Last day in Moscow, Trans-Siberian and Lake Baikal

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This one has been a long time in coming. Obviously there was no internet connection on our train, and once we arrived at our hostel in Irkutsk, the manager asked if we would mind moving on to Lake Baikal earlier as there was a few people that wanted to stay an extra night in Irkutsk. We obliged, at a discount obviously, and moved on to Baikal. Unfortunately, our eco-hostel that we were staying in, was so far up a bloody hill that there was nae wifi available. So now we are back in Irkutsk, it's time to recap the last week of events (deep breath).

Think when I last left you, it was our second day in Moscow. After I had finished my last post, we decided to go for a wander in order to stock up for our long train journey ahead. What may seem like an easy task, going shopping, is relatively difficult. If there were as much shops as there were banks, there wouldnt be much of a problem; I imagine there are loads of Muscovites kicking about with loads of money on them, but no place to spend it. After a good hour of walking, crossing roads back and forward (which is no mean feat in Russia, let me tell you), we eventually found a wee grocer in which to spend our dosh. About 30 packs of noodles, 5 bags of crisps, some biscuits, water and vodka later, we were amply supplied and headed back to the hostel to drop it all off.

Kicked about for another couple of hours, hogging all the sockets to charge our appliances, then headed into town about 9pm. Red Square was pretty special all lit up, took some nice snaps and generally just admired the view for about an hour. I was hungry (shock), so we padded about for a while and found a nice pizzeria, how very cultural of us. Was pretty cheap though so ordered a massive Margarita with a couple of brewskis to wash it down. Headed home for about 12, wondering how we were gonna cope with the 5 days which were to follow.

Arose at 10 the following morning in order to do some last minute charging and to get our bags in order. Headed to the metro and got on the subway car to Karlovskaya station, then headed up to Yaroslavsky Station where our train was waiting. Got there with around half an hour to spare (Craig was in a bit of a tizzy as he had no fags but luckily found a shop just before the train) and made our way to platform to, train number 340. Cabin was just as the one that we travelled in from St Petersburg to Moscow, this time I was on the bottom bunk and Craig and Rosie were on the top. To our surprise, the train set off without another person in our kupé, so that night we had the cabin to ourselves, very pleasant. Played a couple of games, watched a couple of programmes on Rosie’s laptop, had some vodka and noodles, then headed off to bed.

Lo and behold, the next morning there was a nice great big pair of hairy feet sticking out from the blankets on the bed next to me; we had gained a body through the night. Rosie said he didn’t arrive until about 5am so he slept for a good while until about 3pm. Just before that, me and Rosie got off at Omsk, one of the major cities along the trans-siberian route in order to stock up on some beers and water (the water aboard the train is grim. Very grim). When we got back, the man was nowhere to be seen so we settled ourselves down and had a beer. After the train set off again, our fellow passenger walked into our cabin and introduced himself. Igor was his name, a more stereotypical Russian name we couldn't hope to find!

After looking back on our trip, we really couldn’t have hope for a better passenger. He was travelling from a town called Kirov, to a city called Krasnoryak, which we would arrive at on the fourth day of travel. He was an engineer who used to fly helicopters in the Russian Navy. He worked a month in Krasnoryak, then went home to his wife for a month in Kirov. A really friendly chap, he was always asking questions about what we were doing and why, and asking to see photos of back home. We were lucky that he had semi-reasonable English because not a single other soul on the train seemed like they had any! We said goodbye to him on the fourth day, and before leaving he said we were "very nice people". Everyone says that though 😊.

I won't bore you with all the details of the train journey as there were not too many points of interest to talk about. Basically, the days and nights all rolled into one, a sandwich here, a pack of noodles there, reading books galore, playing cards, really, it just reminded me of my student days. Except on a train. In Russia. With a man called Igor.

Every carriage of the train had a thing called a "Samsovar", which the female train attendants would keep stocked all day in order for it to provide not only hot water for our noodles, but also to heat the cabins. We thought we had struck gold when we noticed a plug socket at the end of our cabin, but for some fury-inspiring reason, our adaptors would not work in it (cue cries of despair from Craig who spent the whole first night playing Pokemon on his tablet in the thought that his charger would work the next day).

Craig also acquired a smoking buddy, though i use the term buddy lightly, just a mental Russian who strolled about with his top off, drinking cider, who would constantly badger Craig when he was smoking, gibbering at him in Russian and getting rather annoyed when Craig didn't know how to reply! Apparently he invited us to stay with him in Baikal, but a "no thank you, pal" was issued.

We were all of the general agreement that the train ride really didn’t take as long as we expected, considering we passed through 5 different time zones, and travelled over 3000 miles. We had a little celebratory drink on the last night (Craig was burst), had a game of monopoly (Rosie is a vicious games player, despises losing), and hit the hay pretty early.

We arrived in Irkutsk at around 9.30 the following morning. Went out to the front of the station, and following the instructions of the hostel that we were staying at, jamp(think that’s a word) on a tram into the middle of town. Carrying a big rucksack after sitting on your arse for 5 days is no mean feat let me tell you. Also, every time i closed my eyes, or when lying down the following night, I had the very strange sensation that I was still chugging along in the train; it was worse when closing my eyes when standing up as I felt like I was about to keel over!

Not to worry, the hostel was only a short 10 minute walk from the tram stop. As I outlined above, our hostel manager Dimitri asked us for a favour, and he through in a discount as well and let us use his showers (which was utterly glorious after wiping your armpits with Pampers babywipes for 5 days), so we headed on to Lake Baikal instead of sticking around in Irkutsk. We were joined by a French couple, William and Claire, who were also heading in the Baikal direction. They were on the last leg of their trip, having left Paris in January 2011, so it was good to get some knowledge from them about what was to come for us(they were heading in the opposite direction from us, having got on the train at Vladivostock).

We got the tram back into the middle of town to a spot where Dimitri told us there were daily buses to Listovyanka, the town right on the banks of Lake Baikal. He was correct, and the 5 of us jumped into the back of a wee minibus. Either the driver was stupid, or he had no clue how to drive, as trying to get up a steep hill in what sounded like 5th gear, is certatinly no way to go in my book. Anyhow, we chugged along and got to Listovyanka an hour or so later, after dropping off a couple of locals at the little villages along the way.

Lake Baikal is utterly enormous. It holds 20% of the worlds freshwater, more than all the 5 Great American Lakes combined, and if the world were to run out of water, it could supply the population for around 40 years. Also, in the future, it will become the world's 5th ocean, as the plates underneath the lake are constantly shifting, eventually leading to a split which will reach north all the way to the Russian shore. (No, I did not just plagiarise all this information from the Lonely Planet Guidebook.)

We got off our minibus and followed Dimitri's directions to the bottom of a hill. Said hill was an absolute calf burner. Its hard to work up a sweat in Russia, unless being tortured by the Mafia or in a banya(Russian steam room, where afterwards they batter each other with sticks; supposedly good or your pores, aye right), but we were suitably drenched by the time we reached the top. Met our hostel manager, Jacky boy, and showed us into our digs for the next two nights.

They really are quite nice, just like a big log cabin. Reminds me alot of the houses in Norway. Anyways, we ditched our stuff and had a 3 hour nap, which proved disastrous later as nobody could sleep. Took a walk down the demon hill again and into town. At this time of year, the lake is still all frozen over, so took the opportunity to march out onto the ice. When you can't see even the other side of the lake breadth-wise, you get a feel for how massive it is.

The town itself is pretty nondescript, it has a few cafes, a shop, a big market. The first day we just walked about on the ice for a while, watched the hovercraft go back and forth, then headed to the shop to get some stuff for tea (not a surprise that the female shopkeeper was crabbit as sin). Had a sumptuous feast of pasta, grated (babybell-ish) cheese, and some sort of vegetable sauce that tasted of BBQ. Yum.

Must have read about half a book that night as sleep was nowhere to be found. Got up the following morning/afternoon, and got chatting to a young dutch couple, Tim and Fiona, who were also staying at the hostel. Their itinerary is a lot like ours for the next couple of months, so it will be nice to have a couple of folk that we know along the way and can meet up for drinks etc.

Talked to Wacko Jacko about some nice walks, and he told us about a good spot about 4km away that would offer nice panoramic views of the lake. Took the hike along the shore and got our photos. Saw some nutjobs scuba diving.

We got back into town at around 4pm and made our way to market. Tried the local delicacy, which is smoked Ohlm, a fish, much like Salmon, that is abundant in the lake. Have to say, it was really delicious, even if I was still picking bones out my teeth an hour later. Earlier in the day it was rather chilly, but the sun burst out in the afternoon and for the first time in Russia, we shed some layers! Decided to get a couple of beers each and sit out on the lake. Was very nice indeed.

The inexplicable occurred however. Once we got home, it was discovered that I somehow, in the middle of Siberia, managed to get slightly sunburnt! Us Scots, I don't know. Had a dinner of cheese toasties with some ham, and chilled out for the night.

Got up this morning, had some brekkie, then headed down into the town to get the bus back to Irkutsk. Thankfully, our bus driver this time wasn't a scam artist and only charged us 100 rubles instead of the previous driver who had charged us an extra 50 for each of our bags. Chancer.

Headed back to the hostel and got our tickets booked for the next leg of our journey from the ever-reliable Dimitri. Headed out on a walk that Rosie had devised, through the ghettos and such like, before heading to a cosy wee bar to be served a beer named Rausch from an edelweiss wearing Russian girl. Headed on next to a bar called Liverpool which was shit, went on a wild goose chase for another phantom pub, before finding a nice quiet underground bar where we had a couple more beers and some salted gherkins (which were actually cucumber). Thought we would try and brave our luck at a club, but after being surrounded by about 10 military officers and every single person staring at us, decided to call it a night and head back to the hostel where we now are.

Next up, we head to Ulan-Ude tomorrow night at 22.15, a city which is on the other side of Lake Baikal. We get in at 06.30 the next morning before catching a bus to Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital. Just the 12 hours on the bus.

Hope everyone is doing well back home, we are all having a blast.

Until next time.

Stevo x

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Comments

[Nastya]

Admiring!
I cannot believe how brave you are!!! Being a russian, I've only travelled by train for 2 days... and, I must say, it was kind of a challenge. I wish you the greatest luck during the whole journey which is left. And thank you so much for leading such an exciting and extremely adventurous blog!))