“Please, book me a flight. I am not going anywhere by train, I’ve had enough the previous time!”

During my long career in international relations and tourism-related projects I have heard these words thousands of times! Many foreigh visitors to Ukraine and Russia had to deal with local railroad simply because it is the most developed (sometimes the only) way of transportation between cities in this part of the world. Our automobile roads are not as good as the western highways and even those which are available may be out of work during the winder period in some areas; travel by air is still too expensive for the locals, and thus it is still quite undeveloped. Since the first half of the 20-th century people in Russia (and all former Soviet territories) have been traveling by trains, there have been many attempts to romanticize train travel due to the tradition to talk and share the most sincere stories with people who you have just met, but even the most romantic people finally feel bored when they have to ride many hours in a very tiny compartment with a bunch of people they hardly know.

The distances in Russia are really large, so it is hardly possible to avoid an overnight trip if you need to cover, say, 600 miles or more. For example, the train trip from Moscow to Vladivostok takes 7 days. There are modern and faster trains connecting cities in the European part of Russia, but still, most of the long distance trains are the traditional, slow overnight trains.

Here are some interesting facts about traveling by trains in Russia:

• You can travel by one of three classes: luxury car (1-st class), compartment car (so called купе [kupE]), where you will find three other passengers besides you in the compartment, and the 3-dr class (so-called плацкарт [platskArt]), where compartments have no doors, and there are berths on the side along the aisle along the whole car.

• The trains have no special cars or compartments only for women or only for men – you just buy your ticket and wait till the moment you get into your car to see who your fellow passengers are (you are lucky if no one travels with a very little child or with their favorite pets).

•   There is a restaurant car in every long-distance train, however, food there will not be delicious, but will be quite overpriced, so traditionally most of the people take their home-made food with them. Be prepared for a rich variety of smells coming from every compartment on the way.

• The berths in compartments have standard length, and if you are very tall, you may be uncomfortable there.

• Many people complain of being unable to sleep because the train moves, and of course you move all the time, too. This shaking may be quite irritating for those who are not used to such kind of travel.
• Some trains are a bit faster than the others because they do not have too many stops. They are called fast trains (скорые поезда) and their numbers are usually from 001 to 120 or so, the bigger numbers usually identify so-called passenger trains (пассажирские поезда), which go slower and may have long stops in really many towns on their way. If you have a choice between a #64 train and a #360, choose the #64. It will get you to your destination sooner.

• In summer time, riding in the train may be quite unbearable because of the heat (air conditionning hardly ever works), while in winter… it is also very hot and stuffy, because the car assistants have a habit to test your limit of bearing the heat. But Russians prefer to suffer from heat rather than to be freezing to their bones, so they rarely complain if it is too warm in the car.

too warm in the train

• The tea in 2-nd class cars may still be served in traditional Russian glasses, but today, more and more often you will see modern glasses or cups rather than traditional ones.

• Sometimes trains may be late to arrive. Passengers are often upset about it, of course, but no one ever tries to sue the railroad, because it is a huge monopolized and the passenger’s chances to win the case are very unrealistic.
• The train assistants (usually women, Russians call them проводница [pravadnItsa]) expect you to tip them when they bring you tea and bisquits, but you will hardly get other services from them, even if you are willing to tip them (they will usually refuse to lay your bed or provide any other services).

Well, there are a lot more little things that can make your Russia train trip unforgettable, but we will wrap it up here. We will gladly publish more information about Russian travel if you are interested. Please, do not hesitate to ask for more information in the comments.

No need to say, the DC March impressed everyone around the world. Here, in Ukraine, we kept following the news minute by minute over the last weekend. Having lived through a series of most emotional elections, revolutions, and even a war, we can comprehend and empathize with the events happening in the USA these days. When I first saw crowds of people wearing pink hats, I realized that it was connected with a female movement for human rights (pink color is internationally recognized as a “female” color), and I had an immediate and quite logical intention to call the demonstrants “pink hatters”. But, interestingly, the term had already been engaged by a different social group some time before. Here is a definition of a pink hatter from Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pink%20hatter):

Pink hatter – one of the new-found “fans” of the Boston Red Sux who has limited to no knowledge of the game of baseball, and who buys expensive and scarce tickets to the ball game because of the frat-party like atmosphere, and so he or she can brag of their allegiance around the water cooler. The pink hatter is so named because their team apparrel purchases are unconventional in color, and are merely chosen in an attemp to call attention to themselves and their amplified hipster factor. Pink hatters can be found in the ballpark taking the seat of a more interested and less casual fan that was unable to get a ticket.

 Well, this made me realize that I could not call the D.C. March participants “pink hatters”. I resumed my search and found this page of The PussyHat Project: https://www.pussyhatproject.com/ (the picture above was taken from their page), so now I know how the activists prefer to name themseves. Their mission statement says that they aim to “provide the people of the Women’s March in Washington D.C. a means to make a unique visual statement which will help activists be better heard.” I feel very supportive of their initiative, because I have learned on my own experience: democracy cannot be achieved by sitting quietly and doing nothing.

It was fun to get to know all this. I also feel bound to add that, being a foreigner, I have to check up every word I come across, and even then I am not guaranteed from surprises. I checked up Urban Dictionary for what pussy hat means, and itgave me gave me a bit unexpected response! (Here: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pussyhat).

Yeah, I thought to myself. Sometimes, just knowing the definition isn’t helpful, either. The context is really important! 

So I stopped searching through the dictionary and returned to watching the news.