The Greatest Journey of my Life

Moscow, Baikal Express

As the train leaves Moscow Yaroslavsky Vogzal the thought hits my mind: "if I take one more step I'll be the furthest away from home I have ever been." (Lord of the Rings). This is the greatest journey I've ever embarked on. - traversing Russia kilometer by kilometer on the train. One of the Danish guys in my compartment, Michael, jokes: "set your clocks, it's only going to be three more days [to Irkutsk]". Only it's no joke - this little compartment, shared with Michael, his friend Mes and one Russian man named Mikhail, will be my home for the next 75 hours. Mikhail actually already looks like he's is worried about a long boring trip - he doesn't speak anything but Russian. It strikes me that this shouldn't happen to him in his own country. Technically we're the ones who can't communicate but, hey, I guess that's life - Geschichten, die das Leben so schreibt, like Christian said. Maybe this is my chance to learn a bit. Mikhail is going to Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal, so he'll be with us all the way. In a sense, there we have the old spirit of travelling. This train takes in all our fates and stories and intertwines them for the next few days before letting us go. Like the great loom of the Norns. For good or ill, where it'll take us we don't know. That's what makes it exciting. Now I feel the excitement again. This is finally it. Outside, the landscape begins flying by in the growing dusk as the train speeds us toward our destiny.