Moscow to Warsaw

I got on the train and into our compartment, turns out we were sharing it with a guy and a woman. Of course this being Anna and myself we immediately started trying to come up with some scenarios to fit these two people together, because of course they had to be together! Turns out they weren't! That won't teach me. There wasn't much to do so I settled down and relaxed. Anna and I tried to explore the train but the conductor in the next carriage said no, she wouldn't let us through and there was no restaurant car. Since our carriage was the last one we were effectively confined to one carriage. Great! Once again we were on a train with no restaurant car, my only hope of getting food was at one of our rest stops. Hopefully I could use my Roubles in Belarus. The lady got off our train at about 2pm and we reached the Russian border at around 4.30pm. A lot of people got off there although for us it was just another stop. There would be no border formalities until we hit the Belarus/Polish border. There is some agreement between Russia and Belarus that they have joint border procedures. When we had entered Russia the customs paperwork had stated that it was for Russia and Belarus. I was hoping that this would work in our favour.
When you enter Russia, if you are staying for longer than seven working days you are supposed to register your visa. Anna had contacted the company we had bought our invitation from to clarify the regulations and unfortunately they put it in such a way that we thought we only had to register if we stayed in one place for longer than seven business days. Subsequent reading of other guidebooks and travel websites said that this was not the case. Neither of us had registered our visa and I was worried that this would cause a problem at the Belarus border. On the other hand I was hoping that because we were exiting through Belarus and we had the correct Belarus visas that they would just let us go. We got to Minsk at about 8pm and got off to take a look at the station and to see if we could buy any food. We couldn't, they use the Belarusian Rouble. It was back on the train.
The border crossing is a bit of a blur. We got to the Belarus border at about 11.30pm and were greeted by a guy in a serious uniform and huge hat. He took our passports, the guy in our compartment had to give his passport and show his visa registration document. I was on pins and needles but the inspector didn't ask Anna and me for any other paperwork. Next it was the turn of the customs officials, they asked us a load of questions in Russian, I think. I took the lead from our compartment companion and said "Nyet" to everything,it worked! The train was moved into a shed and they changed the wheel widths as the trains in Poland run on a different gauge. I slept through most of this luckily. After we were back in the station and connected to another train the immigration guy came back and gave us our passports, we were free to leave Belarus. Thank God. Roll on the European Union and no more immigration issues for me. We got to cross into Poland about 3am and obviously had to wake up again, just as well I have no problem sleeping in my clothes. The customs officials here were far more serious about checking the train they any so far on this trip. This guy came in and starting opening the ceiling cavity, I didn't even know you could do that. Finally they let us go and we rolled into Warsaw just before 6am. I was almost home.