of chattery Chinese quality you know from anything produced at CRRC, I had a surprisingly relaxing night and was only woken up by the conductor at 10.30 a.m., 20 minutes before arriving at my destination.

In 🇨🇳 Qiqihaer, I had a layover of 1.5 hours. Enough to find some vegan ramen in the departure hall's little store.

From here on, my next  Kuaisu train will get me northbound to 🇨🇳 Manzhouli, the town at the tripoint between 🇨🇳 China, 🇲🇳 Mongolia and 🇷🇺 Russia.

I booked a couchette in a second class Soft Sleeper compartment which is supposed to host 4 passengers. Opening the door, I was in fact not really surprised to find 7 passengers already using the compartment : 5 adults and 2 children.

My roommates shuffled free a little spot in the corner of a couchette so that I could join the party : I can now enjoy 10 hours of smelling food, Douyin tunes, crying babies and parents trying to lift the children's mood by ratteling instant ramen packages 🎉 !

I love traveling by train 🥰 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

Can someone explain me why suddenly everyone puts on their shoes, jackets and packs their luggage ? The next stop of this  train is in three hours. I guess I'm definitely missing something 🤔 ?

Meanwhile the steppe is becoming more and more arctic and my train is climbing up the slopes of the Greater Khingan range ⛰️.

#FOSSRail

The Harbin - Manzhouli railway was initially constructed in Soviet broad gauge.

The Chinese later regauged it to Chinese standard gauge.

When the region went under Russian rule again, it was converted back to Russian broad gauge.

Eventually the railway was regauged a third time back to Chinese standard gauge and retained as it until today.

And Europe fails at coping with different track gauges still nowadays 🤡🤡🤡.

#FOSSRail

After 10 hours, I reached my final destination for day 5 of my journey : 🇨🇳 Manzhouli. I quickly figured out how saying "I speak English" in *Russian* is the most important conversational skill to survive here as a foreigner. Fair, the city is populated by more Russian-speaking than Chinese- and Mongolian-speaking residents together and neighbors to 🇷🇺 Zabaykalsk in Russia.

The experience at the railway station was peak  CR service : Three employees at the ticket office, in the middle of the night with no more train today. Of course, they could *not* sell me a ticket to 🇷🇺 Irkutsk and explained me I'd need to buy this in 🇨🇳 Beijing. Only bad, that in Beijing Zhao at the international ticket office, they explained me there are no trains to Russia.

At least we all agreed there in fact is a train leaving to 🇷🇺 Irkutsk tomorrow at 2 p.m. and they suggested that one of the many Russian travel agencies will likely be able to issue me a ticket.

My hotel was also highly confused how I don't speak Russian, also cannot fill a form entirely in Russian, didn't want to pay in Russian Rubel and showed them a foreign passport that was neither Russian nor had it a Chinese visa.

At least the receptionist told me there's a Russian travel agency right next to the hotel and she was convinced they could sell me  tickets.

After all, this will be my quest for tomorrow.

Good night Fedi 😴 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

Oh, and did I mention : It's -16 °C and according to my weather site it "feels like -26 °C" - which I can confirm after walking for 10 minutes looking for a taxi 🥶🥶🥶.

#FOSSRail

If you're wondering what I'm referring to when saying "various Russian travel agencies" : In a radius of 500 meter around my hotel, there are 15 different travel agencies - even though my hotel is half way surrounded by a lake.

I don't know why exactly but travel agencies seem to be a very cool thing here. The reason for sure isn't the huge demand of international railway tickets.

#FOSSRail

I'm really looking forwards to having a dining car with vegan food again tomorrow 😋. I'm sick of instant ramen and cookies 😵‍💫.

#FOSSRail

While travel agencies are *really* a thing here, currency exchange seems to be strange here.

Finding a travel agency who could issue me a cross-border ticket to Russia took me less than 10 minutes, I was searching for a currency exchange for over two hours - unsuccessfully. Even the banks were astonished when I asked them whether I could exchange money.

After three hours, I was finally told that the regional headquarter of the Bank of China does currency exchange and this is where I'm waiting now. It btw. took almost 10 minutes until I could clarify that I don't understand Russian.

I'm slightly nervous because my  🤝🏽  train is leaving in less than an hour and I know how picky Chinese railway workers are when it comes to international trains. I will time-gap waiting here to 15 more minutes and otherwise cross the border with just my 20.000 spare Ruble hoping for an exchange opportunity in Russia even though the rates will be much worse there.

While I expected a boring printout of an  online ticket, I was handed a wonderful classic ticket booklet consisting of the cover booklet ticket, distance fare, sleeper ticket and transport remarks - all written in Chinese, Russian and - of course - German.

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

Goodbye 🇨🇳 China, hello 🇷🇺 Russia !

The Bank of China told me it'd take two more hours to exchange currency so I had to leave without. Idk, I always thought currency conversation was strictly regulated in Europe but in China this seems to be an even more restricted business.

I arrived at the station 25 minutes before the departure of my  🤝🏽  353Ь train hopefully bringing me to 🇷🇺 Irkutsk.

I say "hopefully" because I don't have a ticket. My cross-border ticket is literally just for the 25 minutes ride between 🇨🇳 Manzhouli and 🇷🇺 Zabaikalsk whereas there hopefully is an electronic reservation for the rest of the journey stored with my passport number. Fingers crossed 🤞🏽.

In any case, it stays interesting - may the journey behind the enemy's line go safe 😇.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #TeamNightTrain

I got a brand-new  Kupe carriage I shared with one other traveler. After 40 minutes of travel time, we arrived in 🇷🇺 Zabaikalsk. The Russian passport check went much smoother than expected. I was notably told by the immigration officers that I'm the first (!!!) western (or how I'd phrase it : enemy's 🫠) traveler showing up here since the suspention of international trains in 2020. That's quite a title 😇 !

Sadly, my journey has to preliminarily end here. I gladly found a room in the station's Komnata Otdika, the hour-otels present at every railway station of Soviet style. I absolutely did not expect to spend a full day in a Komnata Otdika but wonderful memories to good old times and amazing railway trips immediately came up again 🥰.

I'll replan my journey tomorrow. Spontaneously rebooking the  transsib is a nightmare since 1st class and often even 2nd class is always booked up. I'll need to split the bookings to subsections of the trains so that I'll still find free couchettes. Sadly that means my travel time highly increases and the tickets are becoming incredibly expensive. That sucks. I planned buffer time in 🇷🇺 Irkutsk before continuing westbound - but definitely not for almost two days of delay.

Let's see, this will be fun.

In any case : Day six and country four achieved 🎉 !

🚂🇹🇭🇱🇦🇨🇳🇷🇺

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

The advantage of staying in the Komnata Otdika : You can watch all the cute  trains right from your window 🥰🥰🥰 !

My mission for today was to exchange enough Chinese yuan to Russian ruble that I can rebook all my trains - that's a complicated mission since Russian regulation officially does not permit to exchange more than 40.000 ruble (400 EUR) of foreign currencies per day.

Despite trying several places, I could indeed only exchange 40.000 ruble sice apart from one Bank, they all could not process passports written in Latin scripts.

I hoped I could just rebook my  online ticket but I learned it's only possible to refund them to the original payment card. Sad, since that was a foreign credit card which obviously doesn't work in the enemy's country thanks to the solidary sanction regime.

After all, the kind employee at the  Kassa gave her best to help me. She was so kind and friendly, she really made my day. And damn, my Russian is getting really much better here. I actually understood everything she said apart from the fast numbers.

After all, I could afford all preliminary tickets up to 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg by booking two days in 2nd class Kupe. Once I'm able to exchange more money I'll consider rebooking the tickets - after all the travel stress I'm not so keen to spending 52 hours in a compartment with crying children.

So far so good. Now I need to rebook my hotel and move some appointments. Fingers crossed 🤞🏽.

So far, day 7 of my journey : I did not make any travel progress but lots of paperwork.

Oh, and after I haven't eaten anything yesterday and today, I *finally* bought some food.

Having all tickets up to the border in my wallet, I'm looking forwards to be back in a democratic country 😵‍💫.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

The new tickets were 56.000 RUB (570 EUR) in total. 3.5 days in second class Kupe and 1.5 days in first class SV.

I still have 10.000 RUB (110 EUR) left so I'll urgently need to exchange some more of my 5.000 RMB (650 EUR) to Russian rubles. I hope I'll find a bank with Kassa in 🇷🇺 Chita tomorrow morning during my 1.5 h transfer because otherwise the 40.000 RUB limit will hit me hard the day after when I need to rebook tickets, buy some groceries and most notably pay my hotel stay in 🇷🇺 Irkutsk.

I'm really proud of 🇪🇺 Europe how hard we've made it to use Russian rubles - we did everything correctly ! (And yes, that means my trip will be more complicated but that's how it should be. Solidarity with Ukraine !)

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

After 1.5 days of forced break, I'm finally back on track. Leaving the adorable railway station I spent the last full day in behind, I'm boarding the  393ь train from 🇷🇺 Zabaikalsk to 🇷🇺 Chita-2 where we will arrive around 8 a.m. after 12 hours of travel time.

The train is composed of old, comfortable Ammendorf carriages with the sweet smell of slight smoke from the coal heating - by far my favorite night train rolling stock 🥰.

I'm sharing my Kupe with an elderly woman also traveling to 🇷🇺 Chita (I mean, where else would you want to go in Transbaikal ?) and I guess I will have a relaxed night with sweet dreams of democracy and Ukrainian victory 💙💛.

Sleep tight, Fedi 😴.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

After 12 hours, I arrived in 🇷🇺 Chita-2 the next morning where I got a transfer to the Trans-Siberian-Railway on the famous  001Э "Росси́я" composed of 20 modern  carriages on it's 6 day journey from Valadyvoshock to Moskva bringing me to my next destination, 🇷🇺 Irlutsk next to Lake Baikal, the world's biggest freshwater reserve with a surface slightly larger than Belgium.

After 33 hours in a Kupe with stinky food, loud music and lots of beer consumed I'm happy to have some rest in a hotel after I arrived here at 3 a.m. local time.

So far, so good. So far day 8 (or already day 9 considering the time of the night ???) of my journey. My mission for tomorrow remains unchanged : I still need to find a place to exchange my remaining 5.200 RMB to Russian rubles.

Good night everyone 😴.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

One day on 🇷🇺 Irkutsk to get everything settled. Groceries and railway tickets acquired after a long hunt for a bank which does foreign currency exchange.

At the  Kassa, the prompt "Cancel my direct ticket and sell me two separate tickets for the same route with just one hour transfer in between" left the employee in confusion. It took a while until I could explain how this way there are still SV compartments free instead of a fully booked Kupe.

After the past three unpleasant rides in filled up 4-berth compartments I'm really looking forwards to my own, calm space again.

The  009Н, the cheap transsiberian through-train, will leave tomorrow afternoon so that I can still catch some sleep and some good food before the final 4-day sprint from 🇷🇺 Irkutsk via 🇷🇺 Novosibirsk and 🇷🇺 Ekaterinburg to 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

My progress so far :

- 9 trains
- 8.000 km
- 3 nights on trains (5 night trains though in which I also just slept at day time)
- 8 travel days
- 4 countries

🚂🇹🇭🇱🇦🇨🇳🇷🇺

Still 6.000 km and four nights on trains until I'll reach 🇪🇪 Narva and cross back into the 🇪🇺 EU - I'm looking forwards to traveling my last 3.000 km in democratic countries with these cool things like human rights, independent justice, fair elections and freedom of speech and press.

Always remember how much it's worth fighting for this. How much it's worth supporting 🇺🇦 Ukraine - because Europe's freedom is defended in Charkiv, Cherson and Zaporizhzhia !

Russia's terror regime will not stop after Ukraine. Estonia, Lithuania and Moldova will be next - while the domestic enemy in Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia will continue weakening our fraternity.

🌈✊🏽💙💛

#FOSSRail #SlavaUkraini #RussiaIsATerroristState

After one more night in 🇷🇺 Irkutsk, I'm finally back on tracks. I boarded the  009Н train where I got a comfortable 1st class single SV compartment for the next 1½ days before changing in 🇷🇺 Novosibirsk.

While waiting at the station, my initially considered 🇲🇳 UBTZ 🤝🏽  305И ended at the opposite platform after it's 19 hours journey from 🇲🇳 Ulaanbaatar.

Additionally, some  through-carriages from the  069ь were shunted even though I did not understand to which other train.

Notably, the last two carriages of my train are the  through-carriages from 🇷🇺 Yatusk coming from the legendary Amur-Yatusk Mainline following the Lena river up to 🇷🇺 Nizhny Bestyakh where passengers can cross the frozen river in winter, take a boat in summer or need to fly onwards during spring and autumn.

The  009Н/010Н is the cheaper transsib long-distance train, rated worse by the passengers (yes, rating trains *really* is a thing in Russia 🤷🏽). While apparently most travelers prefer the modern carriages running on the  001Э/002Э "Rossiia" train pair, I'm personally a huge fan of the mid-generation carriages used on my train pair.

Anyway, time to relax and wait for the included @diningcar food to be served 🥰.

Good night 😴 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #SleeperAndEater

Enjoying a delicious meal onboard the  009Н on its 6-days route from 🇷🇺 Vladivostok to 🇷🇺 Moskva on my leg from 🇷🇺 Irkutsk to 🇷🇺 Novosibirsk.

The  @diningcar served a tasty sweet vegetable risotto along with a salad plate. I'm proud of my Russian skills sufficient to explain the conductor how I'd like to have the vegetarian menu but without cheese.

Despite the cold Siberian winter outside and the cruel war Russia is fighting against us, my stay onboard feels appallingly homely and cozy. With the facade of accommodative staff, comfortable trains and friendly people one could almost forget how the  are the backbone of military logistics in the disgusting Russian invasion to Ukraine, with soldiers traveling to their horrifying duty at the front line on every train.

Again, here a reminder to not copy what I'm doing. Russia is no safe place for travelers. It's no state of law where you can rely on your safety if you behave according to the set of laws. Russia is a licentious dictatorship no one is safe in. Stay away from here. Really. You might get a railway nostalgic and normalizing impression of Russia when you read my travel report but please be sure : There are things I leave out, occasions I do not dare to publicly speak about. Russia is an evil place and even the most careful travelers won't be able to protect themselves from the repression mechanisms and the hazardous authorities prevailing here.

With this said, it's slowly getting dark outside and after my delicious meal, I'll go to bed soon.

Stay strong and sleep tight 😴.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #SleeperAndEater #RussiaIsATerroristState

 trains sometimes are a pure dog and pony show : One minute, the conductor comes collecting the used dishes of my dinner, five minutes later someone from the bistro knocks asking whether I'd like to order any drink. Shortly later, the customer satisfaction officer asks whether I enjoy my journey or have any complaints. No five minutes later someone with a vacuum cleaner opens the door and immediately starts cleaning the floor without saying a word.

And poor me just wants to go sleep 😴.

But to be fair, the clean and carefully maintained  trains are an amazing counterpart to the dirty, crappy and broken  trains I crossed China with. Notably all rolling stock here is much older than the Chinese trains I used - but still the Russian trains feel much more modern and less left behind. The way *how* you handle things once again shows more impact than the *initial* quality of things.

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

After round about 30 hours of travel time, I could finally convince myself to leave the cozy SV compartment and walk around the train to visit the  @diningcar .

Despite some language barrier, I could be explained how they're out of the regular vegetarian options. I could nevertheless somehow clarify how I'm looking for vegan food and was provided with tasty fried potatoes and a fresh vegetable salad after a while 😋.

Only my order for Çay somehow got lost 🤔.

Anyway, my lunch was delicious and I'm looking forwards to enjoying my dinner onboard of the  115Н later today.

Enjoy your meal and stay strong 🥰.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #SleeperAndEater

My train is about to arrive. Meanwhile the staff changed and the elderly conductor knocked at the door, informing me we'll arrive in 🇷🇺 Novosibirsk in 30 minutes. Adorably, she told me so in the classic language of international railways : German. It's wonderful to realize how in many corners of the former Soviet countries German turns out to be the common language 🥰 !

#FOSSRail

I was said good-bye by the conductor with a German "Auf wiedersehen" when leaving the train in 🇷🇺 Novosibirsk. Even though I have a one hour transfer here, my connecting train already arrived after 10 more minutes.

The  115И on its journey from 🇷🇺 Tomsk to 🇷🇺 Adler will bring me up to 🇷🇺 Ekaterinburg within the next 21 hours. My journey across Siberia thereby ends tomorrow since the starting from Tyumen Oblast, I'll be in the Ural Federal District.

Considering how this train will travel through 🇷🇺 Rossosh, 🇷🇺 Millerovo, 🇷🇺 Shakty and 🇷🇺 Rostov right at the border of Russian-occupied 🇺🇦 Luhansk, 🇺🇦 Donetsk and 🇺🇦 Crimea with its terminus 🇷🇺 Adler right at the border of Russian-occupied 🇬🇪 Abkhazia (where you notably are not allowed to takes horses across the border when coming from Russia) riding sometimes just five kilometers next to the border I'm feeling apprehensive and drowning. This train is not just a link from Siberia to the Russian black sea beaches but also a military supply backbone transporting soldiers to their fateful and mostly deathly duty in Russia's war against freedom and liberty. The sole positive side on this is how Russia can no longer recruit as many soldiers as killed, wounded or taken captive while attacking Ukrainian defense. While this is a good sign for world freedom I don't even dare to imagine what durable pain this causes to both conflict parties tearing apart families and friendships with no return. May their bereaves find solace in peace and fraternity 🖤.

Once again, my travel report is no tourism suggestion. May you take this inscrutable sorrow as a warning to avoid Russia's hazardous dictatorship at any cost. It is not safe to be here. For no one.

I know, writing these things in public is recklessly dangerous while I'm still in this country but I cannot be silent. I cannot travel home through Russia without showing to ugly sneer of this cruel machinery found between the lines everywhere since I crossed the Sino-Russian border.

I meanwhile occupied (cynic pun intended) my comfortable  1st class single sleeper SV compartment and wait for the departure of my train to get my long awaited dinner served. Enjoying my luxury life while the soldiers designated dead in a couple of days take their rest in the Platzkarty carriages just a few meters away from me.

Sorry, I think I need to vomit 🕯️ ...

Stand with Ukraine, fight for freedom and sleep tight 😴.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #SleeperAndEater #SlavaUkraini #RussiaIsATerroristState

My special skill after this trip will be explaining what vegan food means in any most cursed situation in Russian 🫠.

Yes, porridge without milk. Yeah, coconut milk sounds great !
No, the salad without feta please, could you do that ? No, please no chicken stripes instead !
Yes, black tea without condensed milk !

#FOSSRail

Ammendorf first class SV sleeper wagon, coal heated and with the most floofy interior possible. Tell me about any better railway carriage 🥰🥰🥰 ?

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

I slept like a baby onboard of my  Ammendorf SV wagon 🥰. While sleeping, I made it from Siberia to Ural Federal District so I guess I'm back in Europe now ?

In any case, the border to 🇪🇺 EU seems within reachable distance and while I absolutely enjoy my travels onboard of comfortable  night trains, I'm also looking forwards to taking my  Régiolis back home in a couple of days.

For now, I got my breakfast from the @diningcar : Freshly cooked coconut porridge, vegetable salad, orange juice and the mandatory tea 🍵.

Good morning Fedi 🌄 !

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #SleeperAndEater

The winter landscapes were passing by and after a while I was hungry again. Sadly the  @diningcar had lunch break so I returned to my compartment without food.

To my surprise, after half an hour, the chef knocked at the door and served me a tasty lunch rather than waiting for me to come over again. What a service 🥰 !

In the afternoon, I arrived in 🇷🇺 Ekaterinburg where I took the opportunity to visit the Children's Railway and the amazing  Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.

I'm notably in western Russia again : There are frequent Electrizhka trains, English announcements and people with colored hair walking around the city.

My connecting train is leaving around midnight so I'll still have plenty of time to grab dinner before taking the last long-distance train in Russia : the luxury 071Е bringing me to 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg on a two-day ride.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail

After spending the evening in 🇷🇺 Ekaterinburg with the amazing Children's Railway, I boarded one of the two actually occupied SV compartments of the  071Е "Diemidovskii Ekspriess" brining me to 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg during its 40 hour journey. Sadly, this is my last sleeper train for a while since the journey down the baltic's will be entirely seated due to the lack of night trains.

After the exhausting afternoon in the city with its chaotic tram lines, I slept like a baby and started my day as usual : with an amazing  @diningcar breakfast.

The chef served me fresh oatmeal porridge along with Asian-fusion rice noodle salad with steamed vegetables, juice and a bun. I rounded this up with oat milk cocoa and fresh fruits from my groceries and at the end had the meal of my life 🥰. While I initially was sceptical about the combination of porridge and rice noodles, the chef de cuisine could fully convince me : It was a truly perfect match for an amazing start in my day 😋 !

My train is meanwhile following the last miles of the Transsibirskaya Magistral north of 🇷🇺 Nizhny Novgorod so that I'm now notably reached Moskva Time Zone +3 🎉 !

I will enjoy some rest with good food today - and plan the final few days of my trip which is mostly reserving seats , booking my  EuroNight home and looking for hotels in the baltic's.

🌈✊🏽

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #EaterAndSleeper

After one more night onboard of the  071Е, I reached 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg Ladozhskiy around noon. Leaving my comfortable  first class single SV compartment behind, I'm preparing for the final leg in Russia : Tonight, the  dieziel' (or is it an elektrichka when it's bi-mode ?) П 6661 will hopefully bring me from 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg Baltiyskiy to 🇷🇺 Ivangorod-Narvarskiy right at the border to 🇪🇪 Narva.

Since the suburban train will depart in the evening, I'll have half a day to spend in 🇷🇺 Sankt-Peterburg. The agenda is obvious : After some lunch, I will head over to the  Museum of the Russian Railways right next to the Baltiyskiy railway station 🚂 !

So far, day 14 of my journey !

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#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain

Long live democracy, long live freedom, long live liberty 🌈✊🏽.

Let's fight together for a future in solidarity !

I'm back in 🇪🇺 Europe. I'm back in democracy. I'm back in a country where I don't need to fear to disappear for putting up my voice. I left the terror of the 🇷🇺 Russian hegemony behind. I could drop my fear, my caution.

Europe needs more solidarity, strength - because our enemies are close by, undermining our fraternity and unity !

Let's fight it together 🌈✊🏽 !

In other words : I left the 🇷🇺 Russian Federation in 🇷🇺 Ivangorod and arrived in the 🇪🇺 European Union in 🇪🇪 Narva.

A bridge, one kilometer by foot. An Iron Curtain. Worlds collide. A restricted gate to liberty. A valued gate to liberty. The New Iron Curtain. As terrifying as the old one.

Stay strong and be thankful for our freedom 🕯️.

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#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail

I will write more about the day tomorrow morning.

For now I'm just happy to be back in 🇪🇺 Europe.

Oh, and a friendly  for charging me 300 (!!!) EUR for a sleeper reservation from 🇵🇱 Warszawa to 🇩🇪 Muenchen.

#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain #CrossBorderRail

The day began with a couple of hours by  FLIRT : First, the  RE33 got me from 🇪🇪 Narva to 🇪🇪 Tapa, where I changed to the  RE45 bringing me to 🇪🇪 Valga / 🇱🇻 Valga with the transfer to the  🤝🏽  Pesa 730 ML bringing me via 🇱🇻 Riga down to 🇱🇹 Vilnius - my final destination for tonight.

Despite all the joy of being back in 🇪🇺 Europe, the bitter breeze of nationalism, oppression and fascism blowing around the globe can be smelled even here : Our universal freedom of movement is violated here as everywhere with the Estonian police illegally racial profiling the arriving train from 🇱🇻 Riga.

Illegal border checks are no minor issue. No privileged complaint. Fighting police checks is fighting for fundamental human rights. Arbitrary identity checks are the open port of entry for fascism, for hazardous oppression.

I'm terrified of this because I've just seen what this road leads to during my journey across 🇷🇺 Russia and 🇨🇳 China.

We need to fight this. Every single of us must fight this. If you do not fight this, you collaborate with the autocrats. This is our civil duty. Our fight for a liberal Europe.

It's 13:12 🕐 !

P.S. : If you wanna glimpse on what this does to a democracy, I'd kindly suggest to read this : https://mullvad.net/and-then/

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#FOSSRail #CrossBorderRail #Schengen #SchengenUltra #Estonia #Latvia #Lithuania