Lovely stuff Jeffrey. You really brought the trip to life and I travelled along with you on a train journey I’d love to take myself. My only experience of Russian railways was a slow steam train, overnight from Leningrad to Moscow on a very warm night in August 1970. I spent quite a bit of time wandering the corridors of the sleeper carriages. The train stopped frequently deep in dark forests with stars overhead. The steam engine clanked and hissed while waiting and I felt like Tom Courtney’s character in Dr Zhivago without the eyepatch.
Jeffrey, what an extraordinary journey. A true adventure, especially as seen through your eyes. You bring both curiosity and a sensibility informed by personal experience and knowledge of history, culture, and literature. The connection between the smugglers on the train and those in Devon is a fascinating detail. Reading Tolstoy, noting what is unchanged from his time (and of course, there’s the haunting specter of Anna’s death) seems exactly like what an educated traveler would do. Exquisite writing. Wishing you a very belated happy birthday.
Thank you, Mary! Your mention of Anna's death makes me realise the connection with the way my brother's sudden death earlier in the year, in a way I hadn't consciously thought about. The two deaths were in completely different circumstances, which perhaps makes the connection all the more powerful. Another way in which the fictional world and the exterior world came together on that trip. Your sensitive reading has added to the essay - and my recollection of that difficult year.
I adore train journeys, luckily, as a regular commuter for eight years on the not express, express train (too narrow gauge) between Wellington, NZ and the Kapiti Coast, where I live. One hour twenty; better than driving. I consumed many books! They've upgraded the carriages now, replacing the lovely old armchair-like seats with standard ones. Not all progress is good. I've also trained across Britain and Spain, through France and Italy on superfast night trains. I loved going from Paris to Barcelona over the Pyrenees in 2023, waking in the foothills near Carcassonne around dawn. I might have stopped there, but early on a Saturday, there's nowhere to deposit luggage for the day (choose a weekday if you can), and I had visited previously, by train from Nîmes. Sadly, the train offered no buffet car or meal service, but we knew in advance and took cold meats, patisserie, dates and drinks. This journey required a change at the top, moving from a French sleeper to a Spanish regional train by means of a quaint walk across the railway lines at the single cafe, leaving an hour to get breakfast and walk around the locality in balmy late May sunshine. It was a turn-back in time where now I imagine myself with a Gladstone bag and parasol, picking up my skirts as I walk. Nah! Wheelie backpack and leggings.
The Trans-Siberian was on my bucket list. Now I've read your journey log, Jeffrey, I'm not bothered by my failure. Maybe I will prioritise the Norwegian west coast train, if years permit. Up by train and back by sleeper ferry appeals. And The Ghan sleeper between Adelaide via Alice Springs to Darwin (for a visit to Kakadu) - that's more of a reality. They offer a lovely dining experience and small cruise-like cabins. It's definitely a tourist venture, though, with off-train trips not real journeys for real people getting somewhere! But then again, these days, I'm not really needing to get anywhere...
Thank you for sharing that wonderful journey by train from Paris to Barcelona. It certainly makes me want to take that trip. And as it happens I'm thinking of taking a train journey in Norway at some point!
Jeffrey, have I told you how much flow and immediacy I feel when I read your stories? It never matters the subject, I’m always immediately engaged, never get snagged on a turn of phrase, just good, easy, pleasure-filled reading. Bravo storytelling. Bravo living.
Such a lovely read, on a Friday afternoon while the XIX Chopin competition (second round) is playing on the SmartTV! Thanks, Jeffrey, for never failing to make my Friday reading time enjoyable! 🙂
That’s a fun anecdote at the end and a reminder not to assume the worst!
Charles de Gaulle is always losing stuff, ours was gone for 5 days this summer just between Paris and London. I like the weave of little risks connected to travel you show throughout this piece. A good read, Jeffrey!
I love long train journeys and I’ve done a few in Australia, Europe and Egypt. There's a romance that other forms of travel simply don’t have, and your piece captured some of that magic. There's also the strange magic of the Russian countryside which more than anywhere I’ve been gives me a feeling of living history…
Marvellous. When I was living in Seoul, I half-planned a big flightless loop (bus from Seoul to Seokcho, ferry to Vladivostok, Trans-Siberian to Beijing, train or bus to Tianjin, ferry to Incheon), but gave it up because of the weeks of time it would have needed and that I didn't have then.
Wonderful writing Jeffrey… I love the ending so much and what a journey…
On one of my many journeys by train through Asia, I took a sleeper train from Hua Hin in Thailand to Kuala Lumpur it was only 19 hours so a short haul by comparison and there were no cabins just bunks… I had been warned of thieves and smugglers on these overnight trips but all I encountered was children… hundreds of them! Of course, it is no secret that I love children and gullible and naive as I am, I encouraged games and singing… anything that made them smile since most were dressed in rags - I didn’t realise they were the thieves and smugglers… I lost everything I owned that night except my passport and money which I had inside my clothes and slept in!
What a wonderful, unexpected ending to your essay, Jeffrey: a Happy Birthday from the passport officer with a half-smile. Such an adventure, which, I think, only an adventurous family could undertake. Bravo to your son for suggesting it! I hope he remembers it fondly.
Thank you, Maureen! I'm just back from hiking and whale watching in Vancouver with both my sons. Not quite the same kind of adventure, but lots of fun. And yes, my eldest still remembers the journey with affection!
Whale watching can be such fun. You and your family have had a book’s worth (maybe two) of grand adventures.
(I went whale watching on the Atlantic, off Cape Cod, some years ago. We saw several whales, one with a baby, and numerous porpoise. The trip back was on rough seas; almost everyone except my son and me got sick. That, I cannot forget.)
Absolutely fascinating Jeffrey, such an experience and so well told! I went on a school trip myself in 1975 to Russia - still the Soviet Union at that time of course - and being the only Canadian passport holder amongst my British class mates I was pulled out of line and bustled into a questioning room. I was extremely intimidated and my lovely teacher, who'd been to Russia previously many times, came in with me to help. Your birthday greeting was a wonderful surprise, I suspect :)
What a journey with literary allusions to help and, as Mary Roblyn says below, the death of Anna as a sort of foreshadowing from _Anna Karenina_ that doesn't thank goodness occur. Beautiful writing that ends with the kindness of one from whom we don't expect that. The sympathy for the smugglers, the caution as well add to the depth of the story of this trip. And, I add this: kindness found is reassurance in these troubling times.
Such adventures you've had, and share with vivacity. I particularly liked the unexpected ending. And this: The effect was that of a thousand metal hooves galloping on a metal way into the sky, a millipede Pegasus rampaging through the starry Siberian night.
Lovely stuff Jeffrey. You really brought the trip to life and I travelled along with you on a train journey I’d love to take myself. My only experience of Russian railways was a slow steam train, overnight from Leningrad to Moscow on a very warm night in August 1970. I spent quite a bit of time wandering the corridors of the sleeper carriages. The train stopped frequently deep in dark forests with stars overhead. The steam engine clanked and hissed while waiting and I felt like Tom Courtney’s character in Dr Zhivago without the eyepatch.
Thank you, John. That sounds like a very rich memory, with those dark forests and bright stars.
Jeffrey, what an extraordinary journey. A true adventure, especially as seen through your eyes. You bring both curiosity and a sensibility informed by personal experience and knowledge of history, culture, and literature. The connection between the smugglers on the train and those in Devon is a fascinating detail. Reading Tolstoy, noting what is unchanged from his time (and of course, there’s the haunting specter of Anna’s death) seems exactly like what an educated traveler would do. Exquisite writing. Wishing you a very belated happy birthday.
Thank you, Mary! Your mention of Anna's death makes me realise the connection with the way my brother's sudden death earlier in the year, in a way I hadn't consciously thought about. The two deaths were in completely different circumstances, which perhaps makes the connection all the more powerful. Another way in which the fictional world and the exterior world came together on that trip. Your sensitive reading has added to the essay - and my recollection of that difficult year.
I adore train journeys, luckily, as a regular commuter for eight years on the not express, express train (too narrow gauge) between Wellington, NZ and the Kapiti Coast, where I live. One hour twenty; better than driving. I consumed many books! They've upgraded the carriages now, replacing the lovely old armchair-like seats with standard ones. Not all progress is good. I've also trained across Britain and Spain, through France and Italy on superfast night trains. I loved going from Paris to Barcelona over the Pyrenees in 2023, waking in the foothills near Carcassonne around dawn. I might have stopped there, but early on a Saturday, there's nowhere to deposit luggage for the day (choose a weekday if you can), and I had visited previously, by train from Nîmes. Sadly, the train offered no buffet car or meal service, but we knew in advance and took cold meats, patisserie, dates and drinks. This journey required a change at the top, moving from a French sleeper to a Spanish regional train by means of a quaint walk across the railway lines at the single cafe, leaving an hour to get breakfast and walk around the locality in balmy late May sunshine. It was a turn-back in time where now I imagine myself with a Gladstone bag and parasol, picking up my skirts as I walk. Nah! Wheelie backpack and leggings.
The Trans-Siberian was on my bucket list. Now I've read your journey log, Jeffrey, I'm not bothered by my failure. Maybe I will prioritise the Norwegian west coast train, if years permit. Up by train and back by sleeper ferry appeals. And The Ghan sleeper between Adelaide via Alice Springs to Darwin (for a visit to Kakadu) - that's more of a reality. They offer a lovely dining experience and small cruise-like cabins. It's definitely a tourist venture, though, with off-train trips not real journeys for real people getting somewhere! But then again, these days, I'm not really needing to get anywhere...
Thank you for sharing that wonderful journey by train from Paris to Barcelona. It certainly makes me want to take that trip. And as it happens I'm thinking of taking a train journey in Norway at some point!
Jeffrey, have I told you how much flow and immediacy I feel when I read your stories? It never matters the subject, I’m always immediately engaged, never get snagged on a turn of phrase, just good, easy, pleasure-filled reading. Bravo storytelling. Bravo living.
Thank you, Kimberly. Coming from you, those words are a huge encouragement. 🙏
Such a lovely read, on a Friday afternoon while the XIX Chopin competition (second round) is playing on the SmartTV! Thanks, Jeffrey, for never failing to make my Friday reading time enjoyable! 🙂
Thank you, Yi! Nice to think of you reading this piece with all that glorious piano playing going on!
There has been so much talent on display, I am in awe ... :)
That’s a fun anecdote at the end and a reminder not to assume the worst!
Charles de Gaulle is always losing stuff, ours was gone for 5 days this summer just between Paris and London. I like the weave of little risks connected to travel you show throughout this piece. A good read, Jeffrey!
Thank you, Kate. Yes, Charles de Gaulle doesn't have a great reputation. The man it was named after would not be pleased....
Haha!
I love long train journeys and I’ve done a few in Australia, Europe and Egypt. There's a romance that other forms of travel simply don’t have, and your piece captured some of that magic. There's also the strange magic of the Russian countryside which more than anywhere I’ve been gives me a feeling of living history…
Thank you, Liz. I’d have loved to see more of the Russian countryside.
It’s a very long time since I did but it made a deep impression on me, it’s one of the things I now love to read about in Russian literature.
Marvellous. When I was living in Seoul, I half-planned a big flightless loop (bus from Seoul to Seokcho, ferry to Vladivostok, Trans-Siberian to Beijing, train or bus to Tianjin, ferry to Incheon), but gave it up because of the weeks of time it would have needed and that I didn't have then.
Thank you, David. Your half-planned trip sounds pretty daunting! 😊
Wonderful writing Jeffrey… I love the ending so much and what a journey…
On one of my many journeys by train through Asia, I took a sleeper train from Hua Hin in Thailand to Kuala Lumpur it was only 19 hours so a short haul by comparison and there were no cabins just bunks… I had been warned of thieves and smugglers on these overnight trips but all I encountered was children… hundreds of them! Of course, it is no secret that I love children and gullible and naive as I am, I encouraged games and singing… anything that made them smile since most were dressed in rags - I didn’t realise they were the thieves and smugglers… I lost everything I owned that night except my passport and money which I had inside my clothes and slept in!
Thank you Susie and o, what a story of your night on the train! it reads like a scene from a film (sorry that you lost all your stuff, though!).
I've been trying for ages to persuade Sabrina to make this trip so will keep your excellent account to myself, Jeffrey!
What a fabulous trip. The Gobi desert! The phantom tanks! It's proper travelogue.
Thank you, June. I enjoyed re-living the trip while writing this.
What a wonderful, unexpected ending to your essay, Jeffrey: a Happy Birthday from the passport officer with a half-smile. Such an adventure, which, I think, only an adventurous family could undertake. Bravo to your son for suggesting it! I hope he remembers it fondly.
Thank you, Maureen! I'm just back from hiking and whale watching in Vancouver with both my sons. Not quite the same kind of adventure, but lots of fun. And yes, my eldest still remembers the journey with affection!
Whale watching can be such fun. You and your family have had a book’s worth (maybe two) of grand adventures.
(I went whale watching on the Atlantic, off Cape Cod, some years ago. We saw several whales, one with a baby, and numerous porpoise. The trip back was on rough seas; almost everyone except my son and me got sick. That, I cannot forget.)
Absolutely fascinating Jeffrey, such an experience and so well told! I went on a school trip myself in 1975 to Russia - still the Soviet Union at that time of course - and being the only Canadian passport holder amongst my British class mates I was pulled out of line and bustled into a questioning room. I was extremely intimidated and my lovely teacher, who'd been to Russia previously many times, came in with me to help. Your birthday greeting was a wonderful surprise, I suspect :)
Thank you, Sue. Your experience sounds quite scary! I once applied for and nearly got a posting in Moscow. I wonder how that would have turned out?
What a journey with literary allusions to help and, as Mary Roblyn says below, the death of Anna as a sort of foreshadowing from _Anna Karenina_ that doesn't thank goodness occur. Beautiful writing that ends with the kindness of one from whom we don't expect that. The sympathy for the smugglers, the caution as well add to the depth of the story of this trip. And, I add this: kindness found is reassurance in these troubling times.
Thank you, Mary. I love what you say about kindness being a reassurance in these unkind times. ❤️
Such adventures you've had, and share with vivacity. I particularly liked the unexpected ending. And this: The effect was that of a thousand metal hooves galloping on a metal way into the sky, a millipede Pegasus rampaging through the starry Siberian night.
Thank you, Rona. I'm so pleased that you enjoyed that line. I had fun composing it!
I meant to say “black market” exchange of dollars for roubles. Very much forbidden back then!