Tomsk, Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

Leaving Tobolsk station I managed to give myself my first proper injury of the trip (unless you count bleeding feet from a million blisters). I tripped on some dodgy paving and carrying both bags I couldnt balance properly so ended up falling flat on my face. Giving myself a nice bruised and swollen nose (somehow worse than when I headbutted the steering wheel of the van I crashed!) Very sexy grazed and bruised knees and worst of all a bruised swollen wrist that I thought for some time was broken! For those of you that know me well you would know that before the trip I vowed nothing was going to get me home even a broken arm! I have to say when it was hurting really badly I didnt have the same attitude!!
My journey towards Tomsk took 30 hours and included 2 changes. My first two trains I ended up travelling kupe-second class ie a compartment of 4. Tomsk is another small town well off the beaten track (this time promising to be livelier). At one of my changes I got chatting to a chap from Kyrgyzstan, well thats stretching it a bit since he didnt speak English and my Russian is still poor. We managed to sit there with my phrase book teaching each other pronunciation of common words. This was overheard by a Russian man who's son had worked in Scotland for a couple of years and spoke a little English. He promised to help me in the town and phoned his son to talk to me. Unfortunately he was on a different train to me (we thought we were on the same one) and I almost missed my train due to talking to them. I was disappointed to leave them not least due to his generous offer of staying with his family however there were thankfully (very overpriced) resting rooms at the station as I again didnt have anything booked.
With just 1 night I explored Tomsk a delightful university town famous for it's "wooden lace" architecture. It certainly lived up to it's reputation I found amazing wooden mansions including "dragon house" and then small side streets full of rundown but still charming wooden houses. Lonely planet suggested there was an English pub and breaking all my usual rules but still desperately homesick I went in. The décor was indeed very English and even the menu was written in English I had yummy chicken wings but the fabled English speakers LP promised were nowhere to be found leaving me more homesick than ever!
The town had a lovely park with a funfair that health and safety would never have allowed at home but looked good fun. I spent quite some time watching a man with a monkey doing photos for the kids highly amusing was the way the monkey groomed his Hugh Grant floppy style hair! Although as you all know I don't believe in animals in captivity so I wasn't too impressed! I was sorry to leave Tomsk it had a wonderful feel to it but delighted to be moving onto the "Promised Land" of Irkutsk with its proper hostels and English speakers.
This was my longest train journey - 33hours!! The first question I got asked was if I would swop to an upper bunk - not likely!!! Certainly not on a long journey like this!! The carriage was nearly full of army lads. They were all young and judging by their brand new haircuts and clothes new recruits, left me wondering if they still have national service here?!?! A funny moment being when a couple of the lads started singing "we're in the army now" in English. Definitely brought a smile to my face. My time zones are all messed up (trains always run on Moscow time wherever they are in Russia) so I seemed to be asleep when everyone else was awake and vice versa. The journey was long and quiet and I soon finished all my books and the batteries died on my phone and iPod leaving me just Mosquitos to keep me company!
The next day I bought a drink from one of the trolley girls (an unknown thing on my other trains) she was fascinated with my English and we sat for a few minutes trying to talk me showing her pics from home. We took our pic and she wanted a souvenir so I gave her a little perfume.
I arrived into Irkutsk about 6am caught my 1st tram to the hostel where I was extremely happy to see other travellers! After crashing for a while catching up on a couple of emails it was time to explore the town. Again it had a good feel to it. In front of the stadium I found a talent show going on quite funny to watch. I decided I wanted to go to the circus as LP promised a cirque de soleil style show however when I got there they were advertising a bear riding a bike! Sensibly before i could lose my temper and get arrested I walked away muttering and swearing under my breath.
After that I did all the touristy bits and then went back to the hostel.
As I walked in an English guy asked me if I wanted some pasta as he had cooked too much and this was the start of a very pleasant evening - 5 of us drinking vodka and other Russian spirits eating cookies and chocolate. It was so nice to have company definitely a happy bunny.
The next day I wanted to go to Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world) and ended up going with Eric and Casper. We caught an over crowded mini bus to Litsvyanka (the closest lake town). On route we passed 2 nasty accidents including one where a woman was trapped and authorities weren't on scene it went against everyone of my natural instincts not to stop and do something! On the way into town I could see some of the fresh water seals playing close to shore. So cute!
We got to the town and for the first time since arriving in Russia I felt chilly. It was an exceptionally hot sunny day but the lake had the coldest air coming off it very bizarre. We did a couple of hikes and then went back to the little Market where we tried some local fish and rice. The boys had a thing about not having traditional poses in their pics so we spent a happy couple of hours messing about on the lake skimming stones and taking pics. The furthest I got into the water was hands and feet since it is a biting 15 degrees.
Our journey back was less eventful although there were a group if Russians taking the mickey out of us in the mini bus because we couldn't understand.
We had another pleasant evening with me cooking for the three of us before they caught their train to Mongolia promising to meet in the next hostel.
After that my evening was quiet catching up with everyone at home and chilling out not daring to go to bed because my train was at 5.13 and I had to walk the 30mins there first. See you in Mongolia.

Sarah xx

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