July 2010: Moscow to Saint Petersburg

This being summer, the Moscow Metro ran way past midnight. I arrived back at Three Stations at about midnight, that gave me another two hours before the train.
It may be midnight, but the stations and their surrounding were brightly lit and there were a sizeable crowd in and around the stations.Took out my camera and took the pictures of the three stations. There is, right across the street, the Kazanskiy station,
the Yaroslavsky station, where the tran-siberia train pulled into 3 days ago.
and the station where I will be catching the train to St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Station:
Even though it was past midnight, the waiting hall was filled with passengers waiting for their train. All the seats were occupied, and some of the passengers have to sit on the floor. But everything were in an orderly manner, no one were raising their voice, or blocking the passage with their luggages. Some of the shops were still open, and the passengers were milling in and out, getting souvenir or late night snacks.
The Moscow-St. Petes one seems to be a busy route. There were 2 trains before my 2:20am one, and one more after at 6:45am.
Once the 1:53am pulled out from the platform, the crowd started to gather around track no. 3 for the 2:20am. Among them were some Chinese passengers who seems to be part of a tour group doing the Moscow-St Pete (and Golden Ring?) route.
As the 2:20am was on the track, I bought some bottled water and snack from the platform kiosk. Other fellow passengers lit up on the platform and smoke their last stick before the journey. The lady conductors were ready at each car to check the ticket and the picture identity of the passengers. My ticket had a typo and my name did not match that on my passport. I was hoping the check isn't as strict as I feared. Fortunately, the conductor saw it as an honest mistake.
It was a really crowded space on the 3rd class car. But all the Russian settle in pretty fast. There were on each seats, bedsheet, pillow, pillow sheet and a thin blanket wrapped in a plastic bag. Once the train pulled out of the station and was cruising along, the Russians start to pull the seats into the bed for the night. With her neck crooked, and the back of her hand on her cheek, the Russia girl sitting opposite me gestured that it was her bedtime and I should start making my bed on the upper deck, too.

Within half an hour, everyone were flat on their beds. I was probably pretty tired, and the next time I looked out of the window, it was 9 the next morning.
As I observed the other passengers from my bed, it looks like all the ladies had woke up quite early and was queuing outside the toilet at both end of the car. Some were still in their bed while other had already folded up their bedsheets and blanket.
I did the same and then went down to the seat below. Then I went over to the toilet. It was obvious why the ladies were rushing to be the first in line. By now, the toilet were pretty dirty and the car had ran out of water for flushing. The conductor was preparing glasses of coffee and tea (with a slice of lemon) for sale to the passengers. Near the exit were a big laundry bag, and before the train pulled into St. Petersburg, every Russian dutifully folded up their sheets and brought them over to the bag. Well, when in Rome...
At about 11:30am, the train pulled into St. Petersburg (or one of the many stations in St Petes). The station was a newer structure than the Moscow ones in Three Stations.
The metro station is connected to the train station, so I didn't have to get out of the train station. From the station, I took a picture of the streets outside because I guessed (correctly) I will be returning to Moscow from a different station.
Getting a ticket on the metro proved easy now that I have learnt to write my destination on a piece of paper. Push it to the counter lady, one finger to indicate one ticket and I was on my way.

Finally, I was about to visit the Hermitage museums.