The FINAL Russian train station!

The FINAL Russian train station!, originally uploaded by ericdues.

Well, assuming that they let me leave the country, this is how I will
spend my last few hours outside a train in Russia, waiting in this
room in the train station in Irkutsk. I am sure it is hard to
decipher, but my train is the last one on the timetable in the
picture... the very slow daily #362 to Ulan-Bator. As usual, the
timetable is all based on Moscow time, which is 5 hours behind local
time. My train leaves about 2.5 hours from the time I am writing this.

This daily train stops for about 1 minute every 15-20 minutes at some
small station for the first 16 hours... That is a lot of stopping that
is sure to get annoying while trying to sleep, especially if people
are constantly getting in and out of my kupe.

I did manage to wander around the crowded central market, backpack and
all, and procure some provisions for this 36 hour trip to Ulan-Bator.
I have the following: 1 liter of OJ, 1 small loaf of fresh (now)
bread, 2 small "just add hot water" instant mashed potatoe cups, about
6" of 1" diameter hard sausage (commence making jokes now), and about
15 bite-sized pastries. My only concern is that I don't have enough
liquid or any booze, but that stuff is heavy and I did not feel like
carrying any extra weight on my 5 mile journey around town today...
since they thoughtfully put the bus station on the opposite side of
town from the train station. I have around 200 rubles left, which
should be enough for me to buy any supplemental booze and/or drinks
that I need en-route. This will also allow me to avoid the hassle of
exchanging my excess rubles for tugrigs, the Mongolian currency.

I will definately say that I hate old Russian women. I expect old
ladies, in general, to be nice. I am currently sitting between two of
them that just angerilly told a Mongolian dude that he could not sit
in the one empty seat in our group of 4. They have done this
repeatedly over the past hour, insinuating that the seat is taken
when, in fact, the damn old lady is just a greedy old bitch. The other
old hag just randomly starts complaining about something... I would
assume me... the bastard foreigner who took a seat because it was
open. If I have to share a kupe with either of these ladies that will
turn into an interesting power struggle! I keep getting the feeling
that the random complainer is about to hit me over the head with her
bag! As I look around the room, I don't see any old women that I
would dare approach and ask to sit by.