Round 3. Or is it 4? Can't Quite Remember; Think it Should Be 3. Anyway: Komsomolsk

Apparently, if one wishes to travel from Vladivostok westward to Moscow by train, one does not need to do the entire trip via the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. I assume the same is true for one wishing to travel from west to east, although this is not based upon any actual experience, simply deductive reasoning, which may not actually have any business being in Russia in the first place.

Now there are most likely an inexhaustible number of ways to make this journey (aside from the TS), such as designing, constructing, and riding on your own underground railroad, spanning the entire girth of the largest country in the world (just one example), which is obviously a completely insane and insurmountable task - unless of course you are able enlist the help of the Siberian MoleMen, but their distrust of outsiders, along with their all round bad attitude, and penchant for drinking large amounts of vodka while working, make this highly unlikely - but the way I shall describe is actually quite simple.

All one has to do is travel North for 35 hours*, stop in Komsomolsk, hook up with the BAM railway, head west for just under 70 hours, stop at the north end of Lake Baikal**, and then, after hooking back up with the TS, which paralleled your journey on the BAM to the south, it is simply another 90 hours to Moscow.

Oh, yeah - Komsomolsk. Very interesting city near the eastern terminus of the BAM, especially considering there's not really anything to do there. Really nice to just walk around, check out the Soviet era architecture and people and murals and monuments, or maybe just relax and have a cold beverage and some tongue salad. Oh, and its on a river too; that's kinda cool.

* All times given are relative, not according to Lorentz equations, but rather the whim of an entire country.
** One certainly doesn't have to stop here but come on, the world's deepest lake, really?

Next stop - Lake Baikal