Da Swidanja Basel

Posted by roamingreto on 3 Apr 2008 in Russia | 1 comment

As planned, the train to Moscow left on time in Basel at 6pm. Friends and family did bid a farewell – we won’t see each other for the next couple of months. So this left me with a mixed bag of feelings looking through the Window seeing Basle fading in the distance.

Luckily, there was Andreij – a guy from Belarus – who boarded the train in Frankfurt (Germany). Although he did not speak a word of English (and my Russian was more than basic), we had loads of fun. Somehow I managed to figure out that he is a student in tax economics and he earns about 180 USD a month.

The train ride itself went smooth the first night and day. Then, at 5pm on the second day, we crossed the “Schengen” border between Poland and Belarus – between Therespol (Poland) and Brest (Belarus). Both customs and passport controls took about 90 Minutes altogether. Not bad actually. But what happened next was more time consuming. Due to the different rail track size, the complete train had to be moved into a hangar style area where the carriages were lifted (with the passengers still on board) and all the axles and wheels – as well as the connectors between the carriages – had to be exchanged to the “Russian standard”.

This operation was actually very well organized, with at least two workers for each carriage unmounting and mounting axles. It looked synchronized and like an oversized wheel change during a “Formula 1″-race. Or like a farm of ants in bright-orange security vests. Although there was a lot of noise, most of the passengers were busy taking pictures and it was a welcome change to the monotone ride. At 10pm (9pm Polish time) we left Brest – which means that the border crossing and the wheel change took about 4 hours net.

After that, we went on to Minsk (Belarus), where all the passengers in my train carriage left. I was the only remaining passenger bound for Moscow, which gave the occation to provide me with an extra extra extra special service. At the end of the journey, the carriage responsible (Prawadnik) – who did wear a respectable uniform – changed into designer jeans, wearing a cap stating “Swiss armed forces” with the Swiss flag. Well, that brought a big smile on my face and I stated a strong “Da Swidanja” (Good-Bye) on leaving the train.

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