22 Hour Train Ride

On Tuesday morning, Oct. 2nd, Avgust and Jon, with little optimism, began packing Avgust's car with our suitcases, including one for the Dulins, and some bags of food and water for the train. We rode away with each of us, except Avgust, holding a suitcase or a child on our laps, and bags crammed at our feet. It was our last drive through Perm -Perm that we had grown accustomed to and that was the home of our dear family - and we were saddened by that fact.



When we arrived at Perm ll, Avgust ( pronounced "AHV goost", BTW) helped us take all of our things onto the train, which was already boarding. What a great friend! We could not have managed if we had taken a taxi.



The train was the Kama, named after the Kama River in Perm, and it only goes back and forth between Perm and Moscow. We had a coupe (pronounced, "coo PAY") , a room with two bunks (to sleep 4) and a table. There were attendants who checked our tickets, brought us hot water for tea, when asked, and vacuumed the carpet in the hall and in every coupe.



It was a long day, leaving at 11 am Perm time, until we turned out the lights and all went to bed at 9 pm, I think Moscow time. Our time was spent taking care of the children, eating, and taking trips to the restrooms, which started out clean and had toilet paper. Caleb was active, walking up and down the hall, looking out of the windows and visiting other coupes. From his train trip to Novosibirsk last spring, he remembered the pull-down seats by the windows in the hall and enjoyed opening them and sitting down.



An hour before our arrival ( 6 am Moscow time), the attendants began waking people to allow everyone to use the restrooms. Because all flushes are dumped onto the tracks, they closed the restrooms well before we arrived. I haven't mentioned that in Russia, toilet paper is not flushed down the toilets, but put in waste baskets, thus the term "waste basket." I actually would forget often, but don't tell anyone!