Page 76 - Litteratteur Redefining World December issue

Litterateur redefining world December 2020

Training way out here is not like passing
through the Adirondacks, no matter how
similar the surroundings may sometimes
seem. This terrain remains, for all intents
and purposes, mostly barren of towns and
people, making the train a moving oasis,
and it is exactly that contrast which
provides balance and makes anyone on
this ride aware of each nuance of the

journey, and it is that vague “barrenness”
which keeps us from forgetting exactly
where we are. Certainly, closer to the city
Dining car
when we first left St. Petersburg, the
surroundings seemed more suburban than
either city or rural, but once we pass Lake
Ladoga just a few hours later, any
semblance of towns slips into the
shadows and we quickly discover this
train remains the most essential element.
In most of the stretches of this ride, the
population onboard is indeed significantly
higher than the residents in the
surrounding territory.
“Slow Train by Dylan,” I say, and Michael
smiles. He knows the tune, and he knows if
he can’t retort within a minute, he buys the
next round in the dining car. I throw it out
there while he’s playing “This Land is Your
Land,” figuring it difficult to call up a
different tune so quickly while playing
another and a third on his mind. It’s one of
our games; this one “train songs.” He
continues to play for half a minute, then
says, “Midnight Train to Georgia,” and
Hallway of the train
returns to Guthrie without missing a beat.

“The other Georgia,” he adds, and I laugh.
The narrow hallways in the carriages are often crowded with Russians looking
out the windows which run along the length of the corridor. None of it is overly
confining or claustrophobic, but on a week-long journey across wilderness,
sharing a cabin with businessmen whose dialect is hardly recognizable as
Russian, we find respite here between cars where we can hear the rails beneath
us and feel some coolness coming in the moving floor. These carriage
connections are something akin to tectonic plates sliding back and forth so when
we stand against the walls facing each other one of us might be moving in the
opposite direction of the other, but not too much and it is all so much smoother
than we had expected, and some passengers passing through to the
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