Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 311

My time in lovely Irkutsk has come to an end. Tonight I take the 4 day train to Moscow. I spent yeserday afternoon at lake Baikal. It was like a dream. I stepped of the bus and walked around the stalls of people selling smoked fish. As I was heading toward a cafe a guy took me oby the arm and almost forced me onto his tour boat. It was great! I stool outside in the chilling wind as we cruised around the Southern part of the lake. Baikal is so big is looks more like the sea than a lake. And it was so cold it was hard to imagine any creatures able to live in such frigid water. Apparently 80% of the wildlife in the lake is special to Baikal and can only be ... read more

Hey, immer noch alles im Lot, und so gesehn im Osten nix neues. Es geht mir immer noch blendend, kann mich ueber nichts beschweren (ausser der Esskultur und vielleicht der Kaelte). Mal kurz etwas zu erzaehlen wird eher schwierig, da ich eine Menge erlebt habe. Nichts weltbewegendes, halt Kultur. Dafuer gibbet diesmal photos. Doch von vorn. Letzten Donnerstag war der letzte Arbeitstag in der Woche. Ihr erinnert euch - Freitag ist der Ersatzfeiertag weil Montag (heute) eigentlich ein Feiertag ist. Weshalb der verlegt wurde weiss ich immer noch nicht. Wir hatten eine kleine Studentenfeier (Feiertag halt). War ganz ok, doch normalerweise fangen diese Feiern immer so 1900 Uhr an und hoeren 2230 auf, weil alle zurueck ins Wohnheim muessen und man da nicht mehr nach 2300 reinkommt. Am Ende wird aber eh erst um 2255 gegangen ... read more

Peeking out of the train window as the sun came up this morning we were greeted with a beautiful surprise. We were entering a real life winter-wonderland. Snow and ice blanketed the entire countryside. The half-frozen rivers we passed we steaming in the cold winter air and the small wooden houses outside all had little chimneys billowing with white smoke. It looked like a scene from a fairy tale. As the sun appeared in a hazy shade of pink, we could see people walking along the train lines bundled in big wool coats with giant fur hats. Welcome to Russia!! The train ride from Ulaanbataar seemed much longer than the 36 hours it was. I came back from the Gobi with a very bad cold which made sitting in a small train compartment with three other ... read more

I woke up to the sound of Anya making animal noises. When I opened my eyes I saw a child looking down on me, not quite knowing what to do. Alissa is about eighteen months old and looks a lot like her mum and her grandmother. I entertained her for the morning in the universal language of silly faces and piggy-backs, then went for a walk around the neighbourhood with Ana and Anya. It was a bleak experience. In the afternoon Ana and I went back to the 'Koffye Haus' where we had eaten two days before. We had ice creams and drank coffee for hours. As spoiled as it sounds, there is nowhere in Yaroslavl that serves good coffee and western food and I missed it. That was all I wanted to do with my ... read more

The journey to Moscow took four and a quarter hours. My train was almost luxurious; soft maroon sofa-style chairs, a green marble design table and cream silk curtains that matched the carpet. If Elton John designed Russian first class train compartments they would look something like this. Because it was so early I slept for most of the way but I woke up for a cup of coffee - which a girl took through the carriages in an urn, with the rest of the refreshments in a supermarket trolley. I got to Moscow Yaroslavskaya station at half past eleven. I had agreed to meet my pen-pal, Anastasiya, there. She is an English student from Ukraine, who had helped me with my Russian before I moved to Yaroslavl. We agreed to meet when I arrived in Russia: ... read more