The “Vostok” leaves Moscow’s Yaraslovsky station every Saturday night at close to midnight. Yaraslovsky is not a particularly sophisticated place, and once through security there are really just a few seats, a ticket office and departure board inside. Outside, a few drunks and mad men are on the streets looking for people to accost and share their stories with. I give them a wide berth.
I had stocked up on supplies earlier in the day at my local Sokolniki supermarket, and now had an extra three bags to carry containing assorted noodles, biscuits, and porridge, not to mention a stash of reasonable quality European wine. Such was the scale of my luggage that the lady guarding the “special needs” seating area inside the station took pity on me and let me park myself somewhere easy. The other people here are all families, the old and the infirm. So much for my adventurer credibility!
As I arrived on Platform 1 I was greeted by that very distinctive smell of lots of coal being burned to heat up the carriage samovars: an industrial smell, but necessary as the carriages have no connection yet to the electricity from a powered locomotive.
Train No 020 was a middle-aged, but very well-presented, set of Russian carriages. If you have seen the photographs on the excellent Seat 61 website, these are not the carriages used on this service any more, look instead at those on the 001/002 train.
