At the end of our week in Moscow we headed over to the main train station to buy our Vladimir train tickets.  Inside the station, we had our pick of about 30 ticket offices all with a queue of about 5-6 people.  Hoping that any of them would be able to issue our tickets, we took a deep breath and joined one of the queues.  The next hour gave us a greater understanding of how queueing works in Russia.  There are the usual people who blantanly push in, those who sneak in, those who plead their way to the front and... (a uniquely Russian phenomenon?).... the 'spread-betters'. 

Spread-betters: Those who join one queue for a short while, indicate to those in front/behind to save their position, then join a second or third queue.  Each queue is then monitored; with the 'better' hopping back and forth between the queues depending on which they think will get them faster to the front. 

Needless to say, we didn't attempt to spread our bets.... and simply stuck to one queue.  In the end, this was a better tactic than the one chosen by the lady in front of us, who, when she was the penultimate from the front had to relinquish her coveted position to a man who chose to reclaim one of his original places (ie, the 'spread-better').  She then hesitantly joined a different line before rejoining ours, then asked the 'spread-better' in front of her if she could take up the position he vacated when he re-joined our queue..... He agreed, so she then moved.  BUT, we still beat her to the ticket lady!!!  (a small victory for the foreigners!!)

Day of departure.....

We arrived at the train station with over an hour and a half to spare before our train was due to depart - this was very fortunate due to the length of time it took to locate the correct platform (an hour!!).

The departure board indicated that our train would depart from platform 9T; so we followed the 'clearly-displayed' signs showing directions to platforms 1-9.  Platform 9 appeared somewhat deserted.... but then we were fairly early?  The platform 9 indicator didn't show a train time or destination.... but then these things are often broken right?  We waited on the platform for 15 minutes, still recovering from carrying our backpacks across town in 30 degree heat.  We started to get a little nervous, so Eric asked some passing station attendants (non-english speaking of course); they simply looked puzzled and seemed to indicate that we were not in the right place.  OOPS!!  So we dragged ourselves back to the main station concourse, hoping to get more clues from the departure board... well, unfortunately, platform 9T was still being displayed.  Again, there were no other signs indicating platform 9T.  Hmmmm.... maybe platform 9T translates as platform 9 1/2... only to be found be people called Harriski Pottervich?? 

Eventually, we managed to track down a helpful lady who enthusiasitically pointed us in a new direction outside the station to the very evasive platform 9T.  Hurrah!!!!!

The train to Vladimir took about 2 and a half hours...... and so we've begun the 'infamous' trans-siberian route across Russia.