I left from my hostel one hour before my departure and went to Yaroslavsky train station (there are seven train stations in Moscow). I arrived there 30 minutes later and looked for which platform my train is leaving. My train was already waiting and I went inside. I showed my ticket to provodnitsa (wagon lady) and she showed where my wagon was. It was four-bed cabin and I had top-bed what was good thing as I realized it later. I put my things to their place and changed more relaxed clothes. It was good feeling to know that I can relax because now I have TIME!!! Then I just waited exited that what kind of people are going to travel with me in the same cabin. First one was Nikolai. He was 45-years-old nice fellow who didn´t speak any English. Natalie and Andrei arrived next. It was clear at the beginning that we don´t speak the same language. First I thought that it´s going to be very long 149 hours journey without speaking.

I was a foreigner in their country and they were very interesting about me (who I am, where I come from, where I am going to, why I am going there…). I was studying one year in Slovakia and I realized in St. Petersburg and in Moscow that some Russian words are more or less similar than in Slovak. Also some words have some similarity in English, Finnish and Spanish words. Communicating with my new cabin mates was like a funny guess-what-word-I´m-meaning-game. We used our hands, pen & paper, Russian, Slovak, English and Finnish. We had some beers and everything went well. They were very interesting about Finland and they knew Finnish actor Ville Haapasalo (very famous in Russia), ice hockey, Lordi, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen…There was also two girls from Netherlands in the same wagon and they were in the same hostel with me in Moscow. They were heading to Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar), so I was travelling with them in first four days. It was nice to have some westerns in the same train and we changed some words once in a while.

At first night we went to sleep quite early. I was already in my bed when Andrei drag me down and I didn´t know if there is some accident or what. Later I realized that we stopped in Vladimir and Andrei´s mother lives there. Russians are very patriotic and they really love their country. I was told something about many places and Andrei kept me informed that where we were and then I read from my guide that what was special in those places.