transsiberian - Транссибирская магистраль

I left Nizhniy Novgorod on Monday in the very evening taking a night-train to Kazan. And even in this very first night in typical Russian train in a compartment with other people I realised why everybody is so excited about travelling with the transsiberian railway: it is definitely the people that you meet in the train compartments who make the journey so exciting!
Because the view out of the window is usually quite nice or interesting, however, doesn't change so much between Moscow and Vladivostok...

In my compartment from Nizyhniy to Kazan were 3 men, they all turned out to be soldiers. After only one sentence from me they realised that I was a foreigner (well, I can't hide my accent I'm afraid...)
They invited me to drink beer with them, taste some of their Russian колбаса (sausage) and didn't stop asking me questions about where I am from, why I was travelling the way I was (it is in fact freaking people out that I am travelling all by myself... not to talk about the reactions when I admit, that I am in fact travelling like this for a year...) - and why I chose to travel through Russia, how my impressions were, and so on and so on...

Also the other people I met on the trains that I took between Kazan - Ekaterinburg, Ekaterinburg - Krasnoyarsk were really pleasent and it was nice talking to all of them!

However nice it was chatting with them, I will unfortunately never see all these people again... BUT: I got to know a girl from Canada who is not only travelling like me (alone, for at least a year, all over the world - thank God at least somebody who completely understands me and doesn't think either that my parents are mad letting me leave like this or that I am a freak...) but also more or less on the same route!! Wohooo!
We agreed to meet on the baikal lake as she was continuing on this very train to Irkutsk while I went off in Krasnoyarsk... And we might as well continue travelling together to Mongolia - we shall see ;)

But how is it then to travel on a Russian train??

Russian trains are in fact really cool and not icky as you might think.
I was only travelling in coupé (which are 4-bed-compartments - other options are CB (2-bed-compartments) and плацкарт (open carriages with beds)) which is in fact really comfortable: you have enough space for the luggage, a quite big table, the space between the beds is big enough to sit up straight and
the beds are long enough and comfortable.
 
In every carriage are 2 toilets (well, traintoilets are always rather disgusting...) and - this I love! - a boiler for hot water! great!

The strictly looking, but usually quite nice (at least the ones responsible for my carriage always were...) проводница (train attendant) provides you with clean dishes, bed-covers, and with food and drinks if you need it.

The trains stop quite often, in some bigger station for up to 40min. So you can easily go on the platform and buy some food or drinks for the upcoming hours on the train, as there are usually small stands on all platforms, that provide you with the most important products.
So all this all - including my nice game - made even my longest trip on the train (32h) between Ekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk really nice.