Blogs from Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 12

After a quick cab ride we arrived at the station in Omsk and next thing we knew we were on another train heading in the direction of Krasnoyarsk. This time we had a 40-something guy as our roomie. Suspiciously (or not?), he had already taken up all the overhead luggage storage with lots and lots of boxes. This meant we had to fit our rucksacks into the smaller space under the bunks. When we got on the train he appeared to be asleep (even though it was 11:30) so we tried tiptoeing around to get our luggage packed away. That done we realised we needed to get to work sorting out our blog and settled down to write a few entries. Soon enough, we had another stupid o’clock stop to get off the train at Krasnoyarsk ... read more

Étape #2 – Ulaan Baator à Novosibirsk (54h et 2913 km) À la fin de mon dernier texte, j’en étais rendu au passage de la frontière russo-mongole. Côté mongole, j’avais plutôt l’impression que les formalités étaient surtout symboliques de par le temps requis pour faire toute la paperasse et passer au crible le train en entier. Une heure et le train était repartit. Côté russe, ce ne fût pas tout à fait la même histoire. Le défilé d’officiels c’est donc déroulé comme suit : une dame pour vérifier la liste des passagers et s’assurer que nous étions à nos places, une autre dame de l’immigration pour récupérer nos passeports et confirmer qu’ils étaient bien les nôtres et un douanier s’assurer que nous n’avions pas trop de cigarettes, alcool ou articles destinés à la revente et pour ... read more

After arriving back in Irkutsk from Olkhon (another 7 hour cross-country rally!) we headed for our hostel/guest house only to find no-one was there to let us in Errr, a number pinned to the door but since we didn’t know how to ring it from a uk phone we’d to set off back into town with our backpacks in search of a pay phone or internet café none of which exist in Irkutsk! This was turning into a long day! We eventually managed to find a Russian lady who spook some English and allowed us to use her mobile and at last managed to get into out hostel phewww!! After eating such simple food for the last few days on the Island we headed straight for subway yuummmm!! (no mcdonalds/kfc in Irkutsk, and as we found ... read more

I was met at Irkutsk station by Lena a local Russian lady who was to take me to my homestay accommodation. I thought that it would be a good idea to experience a piece of the real Russia and stay with a local family for a few nights, something at that moment I was regretting. The night on the train from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk had been tough, I had little sleep and we were woken at 5am by the attendant who wanted to get the toilets cleaned before we pulled into our final destination at 7am! I was leaving the Aussie sisters who had upgraded and were off to a hotel for a few nights before we met again. A short car journey later found me at the homestay. I was in shock as I studied ... read more

We got a marshrutka* from Lake Baikal to Irkutsk which dropped us near the bus station.*this is a common form of transport in Russia,they are minibuses that use fixed routes and are relatively cheap.We knew our hotel wasn't far but, not sure of the actual location and with two heavy rucksacks, we negotiated a price with a taxi driver who drove us the short 5 minutes to the hotel Viktoria.We were checked in by a lovely English speaking receptionist and chilled out in our large room.It had an en-suite complete with bath which is unusual in Russia.We had some laundry to catch up on and attempted to log in on the pc but there was a network problem so we headed out to eat.The hotel was just off Karl Marx Street,one of the main streets.This street ... read more