Helmut Uttenthaler is my hero because he loves trains. His hobby and profession: the Austrian Federal Railways He is a railfan. His first hobby is trains, (then travel, nature, hiking, “and so on.”)
Railfan, rail buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff (Australian/British English), or trainspotter a person interested in a recreational capacity in rail transport.
A trainfan, like Helmut and his swiss friend Oliver, will travel from Vienna to North Korea. North Korea: brutal, belligerent, totalitarian, military dictatorship with a personality cult.
Brutal, belligerent, totalitarian, military dictatorship with a personality cult around: Great Leader, Eternal President, Kim Il-Sung Formerly at war with the United Nations (especially the US, UK, Japan, and South Korean “puppet government”)
Got a NK visa. Look as official as Indian driver’s licenses. A Korean man in jogging clothes and slippers let me in, gave passport, application, photo and 10 euro. He disappeared, came back 5 minutes later, returned passport with a visa, and wished my a nice trip.
Arrive in Irkutsk With 10272 km the Moscow - Pyongyang sleeping car is now the longest direct train connection in the world. Total travel time from Moscow to Pyongyang is 211 hours
The Russian / Korean border. Helmutt almost didn’t get though! But the Russian border agents harassed the North Korean border agents until they let him across.
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