One train, the whole of Russia: how a trip on the Trans-Siberian changed the life of an Italian woman

To travel all over Russia one day — that's what Giulia Mangione dreamed of. The photographer allocated four weeks for a journey of 9288 kilometers along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and this trip changed her life.

She drove all the way from Moscow to Vladivostok, but with stops. I took with me not a "figure", but a film to simulate an earlier nostalgic photo style and treat the plot more responsibly. And I went all the way in the reserved seat.

Source: LiveJournal/periskop

For photographer Julia Mangioni, traveling on the Trans—Siberian Railway was a long-standing dream - she dreamed of traveling a 9,000-kilometer route from Moscow to Vladivostok from her student years, when she began to study Russian. After working on her long-term project about Denmark called "Joyful Show", she was looking forward to her planned trip.

She really got off the train three times — in Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk and, finally, Irkutsk, where she left the route for five days, which she spent on Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island.

Julia took with her a film camera and 40 reels of medium-format film. According to her, this is much less than she usually takes off.

In order to get as many impressions as possible from the trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, Julia took a ticket to a third-class carriage, a reserved seat. This allowed her to constantly communicate with other passengers who shared everything with her, from stories and photos of their families to hearty Siberian breakfasts.

How can you enjoy a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, traditionally included in the list of "what you need to do before you play in the box" of people from all over the world? Next — five points that Julia noted for herself.

1. This route is not as popular with foreigners from the West as one might assume

There are a lot of students, especially in the summer, when they go home for the summer holidays. There were still many, many soldiers on leave.

I also met many large groups of passengers — for example, families returning from vacation. Russian people are very friendly. Now I live in Scandinavia, where everything is on my mind. And on the Trans-Siberian Railway, people always sought to communicate with me, even if they did not speak English."

2. It is better to prepare well

We learned what we needed by watching other passengers. There is a restaurant car, it is usually located closer to the middle of the train, but few people eat there. Mostly people take food with them. There is a samovar with hot water in each car, and everyone is constantly drinking tea. Often there are people with instant noodles or soups in bags. Other people take already prepared dishes from home — I remember a girl who was traveling from Moscow to Vladivostok, and she had containers with labels in which there was food for every day of the trip."

3. The best way to kill time on the road is to eat

One morning my neighbor in the car said that if I had not tried omul, then I had never been to Lake Baikal. To be honest, smoked fish is not exactly what I wanted at 7 in the morning, but it turned out to be delicious. Smoked and salted fish are sold at each station."

4. There is someone who will wake you up, even in the middle of the night

5. This trip can change your life

Before going on this trip, I thought it would be a trip in the style of National Geographic, but at some point it turned out that everything was different. The physical journey has become a spiritual journey. We arrived in Vladivostok on Sunday. I was lucky, the train arrived at 7 o'clock in the morning. It was so quiet that everything seemed a little unreal. Golden Horn Bay was flooded with beautiful light. It was an unforgettable end to an unforgettable journey."