On my way

With some help I managed to catch my train and had everything over and done with. I left at 19.29 (GMT+1) from Utrecht CS, it was a nice thing that both of my brothers where there, the day before I had a drink with some friends, I met with some friends and family the weeks before and received a bunch of text messages and a few calls when departing. I am not sure whether people where just wishing me all the best or just wanted to be sure I was really gone.. Either way, thank you all for the support one way or another. Especially, the people that helped me out arranging, planning and budgeting my trip one way or another. As well, with the other stuff I had to get over and done with before departure, which was at least as important. I owe all of you a favor (valid for half a year).

Anyway I had departed, the first ride to Warschaw wasn't too interesting, until the next morning there wasn't really anyone to talk to except for the Prodzodnik. The next morning, I found myself accompanied by 2 Polish software engineers, so I finally had some people to chat with. Just before Warschawa Centralna, I found out that my first ticket was only valid up till Centralna, while I had to take the train to Warschawa WS. This has cost me all of my Zsloty (luckily I didn't have any).

The first 2-hour-break, which was cut down to 80 minutes, because of a delay, I had some Polish snacks, nice and sweet. As well, I met with a British-Chinese couple waiting for the same train and later on I found out that they would depart for Irkutsk at the same day as me. Might meet them again, that's the advantage of having a limited amount of trains running all the way to the other end of Russia. After some chatting with this couple I thought it would be nice to have a chat with my roommate. A nice Russian guy, that came back from Warschaw for a fieldtrip. We ended-up eating a traditional Belarussia meal served with some vodka and a few chilled beers. A good way to make sure that you will sleep tight. Before dinner we had passed the border patrol, not the thing I was most looking forward to. People with a lot of power and alleged of little friendliness, everything turned out to be ok, partly because of the help of my newest Russian friend. Another relief that made me more relaxed, especially when Viktor told me that there is no custom office between Belarussia and Russia.

The next morning I woke up in Russia, the second out of 2 days of only 23 hours.