Altai trekking with total solar eclipse

Trip idea and planning

2008-08-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

(map taken from http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008fig/TSE2008globe1a.JPG)

IDEA

The idea to travel to the Russian Altaj mountains for the solar eclipse on 1st august 2008 in combination with a trekking-trip was already born two or three years ago.
In summer 2007 I sent an mass-email to friends to gather travel-buddies and got positive replies from Tobias and Florian/Katrin. In february 2008 we started to plan the trip and during the planing phase the group increased to 9 people (mainly friends of Tobias):

Matthias Bauer, Dresden
Manfred Hinteregger, Wien
Tobias B. Koehler, Graz
Harald Metka, Wien
Hynek Okon, Praha
Katrin Pohlner, Frankfurt(Main)
Mihal Rihak, Praha
Florian Sicherl, Frankfurt(Main)
Helmut Uttenthaler, Wien

WHERE AND HOW TO GO

During the planing phase we first had to consider the following questions:
- exact location for the hiking trip
- how to get there from Bijsk or Barnaul (this towns are the railway/air transportation hubs for the Altaj mountains)
- walk with or without guide?

The location should be choosen depending on the solar eclipse path. At http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008.html we found all necessary details about the solar eclipse.

A map of solar eclipse path in the Altaj-region:

After some web-research we decided to go the "Southern Chujskij Mountain Range" (marked red on the map, already close to Mongolia).

It is located close to the central line of the eclipse, and we were told that here the weather conditions are usually better than in the Northern parts of Altaj - a very important fact when planning a solar eclipse trip.

The next town is Kosh-Agach, about 50 km east of the mountains.
We found an excellent description of an hiking trip suitable for us at http://www.turistka.ru/altai/pub.php?p=18 (in Russian). Soviet military maps in 1:50.000 scale we found at http://maps.poehali.org/en/.
With this good database it should be possible to do the hiking trip without a local guide. So we only needed to organize transportation to the mountains. Public transport till Kosh-Agach exists in form of regular but infrequent buses Gorno-Altaijsk - Kosh-Agach, but to get closer to the mountains other means of transportation are necessary.

I contacted various Bijsk- or Barnaul-based companies offering transportation listed at http://mountainaltai.ru/category/obzory/zabroska_altai_2008.html and finally choosed the company "Bijsk Altaj Tur" (OOO Бийск Алтай Тур, http://www.bialtur.biysk.ru/index.phtml). The staff there was always very helpful and the price was good too. Also they were the only who could arrange transportation to the Taldura-valley where our hiking trip started and where only off-road vehicles can go. Other companies only offered transportation to Beltir, the last village where normal cars can go, but that would mean another 1-2 days to hike to reach the planned starting point.
I fixed the deal with "Bijsk Altaj Tur" somewhen in may, it included the following trips:

day one (29th july): Barnaul - Bijsk - Aktash (about 600 km) with minibus type "Gazel" (Газель)
day two (30th july): Aktash - Beltir - Taldura-valley (about 100 km, partly off-road) with truck "GAZ-66"
after the hiking trip (night 6th/7th august): Beltir - Bijsk (about 550 km) with minibus type "Gazel" (Газель)

Price per person for all that was ~140 EUR. On the way back we planned to go from Bijsk to Barnaul by train in the morning of 8th august.

During the planning phase two more questions occurred:

- are special border permits necessary to enter the area? In Russia access to border areas is restricted and special permits might be required. Fortunately we found out that our planned trip is just off the border area, so no additional paperwork.

- is there any kind of mountain-rescue-service in emergency situations and how to organize that? That problem was solved easily, "BijskAltajTur" said that en-route to the mountains during a short stop at the MChS-office in Gorno-Altajsk this can be organized.
Of course a special insurance which covers mountain-rescuing is useful, I decided to join the "OEAV" (Austrian Alpinist Club), whose membership includes a worldwide insurance.

WHAT TO BRING

After that we started the detailed planning of what to bring. As we were 7-days off-civilization this questions were quite important. In groups of two (who shared one tent and one burner for cooking) we planned the food. Manfred and I formed one of this groups and with our food-plan we came to about 3500 kcal per day per person, which should be enough. For cooking we had a Trangia-burner.
Our tent was a MSR Zoid 2 ultralight-tent, we had sleeping bags suitable for temperatures till about -5 degrees. Together with all other stuff the initial weight of my backpack was maybe something like 23-25 kg.
We also brought one GPS, one satellite-phone and some medicine with us.

GETTING THERE

Of course we also had to get to Barnaul somehow. Every group member organized the transportation to/from Barnaul her/himself. The time frame was defined by the latest possible arrival time in Barnaul (not later than 29th july morning) and the earliest departure time from Barnaul (not earlier than 8th august afternoon).

I decided to go by train from Vienna (leaving on 24th july) via Bratislava - Lvov - Kiev - Moskva - Sverdlovsk - Omsk to Barnaul, a trip of about 4500 km which would take about 5 days.
The way back I planned from Bijsk via Barnaul - Almaty - Astana - Ufa - Samara - Moskva - Kiev - Lvov - Bratislava to Vienna. On the way back longer stops for sightseeing (rather than just for changing trains as on the trip to Barnaul) were planned at Barnaul, Almaty and Astana. Arrival in Vienna was sheduled for 17th august.

The other group members choosed the following transportation options to/from Barnaul:

Florian/Katrin:
to Barnaul: train Frankfurt - Vienna, from there together with me by train
back: by plane to Moscow, then train to St. Petersburg, then plane to Frankfurt

Tobias/Harald/Matthias:
to Barnaul: by plane from Vienna via Moscow
back: together with me till Moscow, then after a 3-day-stop via train to Kiev and 1 day later from there by train to Vienna.

Manfred:
to Barnaul: together with me
back: together with me till Almaty, after that he planned a longer trip across Kazakhstan and Russia (further to the east, till Vladivostok) which would last untill end-september

Mihal/Hynek:
to Barnaul: by plane from Prague via Moscow
back: by plane to Prague via Moscow

For the train trip to Barnaul the Slovakian Citystar-Ticket (see http://citystarticket.blogspot.com/) was the best option, the total ticket price Vienna - Barnaul (including sleeper supplements for kupe-carriages) was about 170 EUR per person.
For the way back till Moscow I booked online-tickets at http://ticket.rzd.ru/. From Moscow onward I could again use the Citystar-Ticket.

VISA STUFF

With the help from a friend in Moscow I got all the necessary visa-invitations for the whole groupe (including double/multiple-entry business visa invitations for those travelling back via Kazakhstan). For the Kazakh visa no invitation was necessary, so this was the first visa for which I applied already in end-may. The Russian visa I finally got in the beginning of july. Mine was a one-year multiple-entry visa, because the price is the same and I might need it for future trips to Russia.

TRAVELOGUE AND PHOTOS

The links to the detailed travelogue with many photos:
Trip Vienna - Moscow - Barnaul - Aktash
Taldura valley
Total solar eclipse 1st august 2008
Leningradskij pass (3300m)
Akkol valley
Back to civilization: Bijsk & Barnaul
Train trip to Almaty
Astana - Kazakhstan's new capital
Train trip Astana - Moscow - Kosice - Vienna

kostenloser Counter
Poker Blog

Trip Vienna - Moscow - Barnaul - Aktash

2008-08-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

thursday, 24th july 2008

Timetable for the day:
from Vienna (11:28) to Bratislava (12:37) with a local train
at Bratislava (13:47) changing to a fast-train going to Kosice
en-route at Zilina (16:34/16:42) boarding the Russian sleeping car to Moscow, which is attached here
Slovakian border check at unnamed border check platform before midnight

Me and my bags...

Together with Katrin and Florian (they arrived the evening before from Frankfurt) we took the "elektrichka" to the Südbahnhof, where we met Manfred and continued to Bratislava on a local train.

At Bratislava main station...

...we bought sausages (this here is Manfred's sausage together with it's owner), which we ate then on the train to Kosice.

At Zilina the sleeping car to Moscow is attached to the train. It is quite full from the beginning, there were also some astronomers from Slovakia travelling to Novosibirsk to watch the solar eclipse there.

Katrin and Florian "reading" Komsomolskaja Pravda...

friday, 25th july 2008

timetable for the day:
Ukrainian border check at Chop (0:06/3:32)
boogie-changing for Soviet-broad gauge tracks
during the night crossing the Carpathian mountains
during the day across Ukraina via Lvov 9:45/10:10, Hmelnizkij, Vinniza, Kiev 20:00/20:36 to Konotop (Ukrainian border check, 23:10/23:30)
during the night crossing the Russian border

At the Ukrainian border station Chop the boogies of our sleeping-car are exchanged, as the trains in the former USSR run on broad-gauge (the difference between the rails is 1520mm instead of 1435mm). After that the sleeping-car is attached to a Budapest - Moscow train, which conveys also cars like Venezia - Moscow, Zagreb - Moscow and Belgrade - Moscow.
Border formalities are no problem.

Next morning: Lviv (Lvov, Lemberg) railway station.

Lunch in the dining car.

Irina from Hmelnizkij was the 3rd passenger (in Manfred's and my compartment) from Hmelnizkij till Brjansk.

saturday, 26th july august

timetable for the day:
Russian border check at Brjansk (3:52/4:24)
arriving at Moskva Kievskaja station at 9:53
leaving from Moskva Kazanskaja station at 13:19 with train no. 96
on the train via Vekovka, Murom, Sergach to Kazan (2:08/2:28)

Arriving at Moscow Kievskij station.

My friend Alexander picked us up and drove our luggage to this flat, we followed by metro (not enough space in his car). Vera, his girlfriend, prepared a very good lunch for us and we had an opportunity to take a shower. The then went to Kazanskij station, from where our train to Barnaul departed.

Train 96 to Barnaul at Kazanskij station

The train was full, we had a 4-bed-compartment for us. Among the other passengers there were also many tourists travelling to the solar eclipse.

Our living room for the next few days ;-)

At Sergach station

sunday, 27th july 2008

on the train from Sarapul via Druzhinino, Sverdlovsk (17:17/17:40 Moscow time) to Tjumen (23:02/23:23 Moscow time)

somewhere in the Ural

at Druzhinino station

25-minutes stop at Sverdlovsk station (Yekaterinburg)

monday, 28th july 2008

on the train from Omsk (7:56/8:26 Moscow time) via Tatarskaja, Karasuk to Kulunda (18:12/19:02 Moscow time)

At Omsk station

The two twin-brothers of compartment no. 9

Our train was 18 cars long. Here it is pulled by half 2TE10 (= one section), a double-section diesel locomotive. The route branches off the Transsiberian mainline at Tatarskaya and this branch line to Karasuk isn't electrified.

View from the train near Karasuk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ZBauqX_-M

Again the twins...

In the dining car

tuesday, 29th july 2008

early morning arrival at Barnaul (2:20 Moscow time = 5:20 local time).
then transfer by minibus "Gazel" (company Bijsk Altaj Tur) to Aktash in the Altai-mountains.

Early morning arrival (2:20 Moscow time = 5:20 local time) at Barnaul station.

The minibus from "Bijsk Altaj Tur" was already waiting there, and we drove to the airport to pick up the others.

En-route at Bijsk (150 km from Barnaul) we were driven to the office of "Bijsk Altaj Tur", where we payed for the trip and left some luggage, which we wouldn't need during the hiking trip.
At a supermarket we bought some food and at petrol-station Matthias bought 1,5 liters of petrol for his petrol-cooker:

Also we went to a sport-shop to buy some new hiking boots for Katrin, as she noticed that the one she brought were almost broken.

At Gorno-Altajsk (km 250 from Barnaul) we made a stop at the office of the mountain-rescue-service "Пойсково-спасательный отряд Горно-Алтайск" to give them notice about our planned trip and return date. We also had a satellite-phone with us, so we could have called them in case of emergency:

The official paper from "Пойсково-спасательный отряд Горно-Алтайск"

From Gorno-Altajsk we continued on the M52-road via Ust-ema, Tuzkta, Ongudaj, Inja to Aktash. A long road trip in a beautiful landscape!

During the road trip at Ongudaj

About 5 km after Aktash we finally at 22:00 arrived at the place, from were we would continue next day to the mountains.
The total trip from Barnaul was more than 600 km.

Taldura valley

2008-08-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 30th august 2008

Campsite no. 1. We got up at 6:00

Our GAZ-66.

From Wikipedia:
GAZ-66 is a Russian 4x4 all-road (off road) military truck produced by GAZ. It was the main transport vehicle for motorized infantry of the Soviet Army and is still employed in former Soviet Union countries. Nicknamed shishiga (шишига) shehsherik (шешерик) trueman (in Siberia).
The Gaz-66 has gained legendary status in many countries around the world due to its reliability, simplicity and off-road capability. Thanks to standard features such as a front mounted winch, Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS) and self locking differentials the Gaz-66 is extremely popular with armed forces all around the world as well as off-road enthusiasts. Production ceased in 1999, instead GAZ produces the GAZ-3308.

We left the place at 7:30.

Our driver

En-route to Kosh-Agach: the Aktru-mountains in the background

Petrol station at Ortolik. The vehicle needs about 35 liters/100 km, off-road more....

...but it needs 80-octan petrol, which wasn't available at this petrol station. So we drove 10 km further to Kosh-Agach, were we finally got what we needed.

At Kosh-Agach. The mountains in the background are already in Mongolia.

M52-road near Kosh-Agach

We drove back to Ortolik, where the 29-km long branch road to the village Beltir leaves the M52. Till Beltir a normal car can go, but we continued even further to the Taldura valley.

Beltir

In the Taldura valley.

After some 20 more kilometers our driver said, that it's not possible to continue further.
So we get off and unloaded our backpacks. The altitude here was already about 2150m.

Here you can see, how the GAZ-66 leaves us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXeSaM41gTA

We started our hiking trip at 14:10.

This "bridge" over the Mohroojuk river (a side-river of the Taldura) was the first excitment ;-)

In the Taldura valley

Bridge over the Taldura river

Settlement of the local farmers, living here all-year round.

Most of us weren't used to walk with heavy luggage, so our walking speed wasn't so high.
At 19:00 we found a suitable place for tents next to the river to stay overnight.

Campsite no. 2

Day walking distance: ~ 7 km
Altitude difference: 2150m -> 2300m

Thursday, 31st july 2008

Temperature in the morning was below zero, there was some ice on the water of a small stream..

We continued following the Taldura river upstream

At the place where the climbing up to the Leningradskij-pass starts, we built up our tents at lunchtime.

Campsite no. 3.

In the afternoon some of us continued further without backpacks to get more closer to the Taldura-glacier and the mountains.

View up to the gorge, through which we would have to go the next day.

Mountain IIktu (right, 3936m)

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)

Back at the campsite.

Dinner!

Day walking distance:
Campsite 2 (2300m) - campsite 3 (2330m): ~4,5 km
afternoon excursion:
campsite 3 - unnamed place (~2400m) - campsite 3: ~6,5 km

Total solar eclipse 1st august 2008

2008-08-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

friday, 1st august 2008 - the day of the eclipse

We left the campsite at about 7:30 and walked up through a small forest to the beginning of the gorge.

In the gorge. The section inside the gorge covered an altitude difference of 200 m - from 2400m till 2600m.

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)
We had to cross the small river two times. Looks easier than it was. We were wet up to the knees...

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)

Small break after the gorge.

We decided to stay at a nice plateau at about 2850m. The 3300m high Leningradskij pass would have been too much for that day.

As we arrived at the plateau already at 12:10, we had still enough time in the afternoon. We relaxed a little bit and explored the area.

The small beautiful lake close to our campsite no. 4.

A glacier.

At about 16:55 the fascinating spectacle began - we noticed the 1st contact of the solar eclipse: A small piece of the sun was missing...
We then walked about 10 minutes from our campsite to a place with an excellent view over the Taldura valley.

Taldura valley

We where the only people here, during the whole day we met nobody else..

The moon "ate" more and more of the sun. From the moment, when about 75% of the sun were covered, it got noticeable darker...

Video of the total solar eclipse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-wKOCQ8EAw
However, only the last 2 minutes are really interesting. If you notice some strange Uh-Uh-sounds, they were some kind of running gag on our trip... insider will understand ;-)

~ 17:55 - only a small part of the sun is visible.

Photos of the total solar eclipse - it was fascinating!!!

(Photo: Florian Sicherl)

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)

(Photo: Florian Sicherl)

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)

(Photo: Florian Sicherl)

(Photo: Florian Sicherl)
The light is coming again after 2 minutes...

(Photo: Florian Sicherl)
Immideately after the 3rd contact some clouds came and so this photo of the sun-sickle was possible.

After celebrating this fascinating event with some vodka, we went back to the tents to prepare dinner.

In the evening more and more clouds came and during the following night we had a thunderstorm, at 2 a.m. we were woken up by lightnings and thunders...

Leningradskij pass (3300m)

2008-08-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

saturday, 2nd august 2008

In the early morning there were still much clouds and we discussed whether we should go over the pass today or not. But then the weather improved and at abou 10 am we decided that we would go.

The whole group in front of a glacier. In the background on the left the Leningradskij-pass can be seen.

Again the glacier and the pass.

The final steep climb up to the pass. From 3100m below to 3300m on the pass.

Very steep climb, nearly 45 degrees...

(Photo: Matthias Bauer)
A short break on the way up...

Hurra! Na perevale (on the pass)!

View down to the Turaojuk-lake (altitude 2705 m) on the other side. Down there we still had to get on that day!

After some time the whole group arrived on the pass and we made a short lunch break.

The decent starts...

...and the stepness was the same on this side of the pass. On this side even for an altitude difference of 300m.

After the steep descent the further walk down to the lake was relatively easy.

And here we are!

Camp no. 5 next to the Turaojuk lake.

Akkol valley

2008-08-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

sunday, 3rd august 2008

Turaojuk lake and Leningradskij pass (in the background right).

The Turaojuk-river, which goes down to the Akkol-valley.

View over the Akkol-valley.

We then continued a little bit up the Akkol-valley.

After some kilometers we found a nice place for the tents (camp no. 6) . Some of us walked further without luggage.

The original idea was to cross over the Udachnyj-pass to the Karaojuk-valley, but we decided that we would rather walk back to Beltir in the Akkol-valley.

monday, 4th august 2008

Today we started the walk back to civilization. The village Beltir is about 35 kilometers away. However, the trip was then shorter than planned...

Walking down in the Akkol-valley.

Akkol-lake in the background

Karakul-lake

Some kilometers after the way we passed a house of a local farmer, next to the house an UAZ-car was parked. This raised the idea to use this car as a taxi. Hiking to Beltir wouldn't be difficult, but quite boring as the high mountains already disappeared. And we were already a little bit tired too.
So we asked the farmer whether we could bring us to Beltir. We agreed about the price and that we would start next morning. For the night we built up our tents next to the house of the family.

Campsite no. 7

Back to civilization: Bijsk & Barnaul

2008-08-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

tuesday, 5th august 2008

our taxi

and his driver

After about 1,5 hours over bumpy roads we arrived at Beltir.

The Gazel-minibus from Bijsk Altaj Tour arrived about half an hour later. We called them the day before visa staellite phone to tell about the changed return shedule.

The step.

Short break.

In the evening we checked in at the hotel "Zentralnaja", where we spent three nights.

Wednesday, 6th august 2008

Not a very exciting day. We picked up our pre-booked online train tickets, went to the office of Bijsk Altaj Tour to pay for the return trip and pick up our left luggage. We also wahsed our clothes and so on, and so on.

In the afternoon we made sightseeing walk in the old parts of the town. Quite nice!

Street reconstrcution is going on for the 300-year anniversary of Bijsk in 2009.

thursday, 7th august 2008

Another lazy day. We went swimming in the Bija-river, which crosses the town.

The beach of Bijsk.

friday, 8th august 2008

At 7:55 we left by train to Barnaul

Small stop en-route.

We arrived at Barnaul 15 11:41 and then went to the hotel "Altaj".

Hotel "Altaj".

In Barnaul we saw several buses which preiously operated in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, etc. Some of them even keeped their old destination signs, like this bus to "Geilenkirchen, Puffendorf, Baesweiler".

Bridge over the Ob-river

Nice old wooden house

Katrin and Florian as well as Michal and Hynek left us this evening. Katrin and Florian flew to Moscow and added some city-sightseeing there and then in St. Petersburg to their trip.
Michal and Hynek flew to Prague with a short layover in Moscow.

saturday, 9th august 2008

Lenin and me...

After some more sightseeing during the day we left Barnaul in the evening.
In general it's a nice town!

Train trip to Almaty

2008-08-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

saturday, 9th august 2008

We (now reduced to Manfred, Tobias, Harald, Matthias and me) left Barnaul at 16:49 Moscow time (19:49 local time) with train no. 369. This train was an Uzbek train coming from Novosibirsk and going to Tashkent.

Our train at Barnaul station.

Me and Pavel from Barnaul, who was with Manfred and me in one compartment.
The 4th passenger in our compartment was another Matthias from Vienna. We knew in advance via internet that he also planned to take this train on the same day.

A passing northbound train.

sunday, 10th august 2008

During the night there were the usual border procedures in the Russian (station Lokot 0:52 - 2:42) and on the Kazakh side (station Aul, 3:14 - 4:52). The stops at the border are long, but most of the time one can sleep.

In the Kazakh step

Videos "By train across the endless step":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HZ7Wkrzhks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ivSy5k08Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJdaSRE7iE

"Shashlyk" at Aktogaj station.

Our "shashlyki"

15 minutes stop at Mataj

Sunset on the train.

Station market at Ush-Tobe

monday, 11th august 2008

Arrival at 4:27 at Almaty-1 station.

Almaty has two stations: Almaty-1 is far away from the town on the mainline. Almaty-2 is close to the center on a branch line. As our train to Astana in the evening departed from Almaty-2 we went there by bus, stored our luggage there and then explorde the town.
I had been to Almaty already 3 years before, so for me it was not new, but it's a nice, green town anyway.

The station Almaty-2.

Here we saw a Chines train, which just arrived from Urumchi in Western China.

The Mosque is the biggest in Kazakhstan

Former parliament (before it moved to Astana)

View from Köktyube mountain - it can be reached via a cable-way.

Palace of the Republic and Hotel Kazakhstan

Zenkov Cathedral in the Panfilov Park.

Astana - Kazakhstan's new capital

2008-08-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, 11th september 2008

Timetable for the trip to Astana:
Almaty 19:21 - Astana 08:00

The futuristic Talgo-train to Astana

Our compartment inside

Viewfrom the train to the mountains

Video during the trip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ncHsaw5F54

Having a beer in the dining car

Like starship Enterprise...

Tuesday, 12th september 2008

Astana station

Many new buliding - ministry of finance on the right

Astana may be called the "Dubai of the step"...

Bayterek-tower (designed by the British archtitect Norman Foster) in the new governmental district. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayterek

View from the Bayterek-tower

Inside Bayterek-tower

In the evening Tobias and I met Mikhail Utkin, a Kazakh railway-photographer livining in Astana.

Agaian the Talgo train.

Sunset on the rails.

Railway station Astana by night

Train trip Astana - Moscow - Kosice - Vienna

2008-08-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 13th august 2008

timetable for the day:
Astana dep. 6:55
via Atbasar - Tobol - Kustanaj to the border
Kazakh border check at Kaerak (23:15 - 0:25)

Old Austrian postbus running now in Kustanaj!

Thursday, 14th august 2008

timetable for the day:
Russian border check at Troizk (22:55 - 0:23 Moscow time = 0:55 - 2:23 local time)
via Celjabinsk (in the middle of the night) - Ufa (lunch time) to Samara (evening)

Long Russian freight train at Ust-Katav:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRKSkVsg7C8

In the Ural-mountains

At Ufa station

Dining car - the same procedure as every day

Samara station

Friday, 15th august 2008

Timetable for the day:
via Rjazan to Moscow
arrival Moskva Kazanskaya at 15:33
some hours in Moscow
departure Moskva Kievskaya at 23:23

Arrival at Moskva Kazanskaya station.

Inside Moskva Kazanskaya station

Red square

Here I met Julia - we studied together Russian language in Graz (Austria), she was now visiting friends in Moscow.

"Stolichnyj-Ekspress" from Moskva Kievskaya to Kiev

Inside the train

Saturday, 16th august 2008

Timetable for the day:
Kiev arr. 08:00, dep. 09:53
via Vinniza - Hmelnizki - to Lviv

Crossing the Dnepr river at Kiev.

The train with my sleeping-car to Kosice also had a direct sleeping-car Moskva - Thessaloniki

Somewhere near Lviv.

Sunday, 17th august 2008

Timetable for the day:
Ukrainian border check and bogie-exchanging at Chop (2:20 - 4:28)
via Cierna nad Tisou to Kosice (arr 7:29)
Change to train 604 Kosice 8:15 - Bratislava 14:20
From Bratislava local train to Wien Südbahnhof (15:58)

At home again - IKEA-advertisement at Wien Südbahnhof.