It's an overnight train from Moscow to Samara and I spent the train out in a shared compartment (with one man from Arkhangelsk who spoke very fast Russian) and then went in Platskartny (54 people) for the return.Samara's a gorgeous city and I loved it - there's a real range of architecture from crumbling houses with incredible wooden detailing to concrete new builds. I love that kind of mix so I had a great time. It's also on the banks of the river Volga which meant a 5km embankment along sandy beaches. Number six on the list of things to do in Samara is to see the Monument to the Inventor of the Radiator. I thought this was hilarious and it was one of the main reasons I chose to come. It was even sunny the first day so I did a lot of wandering about for the most part, ticking off the various monuments!
The second day was apparently the 150th anniversary of something. This meant someone playing a kind of bagpipe and bayonet demonstrations. When the (actual) soldiers by the bayonets started to look at me, I decided I didn't need to know what it was the anniversary of and moved on! I then ended up in the military history museum, which was incredibly weird! I've never been to anything quite as overtly patriotic (or military focused) so it was pretty interesting. There was an area set up to show life in WWII, complete with bodies and burning houses (including a portrait of Stalin inside). I'm sorry my Russian isn't up to reading the exhibits though because it had information about Afghanisatan and Georgia, which would have been fascinating.
While I did speak some Russian, for the most part I was on my own and wasn't really speaking. Given that I am a very nervous traveller, this suited me pretty well (trying to deal with Russian too might have made me cry!
). In the future, hopefully I will be more used to it and will speak more.
