Blogs from Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 5

Buenas noches, aquí. Tardes por allá. Aquí son 7 horas más que en territorio español, así que por eso os lo digo. De hecho, ahora ya estoy un poco más ubicado, pero al final de mi viaje en tren, ya no sabía si estaba comiendo o cenando, o me echaba la siesta o dormía de día… en fin, un poco locura, con los biorritmos cambiados. Con una hora de retraso he llegado a Irkutsk. Por fin!! Qué ganas tenía!! Y entonces, el plan era… que no tenía plan!! Guau… por una parte me asustaba no saber qué hacer, y por otra me emocionaba poder hacer lo que me diese la auténtica gana! Lo primero que he hecho al salir del tren ha sido salir de la estación a la calle. Y al ver semejante revuelo de ... read more

Woah long time eh? From now on in my blogs will get more frequent (sorry about that) because I want to blog from each city we go to, which will be every couple of days after leaving Russia. Anywho, so last week in Mongolia was fun. We met a load of Peace Corps volunteers and mostly just hung out with them for the week. Ralph and I did attempt to do an excursion, 'attempt' being the optimum word. We rented a tent and sleeping bags and stuff and had this 2 day hike planned out to Terelj, but we made it about 10 minutes outside of the city before deciding it was too hot, and our bags were too heavy, and there was a river we could see that looked very inviting for a swim. So ... read more

Nach gut einer Woche im Zug, sind wir heute morgen halb 8 in Irkutsk angekommen. Endlich ist der Einreisestempel von Russland in unserem Pass, nachdem wir praktisch seit Montag darauf warten. Moskau war beeindruckend, speziell der Rote Platz, die Basilius Kathedrale und der Kreml. Metrofahren kann zum Abenteuer werden, besonders wenn man die Sprache nicht spricht oder kein kyrillisch lesen kann. Etwas seltsam sind auch die Russen. Noch nie haben wir so kalte und unfreundliche Menschen erlebt. Doch das aenderte sich im laufe der Zugfahrt in Sibirien schlagartig. In Irkutsk lachen die Menschen auf einmal wieder und zeigen sich wesentlich hilfsbereiter. Aber letztendlich ists trotzdem alles megasuper. Tolle Landschaften aus dem Zugfenster rasten an uns vorbei. Und morgen gehts schlieslich zum Baikalsee auf die Insel Olchon - was will man mehr. Also bis denne Jungs und ... read more

Hi from the actual Trans-Siberian Railway! I’m three hours into a 54-hour train journey from Irkutsk to Yekaterinburg. I have been very lucky so far in terms of cabin mates but it’s not looking so good this time – so far. I am in an all-women kupe (by choice) with a mother, about my age, and her daughter in her 20’s, plus a third woman who is 40-ish and may not be related. By the time I arrived the mother and daughter were settled in the kupe, spread their food out on the mini-table and were having dinner. Maybe they got on yesterday. It’s very hot¸ per usual in these trains, but everyone will soon go to sleep. The third woman disappeared and I just noticed she’s been flat out asleep in the bunk over ... read more

We (I and my husband) dreamed to visit Baikal Lake. And we did it two weeks ago!!!! We stayed on Olkhon Island for four days. It was so beautiful!!! Baikal is very fine place for travel and it is so various. We had many interesting excursions by the automobile and hiking trail on Olkhon Island. It place give feeling for the beautiful))))). We ate arctic cisco –“Omul ” – so delicious! This is national dish for populace. And It has many alternatives for cook. But Olkhon Island is very windy and there is much sand. After we went to real Russian village!!!! Now I know what is this Russian off-roads)))) wow! There are very old village straight in Siberian Taiga! And many-many forest around at long kilometres' distance! Russian sauna is very interesting national bath. That's ... read more