Prep Day for the TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY!

Foreign.

Is going to be a little bit different because tonight at 11pm we are getting on a train and starting our 11 day journey on the Trans Siberian Railway.

So the reason that today's vlog is going to be a little different is because we're not going to be going out and doing like any adventures or seeing anything or eating any like crazy foods. Today is all about getting ready for the next 11 days on a train. So our first leg of our journey is 74 hours nonstop. So we're going to be on a train for 74 hours straight. Then we have two nights in a town, eight hours on a train, two more nights in a town, and then 64 hours straight in a train.

It's currently 12pm Our Airbnb is kicking us out. So we're going to go set up camp in a coffee shop with all of our stuff and what are we gonna do there?

So we're gonna like use the coffee shop as a home base for the day so we can like get everything done that we need to with Internet and like run out, grab food. We thought it would be fun to shoot this video in case any of you are thinking about riding the Trans Siberian Railway. We thought it could be helpful to see what you need to do in order to prepare.

Probably shouldn't wait until the last day though.

Tip number one, don't do what we do.

We leave in 11 hours.

Also, we both just took our last shower for the next four days. We've heard that there are no showers on the train.

So we are currently en route to a coffee shop called. Is it Surfers Coffee? A local Muscovite has has recommended it to us, so we're hoping Mus Muscovite. So we're going to surf coffee and a mus Musk muskite. Muskite recommended it to us. We're hoping they're going to let us bring all our bags in and just kind of camp out there for the day.

Not gonna happen. That coffee shop looked really cute and somewhere that we would really like. However, it was tiny and there were no and I just don't think this was gonna happen today. Not the type of place you go with all your stuff for an entire day. So we're looking for somewhere else. We found a Starbucks so we feel a little less guilty taking up an entire corner at Starbucks instead of like a really nice local Russian person's tiny coffee shop. So I feel good about this. I ordered a venti latte and it came in this massive bucket of a mug. Mostly because it's delicious and I wanted but also to soak up my last cup of big good coffee before I have to drink powdered coffee for the next 11 days.

I'm pretty sure this big red mark and the Russian letters means that I cannot use this as an E ticket. I've left Kara back at Starbucks and I'm going to try to figure out how to sort out our tickets. I'm pretty sure we're good on the second and third leg of the journey. All we need to do with those tickets is just get them printed. But I'm pretty sure that the tickets we need for tonight need to be like real tickets that I need to go get at a train station. So done some research on the Internet. I think I know what I'm doing, but I'm like 50% sure.

I got all six of our tickets printed. Next plan is to take the metro to the train station that we're leaving from tonight and and see if they'll turn these top two paper tickets into real tickets. There is a big language barrier here. So I'm just going to like go with the strategy of hand them the tickets and hope they hand me something that looks like a real ticket back.

So I'm pretty sure I'm at the train station now. I'm just going to walk around and show these tickets to people. I already showed it to one lady and she pointed it in this direction that I'm walking now. So have a feeling I have to do this a few more times.

A super nice lady helped me get the tickets printed. I'm pretty sure that was completely unnecessary trip. We could have just gone to the kiosk and printed them tonight right before we jumped on the train. But I wasn't sure how it worked. I didn't know if maybe there was a ticket office and the ticket office would close. Feeling much better now that we have the tickets, I'm heading back to Kara.

Hello. How do I put something?

All right, I'm knocking things off the list. I just got our hotel booked for our first stop. Now all I have to do is get food and get some cash and then we're good to go.

I think I bought way too much food, but I'm really bad at going to the grocery store and Carol always gets mad at me because I never buy enough and I always cheap out on her. So I wanted to make sure we didn't go hungry for the next three days. So three full bags of groceries for the train ride probably way, way too much. Now all I have to figure out is the money situation should be pretty easy. And today has been a success. As long as we make it onto the train.

Whoa.

Well, it took all day, but I got all of the big things marked off our list. We are ready to go. Much more ready than I thought we would be at the beginning of this day. Now I'm heading back to Starbucks because Kara is trying to get a vlog uploaded before we jump on the train. Thank you, Starbucks, for all the free WI fi we used today.

We got to Starbucks at 1pm it is now 10.45pm so we have successfully spent the entire day at Starbucks. Probably not the best idea to sit down in a hard chair the entire day before I'm about to sit on a train for 72 hours. But we got a lot done. I uploaded a vlog. We booked a place to stay in a few days. Now we're going to the train station. I'm so excited. I'm kind of nervous.

Action going where? We're going across Russia for the next 74 hours.

We were having trouble getting our card to scan to let us in and it was making all these beeping noises. Turns out we didn't have any money left on it and a really nice security guard just pushed the button and let us through. Spoke 0 English. People are so nice.

We found our train. This is home for the next three days and two hours.

Looks super cozy. I have no idea what to expect.

Hi, guys.

How are you?

13 and 14.

Perfect. Ah, nice. Can't see anything, but, yeah, lights. Cool.

It's small.

It's so tiny. Where did the bags go?

We shouldn't have. Yeah. I think there's space underneath.

I see your video from Brazil. I know you love waffles.

Yeah.

Yes.

And second one is for Cara.

Chocolate.

It is chocolate. Russian chocolate. I think this looks like Cara.

Right?

And one special for you. It's. It's a homemade brownie.

Brownies are my favorite, so I know that was super random. Those were our new friends, Gregory and Annie. We met them a few days ago and they are Muscovites.

They text us earlier today and were asking us what time our train was leaving because they wanted to meet us and just make sure our trip got off a smooth start. Make sure we got on the right train, make sure we got in the right, like, cabin. And then they even brought us food and homemade brownies. We have met so many nice people since we've been here in Moscow.

Seriously. We made another friend. Her name is Katerina and she is just adorable and she did the same thing. She's helped us out so much. She's given us so many tips, helped us get our visas registered within, which ended up being this big thing. So I don't know what we would have done without her.

Russia has been extremely. Not extremely, but it's been more challenging than most places. But it's been cool because it's helped us connect with locals. It is 12:30. We're gonna try to get some sleep and stay on like a semi normal sleep schedule since we're basically gonna have a bed laid out for us for the next 72 hours. And we will show you around the place tomorrow.

I'm sure you'll see lots of trains this week.

It's gonna be so hard to sleep because I'm just like, so excited to be on the Trans Siberian.

Yay.

This has been like a bucket list item for me for a really long time, but one of those bucket list items that, like, you weren't sure if you were ever actually going to check off. You just wrote it on there because it sounded really cool. And now we're here, we're doing it.

Okay. See you tomorrow, Sam.