Long distance train travel? It's equal parts romance and torture – Issue XXII
Flying from city to city can make you believe that the world is just urban drabness. See the world roll by from the train, however, and you appreciate just how vast things are.
This is an excerpt of an article that features in our 22nd print issue.
There is something romantic about travelling long distance by train. In one's mind, it's oldy-worldy and probably black-and-whitey. Wood-panelled train carriages with gold fittings and leather upholstery. A restaurant car serving fine cuisine, upon entering which you catch sight of a mysterious, yet beautiful, woman's gaze: "Mind if I join you?"
Not that we get close to approximating such a thing in the UK today. The splotch-stained fabric seats of the commuter shufflers, their hard plastic surfaces and – if you're lucky enough to have any food aboard at all – the £5 stale-sandwich-and-crisps 'Meal Deal' are hardly the stuff of 1930s Hollywood glamour.
Nevertheless, being stranded in the world's largest country for nearly a year brings with it the opportunity to travel great distances by locomotive. Having been cooped up for too long recently, I planned a trip covering 1,300 miles as the crow flies. Starting from Saint Petersburg, we'd shuffle past Moscow's 'Golden Ring' – a series of historically important and architecturally blessed cities around the capital – and make our way along the Volga, before beating it out into Siberia.
Over the course of five journeys, my romantic notions of long-distance rail travel were put to the test. In my mind, I imagined myself sitting next to the window, reading a good book with some coffee in hand – who knows, maybe even some vodka – while periodically looking up and seeing the endless Russian landscape bolt past. Maybe there'd be some boozed-up Ruskis to make friends with too.
I got close to this a few times, but admittedly it was the exception rather than the rule.
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