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Published: April 30th 2010
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Irkutsk felt much more Russian than the bigger cities. It was -5 when I arrived so at last my winter coat came into play. As on the train, very few people spoke english so finding my hostel was a bit of a mission. After wandering several back alleys and madly gesturing at locals I found the totally unmarked door in an un-named square behind a camera shop. As it turned out, both the hostel and the town were quiet and friendly and a really nice place to relax for a few days.
Irkutsk is well known for being the once home of political exiles, most famously the 'Decembrists', who following the defeat of Napolean, revolted against Tsar Nicholas I and imperialist Russia. For a long time the city had an odd mix of upper class revolutionaries, thieves and violent criminals. It was a very unsafe place with a scarily high murder rate. Now, Irkutsk is a large administrative centre, an access point for lake Baikal and a picturesque town with crumbling wooden buildings and tree lined streets. The nicest building is perhaps the tourist office, a renovated wooden beauty with carved eaves in typical Siberian style. It was also nice
inside- the bored employees had been waiting all winter for someone to arrive and we were plied with maps, information and smiles.
About 40 miles south east of Irkutsk is lystvyanka, a tiny vilage on the shores of Lake Baikal, or the Baikal sea. Baikal is the biggest fresh water lake in the world, around 400 miles long and over 1.5 km deep. It is 25 million years old and contains a staggering 20% of the worlds fresh water supply. It is also home to an amazing amount of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet. One of these, the omul fish, I had for fried lunch (and smoked for dinner!) the day I visited.
I went to Lake Baikal with a couple from my hostel and andrew who I met in moscow. We got a shared minivan (which is the main means of local transport) from Irkutsk. its just one road to lystvyanka and we decided to get off the bus early to visit the wooden house museum at Taltsi. The morning we went it was snowing wonderfully and the musuem turned out to be lots of old fashioned russian dwellings scattered around a beautiful
birch forest. It was definitely worth the visit. We'd been warned that getting to Baikal from the museum was difficult as the buses only left irkutsk when they were full so you could only hitch. As it was about -5 oC we were a bit nervous about this but literally the third vehicle stopped for us and the friendly builder took us in his van to the shores of the lake.
Now the best thing about lake Baikal, that I haven't mentioned so far is that for about 5 months of the year it freezes. The top 2 metres freeze solid so when I went, you could walk down from the village straight out onto the ice. Ii was still snowing when I arrived and their was white nothingness as far as I could see. In the distance the ice faded into the falling snow and this into the white sky. An illusion of blankness only distubed by occasional 4x4s, a hovercraft and a particularly curious dog. Later in the day, after lunch the snow stopped and the sun came out. In some places the ice had been polished clean and you could see down into the darkness. The
water is totally clear (it is actually safe to drink due to the filtering action of several resident sponge species) so all that was visible between me and the abyss were some disconcerting cracks! The wind, like the lake, was icy and bitterly cold so we needed regular tea breaks in the numerous cafes along the 'beach' to rejuvenate. In the evening we went back to Irkutsk and I spent the next few days wandering round some more orthodox churches. Smaller but just as rich and beautiful as the ones in the big cities. I also saw a few services, with a haunting a cappella singing and priests wandering between the candles strewing incense.
My Russian has been pretty much non existant but I have learnt a few food substances which is always useful for deciphering menues. Shashlik (grilled meat or fish on skewers) is popular in most restaurants, as is pelimni (essentially rich meatball tortellini, usually served in soup or with sour cream), a particular fabourite of mine. In Irkutsk not only succeeded in ordering something off a Russian menu but even sending it back when the wrong dish arrived. I also went to Irkutsk food market, a
wonderful bustling affair with every type of salad and sachet you could imagine. I stocked up on porridge, hot chocolate and spicy picked carrots, as wellas some Russian khleb (bread). This was generally excellent- Moscow was once famed for its bakeries and there are lots of different types and colours of bread including some amazingly chewy stretchy white varieties which I particularly like. This is good with thick chunks of cold russian sausage and cream cheese. Russia is also great for its street food. Each city has stalls selling blini (crepe like pancakes) with all sorts of fillings and lots of what can only be described as savoury donughts. Deep fried doughy pasties filled with meat, cheese or vegetables. Very warming on a siberian winter day and a nice staple for lunch if you are on the move, although possibly heart attack inducing on a regular basis. As I am exceedingly sensible, I supplemented my intake with oranges.
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Mummy
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no pictures of the little people?
where are the very small people who live in the houses on stilts and drive the very small cars shown with the locals? Love your icy pictures of Baikal - hope you wee polite to Grandfather Frost!