It either takes you about 10 hours to get from Germany to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, or you take a week to travel there by land. A week sounds extreme. But then look at the map how effing far it is!
A week spent in busses and trains sounds nightmarish, yet we had a blast and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. At first, we thought the part of getting there was the inevitable bullet we had to take in order to make this trip happening. As it turned out, it was one of its best parts.
The whole experience of driving this vast distance, seeing the landscape change from north to south, from west to east. Seeing the cultures shift, hearing the tone of words drift. Instead of being thrown into a new surrounding straight off the plane, without much context, we felt like this time, we truly understood how far away from home we were. We had shit weather in the mountains. If it had not been for our little train-venture, I think we would have been very gutted to come all this way without much climbing. But as it was, with all its uncertainties, we considered just arriving at basecamp as the feat we had set out for. Here are some hard facts: 120kg of luggage (yei, gear) 2 changes: Bus from Munich to Riga: 27.5 hours Sleeping-train from Riga to Moscow: 16.45 hours Sleeping-train from Moscow to Bishkek: 2.5 days. One week of travelling sounds worse than it actually was in our case: We had layovers in Riga and Moscow, where we spent half a day or more. Time to move, get some air, discover a fraction of the new town we were in and most importantly, sample the best vegan cafés and restaurants, tanking some energy between green smoothies and gooey chocolate cake. The part that was actually a bit exhausting was the leg from Munich to Riga by bus. A night and a morning spent in Riga helps to forget the 28 hours on the bus, and from there it only gets better and more exciting: The night train brings you to Moscow in time for a late breakfast, and from there later at night you board another train, smelling of desert and coal. Three nights and two days you will be in a small compartment with 4 berths, every now and then going for a walk and buying food from the women at one of the stations where the train stops, but mostly watching the landscape, reading and sleeping until you arrive 3700km further east. This is the most comfortable part of the journey and truly has nothing to do with any of the long train rides I experienced in Europe, where you are pretty over the hard seats at the end. Here you chill rather enjoyably in your bed the whole day. More impressions you will find in this section of the blog. All the luggage... ... only was a pain at the changes. But then, you'd have the same hustle at the airport, so it's really not too bad. In the trains, there was enough space to store everything, even though sometimes it got a bit tight, depending on how much luggage your bed neighbours have, but it always works out. For the bus ride to Riga, it is crucial to book extra luggage per mail beforehand, as otherwise you risk not being taken if the bus is full. Other options: Note, that for the first leg to Moscow there would have been another, slightly shorter option: A direct train goes once a week from Berlin to Moscow, passing through Belarus. In the end, we didn't go for this option, because the tickets were all sold out (see). But in general, it seems like it the Riga detour might be the safer option since officially it is (to this date) not legal for foreigners to enter Russia through the Belarus border. What we found online suggests that the risk of being sent back by the Russian police is low if you are on board of an international train, but it is not guaranteed. This situation might change in the future though, so be sure to check whether there are new developments regarding the border of Belarus and Russia. Helpful resources: And finally, here are some useful resources if you are planning to take a similar trip:
ldz.lv rzd.ru
misstourist.com seat61.com
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