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Published: April 4th 2007
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Trans-Siberian
View from the train with (frozen) Lake Baikal "Russia is for the Russians." - Maria
This was the general feeling we got about Russia after our 12 days there. While its sights were beautiful and its scale vast, Russia sure proved to be difficult to travel through independently. As Tom's co-worker Olga had predicted and forewarned, Russians don't like foreigners, they're not friendly to strangers and they won't speak to you even if they can speak English (which they are taught in school). Oh, and the stereotype is true: they drink a lot!
Despite all this, the train rides were the highlights for us. Travelling from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, we got off the train to explore Irkutsk (Lake Baikal), Moscow and St. Petersburg. Our longest journey (Irkutsk-Moscow) was 87 hours long, but it was fantastic and it really couldn't have gone smoother!
To Irkutsk -
At 25 hours and $34 US/person, this train ride was definitely the most eventful! We smelled a rat when hoards of Mongolian traders with arms full of merchandise (jeans, running shoes, blankets, etc) boarded the train. These people then proceeded to stash their crap everywhere - including under the floor boards - using an uncanny amount of scotch tape. To no
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View from the train surprise, this is the reason why we were stuck at the Mongolian-Russian border for over 6 hours. Russian officials had a field day confiscating their excess wares. (For the record, the officials showed little interest in us but they were terrifying nonetheless!)
After a long night at the border, we pulled into Irkutsk the next day. A small town with European flair, it's nothing spectacular other than being the gateway to Lake Baikal, the largest lake in the world. Signs of the former glory of communism are evident throughout Irkutsk, for example a large statue of V.I. Lenin at the corner of Karl Marx & Lenin Streets. Yup, we are in Russia alright!
Irkutsk -
We picked a snowy Sunday to visit Lake Baikal. After a crammed van ride, we arrived at the fishing town of Listvyanka, which is right on the Lake. Had we chosen a different time of year to visit Baikal, it would have looked more like a lake than a giant skating rink! Tom was excited about the views while I was left wondering "Where the hell is the lake??" Pardon me, I'm Greek! We eat some delicious smoked omul fish, walked along and on
Lake Baikal
Us at the edge of Lake Baikal, where it flows into the Angara River the frozen lake.... but other than this, there wasn't really much going on. So we went back to Irkutsk to prepare ourselves for the longest train ride yet!!
Trans-Siberian -
The train ride to Moscow took 87 hours and passed through 5 time zones. As exhausting as this might sound, it was a completely relaxing ride with great views and company to boot! You're probably wondering what we did to pass the time - the rhythm of life on the train went something like this: eat, sleep, read, nap, look out the window, write, eat, sleep, etc!! We totally lucked out by having only one other cabin mate, Tania, a military communications officer with minimal English but a great personality. She was on her way from Vladivostok to Perm to spend 5 days with her brother. Her total travel time would be 6 days, reminding us how far people must travel in this country! We also had the pleasure of getting drunk on vodka with four 20-year-old Russian military boys on their way to Chechnya. One got so drunk he had to be carried to his bunk by his friends at 10pm. Whenever the train would pull into a
Lake Baikal
Smoked omul fish at Lake Baikal...mmmm station, we would jump off to get some fresh air and check out what the babushkas had for sale. The weather was cold but not unbearable. Really, the only thing we were unhappy with was that the prices for this ride had doubled from what the current Lonely Planet had quoted!
Moscow -
Moscow is not a cheap city. Russia surprised us by being more expensive than we'd anticipated. The cheapest accommodation we could find for our 3 days in Moscow was a woman's 2-bedroom flat that felt like we were staying with some kind of distant relative. No budget hostels in the capital, hmm. As for the city itself, Moscow had an edgy feel with locals drinking everywhere, anytime, and a police force with a notorious reputation of corruption and extortion. Banks were abundant but most were clueless when it came to dealing with foreigners, especially cashing our travellers cheques. English signage was nonexistent, which made navigating the city and its metro system a constant challenge. Thank God Cyrillic is similar to Greek... not that this helped Tom at all! "H" sounds like "N" and a backwards "R" sounds like "ya".... what the hell? At least the sights
Lake Baikal
Tom posing on the world's largest skating rink and architecture were beautiful enough to make up for the city's frustrations and shortcomings!
St Petersburg -
We found St Petersburg to be more beautiful than Moscow but quickly discovered why it's known as the crime capital of Russia. Fresh off our overnight train from Moscow, we found ourselves in a congested metro station where Tom's back pocket was promptly picked clean by a slick tag-team operation. Little did they know that Mr. Smarty Pants carried a 'dummy' wallet with only $10 in it (and 5 different currencies, at that!), while his real wallet was in his side pocket. Bottom line: no credit cards, passports or important documents were lost. Suckers!!
The city itself can be described as Venice of the North, with meandering canals and a plethora of bridges. The highlight for us was definitely not the weather (snow & wind!), but rather a Russian folk show and the Museum of Ethnology. This place had all kinds of grotesque medical anomalies on display, collected by Peter the Great 300 years ago. We saw stuff ranging from a chicken with 6 legs to double-headed human fetuses. Freaky stuff!
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In conclusion, Russia sure was a *#@&
Irkutsk
Maria at the entrance to the hostel! to travel through but the experience was character building (to say the least) and has left us with many stories to share! One lasting impression is that although communism fell over 15 years ago, it's the mentality of the people of this giant country that will take longer to break from the mould.
On to Europe!
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Sybilla Mannsfeldt
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Travels in Russia
Hi, Thomas and Maria: your travelogues about Mongolia and Russia was awesome and the photos very beautiful. I did wonder how you'd pass the time on that long train ride. Regards, Sybilla