The road between the capitals of Germany and Russia is far from being short. That is why it’s important to carefully choose the way of traveling through it. One of the options that deserves to be considered is a train of Russian Railways that rides two times a week, on Mondays and Saturdays. A number of hopefully satisfactory reasons — in the following text.
Döners, lockers and benefits of order
I catch the last breaths of fresh air in the capital of Germany after having a nice stroll in the lovely Kreuzberg district. A long and potentially interesting trip is ahead of me, and it seems reasonable to invest some time in walking and standing before spending many hours in a confined space of a train. So, I wander near the station of Berlin Ostbahnhof while I have such an opportunity.
Then, I go inside the building and leisurely look around. The Berlin East railway station is big enough to house many spots of assorted functions. For example, there are three different supermarkets on the underground floor — for various budgets and preferences. Besides that, there are many food outlets offering a wide variety of meals — from locally popular döner kebab to internationally common doughnuts. Also, without leaving this place, one can buy coffee, hamburgers, souvenirs and even shoes.
Additionally, there is a luggage hall of many sections which looks almost endless and offers small, medium, big and very big automated lockers for your precious (or simply heavy) belongings.
As for the main purpose of the facility, namely the transportation, there are 11 train tracks. A part of those are used for handling the operations of the glorious S-Bahn system, some are destined to service long-distance trains. I move towards one of the latter, the track number three.
It is worth mentioning that the accurate information about the delivery of the train on the specific track appears more than beforehand. Approximately an hour before the departure, I already know where exactly to go. Hooray to the Ordnung! It is always better to be well-aware of the current situation, saving nerves and staying relaxed.
So, I calmly enjoy being on the platform and take a good look at the colossal yet elegant arches above me. Passengers are on their way, as well as double-deck regional trains and colorful S-Bahn vehicles.
People in gray and flying creatures
Finally, 20 minutes in advance, comes the one I was waiting for. Please meet the train which will take me to the so-called heart of Russia!
It has the livery of white, blue and red colors, more or less obviously sending regards from the state of the Russian Federation, which has the national flag of the same palette. The train is operated by the RZD company (Russian Railways) and known as Strizh. This name is a transliteration of the Russian word that means swift, a bird from the order of Apodiformes. Naming trains after flying feathered creatures is a kind of tradition for RZD, there are a number of other examples. For instance, there is a high-speed train called Sapsan (Peregrine falcon), offering the fastest connection between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
There is a conductor at the entrance of every car, greeting passengers and performing ticket control during the boarding process (you also need to show your ID). Those people are dressed in gray uniforms, which could create the feeling of rigorous discipline, but all of them are friendly. You can even take a picture with one of the conductors, if you like — they don’t mind posing and saying “cheese”.
Before the journey starts, let me say a couple of words about the route between Berlin and Moscow. Its distance is pretty long, roughly 2000 kilometers.
The path goes eastward, through Germany, Poland and Belarus and finally enters the territory of Russia. The ride lasts for 23 hours and 19 minutes, so I’d better make myself comfortable and get ready for an event of long continuance.
Leaving Berlin Ostbahnhof
I pass the ticket control and enter the car number 225. The train starts to move and leaves Berlin Ostbahnhof. Well, let’s embrace this experience and get some new impressions!
Jewels, showers and earthquakes
The class of the car I am in is called De Luxe Sleeping. This name suggests that I will get the best out of service and will be able to have a proper sleep. Sounds nice, right? What is also nice is that all the compartments in this class are being sold separately, as a whole — which means no stranger companions. By the way, if you have one or two children up to the age of 12 and the eccentric desire to take them with you, this option is free of additional charge and included in the Adult-Single fare.
The compartment itself is rather narrow, yet it is spotlessly clean, quite soundproof and obviously cozy. When in the day mode, it has two textile seats, which can be transformed into a bed unfolding from the wall. The second bed can also be unfolded — in case you prefer to lay a bit higher (you will see it in due time).
There is a table which is humble in size, but overstuffed with various printing materials, including a menu card, a catalogue of souvenirs, a booklet with some information about the Strizh train and an issue of the RZD magazine. In addition to this pile of paper, there are two welcoming bottles of still water.
The best, and I’d say unbeatable, feature of this compartment is the private lavatory that contains a toilet and a shower. It has everything that a place of this kind needs and more than some of such places have. There is a mirror with a lamp, a couple of glasses, a soap dispenser, personal kits for two passengers, trash bin, hangers, and slippers — packed in plastic envelopes and placed on the inner side of the door.
The ability to take a shower during the lasting trip is both pleasant and fun. Standing under the water flow, you can at the same time feel the movement of everything around you. As my friend, who once experienced taking a shower in Tokyo during some minor earthquake, noticed, the sensations are similar. Although, on a train this is still interesting, but more safe.
Meanwhile, I pick a red pair of slippers (there is also a blue version) and continue to make myself at home. The slippers, while on the subject, are thin yet pleasingly soft and comfortable for a foot up to the European shoe size 45.
The personal kits come also in two colors, and each contains a lot of needful things. Just check out the list: toothpaste and a toothbrush, soap, shower gel, shampoo, mouth rinse, body lotion, a comb, a moist tissue, cotton pads and swabs, a shoehorn and a shoe polisher, and earplugs. Not bad for a tiny bag! And there is something else — the kit has a firm metal hook which helps to easily hang the thing inside the bathroom.
I am already safe and sound. And I would feel the same way, even If I were carrying my family jewels or a bundle of cash in large bills. The designers of the compartment provide a fixture for such an occasion. It is a small strongbox with a code security lock, embodied into the wall! I am impressed. It’s really a shame I have nothing expensive with me. Well, maybe next time — when I will be rich and famous.
Compartment safe
As for now, my needs are ordinary: to charge my phone, to control the temperature of the compartment, to call a conductor with a portable ring button, and, you know, maybe to pull an emergency brake… All those basic demands are also taken care of, by the presence of numerous knobs and plugs.
But why not aim higher? Apart from the necessities, the great and powerful entertainment exists! And it is here.
Retro cinematography and modern technologies
The first agent of amusement is the screen on the wall — which looks like a TV-set, but is actually a video player with a preselected list of titles. Most of them are old soviet movie hits (mostly good, I have to admit), but you have to know Russian in order to enjoy them. Another ambassador of merriment is the multimedia portal “Poputchik” (the title can be translated as travel companion). It is a service for the passengers of RZD available on selected trains free of charge and offering information about the current trip, an option to buy something from a train shop or order a meal from a restaurant car, as well as music, films, audiobooks and games. You can access all this using your mobile phone, but again, this service lays behind the language barrier.
Both described matters are probably good at time-killing, but if you have your very own agenda, there is the third thing of the same purpose. I mean free Wi-Fi (asks for a ticket number for authorization, then works fine). This is what helps me to lose track of the passing hours. And do they pass!
Passing Poznan
While I was exploring the treasures of my compartment, it got dark outside. Now, the train is already at the central station of Poznan. And, after the short stop, it continues to move further.
Hidden stairs and standards of sleeping
When it comes to switching the compartment to a night mode, another device makes its important and helpful entrance — the set of firm stairs.
They appear from a panel on the wall, and it is easy to initiate this impressive trick. You need to make just two simple moves. First, pull up a small lever with a black sphere-shaped top. Second, unfold the construction as far from the wall as it can go. Done!
This appliance is convenient and essential for those who choose the upper bed for the nighttime. The bed, on its turn, unfolds from the opposite wall, it already has all the bedclothes prepared, and I have nothing more to do.
The place is equipped with a holder for clothes, towels or any other flat stuff, and with a big metal brace that you can attach to the edge of the bed as an optional safety measure. Strangely enough, there are slots for two of such elements, but I manage to find only one. Well, maybe I am just too sleepy to search attentively.
There is a night lamp with more or less natural light temperature. It is pleasant and bright enough to make reading comfortable —if you are one of those rare people who still read paper books.
Fun fact: the standards of sleeping in trains vary. While in European countries the head of the bed is considered to be near the door, Russians traditionally sleep with their heads turned to the window. So, do not be surprised to see a pillow on the wrong side of the mattress when you are on a Russian train.
Customs, time zones and wooden tray
The morning activities start early. Really early, at half past four. This is not delightful, of course, but necessary: the train approaches the Poland-Belarussian border. Some bureaucratic procedures have to be done. We stop in Terespol for 45 minutes, and during this time all the passengers have to stay awake and keep compartment doors open.
Morning and arrival in Terespol
After my documents and luggage are being checked and approved by Polish officials, the train enters the new time zone (UTC+03:00), and watches instantly go one hour forward. So, additionally to the interruption of your sweet dreams you get the illusory yet unpleasant feeling of losing 60 minutes of life. However, there is a way to make this morning fun again.
There is a section under the ceiling of the compartment, where two wooden trays hide. Those are supposed to assist you in case a decision to have breakfast in bed comes to your mind.
I take one tray and try to understand how exactly its design should be applied in reality. I am not going to hide this fact, but, after 15 minutes of fiddling around, I still can’t solve this puzzle. Yes, there is an illustration provided, and it does not help me. But all these futile efforts have a positive outcome: they make me sleepy, and I am able again to have some more rest before my final awakening happens.
Ice cream sellers and green color
When I wake up for the second time, our Strizh continues to move through the formerly Soviet grounds of Belarus. There are three stations on the way in this country. The first is Brest, where the second border control happens. The second is Minsk, with a 15-minute stop at the central station. The third is Orsha, giving passengers an opportunity to stretch their legs on a platform.
In Orsha, a group of agile women with big bags — the representatives of spontaneous market operations — appear. They run back and forth alongside the train and, quite artistically, challenge passengers to buy apples, beer, ice cream and drahnicks (as they call potato pancakes). If you are ready to get involved, be sure to have some local money.
Between the stations, the landscape is monotonous and uneventful. Apart from occasionally emerging objects, such as road crossings and lonely houses, it mostly demonstrates trees and grass.
It stays mostly like this until the very end of the trip, with only one exception — a short stop in Smolensk. This is the last intermediate (and the only one on the territory of Russia) stop of the route.
And, after that, there is even more grass and more trees. Green is a nice color, but watching this for too long is hardly entertaining. I guess, now is the time to stop looking out the window.
Numbers, cities and cards
What shouldn’t passengers forget to take with them when leaving a compartment? That’s right — their door keys! In Strizh, those are the plates with elaborately arranged holes. I saw the same system on the Nightjet train from Rome to Vienna.
The door, which handily opens inwards, has a photograph of Warsaw, along with the name of the city written in two languages. As I can see from the plate near the door, the places in the car are numbered sequentially, but with intervals of four. For example, my compartment includes numbers 21 and 25, while 22, 23 and 24 do not exist. I ask a conductress what is the idea behind this intriguing approach, and she has no clue.
My door is not the only one with a printed city view on it. As a matter of fact, the interior of the whole train is dedicated to various places located on the route between German and Russian capitals. Each door has its own name and an image, and this concept is also supported in the design of a restaurant car. That’s where I am about to go, by the way.
At the end of the car I find a water cooler. It works, and it’s free. So, everybody can have a nice cup of water of the desired temperature.
I continue to move along the doors, windows, buttons, handles and bellows. Getting to the restaurant car takes some minutes, but it’s impossible to lose the right way: there are lots of navigation stickers with thematic pictograms. Guided by the figures of cutlery and wine glass, I make it to the destination point.
What I like about restaurant cars is that they are roomy in comparison to all other areas of any train. So, sitting here, one can enjoy some sort of free space, which is lovely — especially after being for hours inside the compartment, however big it is. And you can feel somehow socialized here, being surrounded by other passengers.
At the restaurant car
Well, yes, meals and drinks too, of course! Everybody enjoys this, and I can relate. The menu card has quite a long list of meals. Despite the fact I prefer simple ones, I spend the rest of the trip at this place. People come and go. I simply enjoy the moments. And the last moment that I enjoy before leaving this train car, is the payment process — because they accept cards here.
Stylish curtains and subjective conclusions
Right before the arrival, the train manager visits me at my compartment. He asks me if I have any complaints or suggestions. This is nice. I answer that I am overall satisfied with the trip, which is true, and we warmly say goodbye to each other. My last thought before I take off the train is rather quirky: I realize that I really like the style of the window curtains. Which is also true.
This is the end of the voyage. The train with a bird’s name is at the Belorussky (the transliteration of the Russian word for Belorussian) railway station, which is pretty close to the very center of Moscow. Exiting the building might be a little frustrating due to possible queues (perfectly organized by the security theatre), but after that you are just in three subway stations from the famous Red Square.
At last, the final words. This is a long ride, but the level of comfort is high enough for a traveler to feel fresh and rested at the end. The De Luxe Sleeping compartment is both good for doing nothing (if you are on a vacation) and for comfortably working on your business tasks (in case you have something urgent to do). In short, I can assure you that this is worth trying. Speaking of which, you can get Strizh tickets here or here. Good luck! And thank you for reading.
👁 16020
