It was. I had lived in China for a year and decided to make the trip home into a vacation. I took the train to Mongolia, spent a week there exploring, took the bus across the Russian border to Ulan-Ude (where I ran into a border guard who spoke Swedish), visited Lake Baikal, took the long train ride to Moscow, spent a few days there and then flew home.
The train ride was pretty meditative. I booked the train that originated in China so that I could speak some Chinese, but I ended up in a carriage that was added on the Russian side, so it was just me and a bunch of Russians who didn't speak any English. I spent my time watching movies and series, reading a ton (I finished four books in three days) and just sitting at the very back of the train and watching the countryside pass by for hours.
It was unfortunate that I wasn't able to make any stops on the way, but I still found watching the landscape and people fascinating. I'm also happy that I managed to get it done back then since it's not exactly the sort of thing you'd do today.
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u/Cahootie 18h ago
Yeah, got my math confused, it was actually around 96 hours. I did Ulan-Ude - Moscow in one go as part of my journey from Beijing back home to Sweden.