I've been a bit in the back of beyond - or at least without internet, which feels like the back of beyond in todays day and age. However now I am in Irkutsk (if my cyrillic is correct), GMT+8, having spent many long hours on trains in tiny compartments with people I now know possibly better than I should!
Last post was in Moscow, since then I took a train to Yekaterinburg, managing to fit 15 people into one coupe compartment to drink vodka (3 Australians, 2 Germans, 1 Canadian, 1 Russian and the rest Brits). There isn't a lot else to do on the train... somehow the hours FLY by. Apparantly the Russian guy took a bit of a shine to me - I have been teased constantly ever since.
Yekaterinburg is an interesting place. The place of the Romanov murders, and the place where they were cannonised by the Russian Orthodox church. Also close to the border of the European and Asian plates, with lots of opportunities for cheesey photos! There seems to be less of the Russian pomp and circumstance there than in other places I have been, and very telling is the Afgan war memorial, where a soldier sits a broken man hanging his head rather than standing strong and proud as elsewhere.
We stayed in a soviet style hotel here as there was an absence of hostels. Walking down corridors that would be more at home in "the shining" was entertaining - less entertaining were the freezing rooms and communal showers, but it's all part of the experience!
Then there was a rather longer train journey - 2 days, 3 nights to where I am now. Boredom on this train meant that we visited the restaurant car having "dressed for dinner" first, which entertained us, and certainly entertained the Russians whose carriages we had to go through en route!
So I have just spent the last 2 days on the shores of lake Baikal - the deepest in the world, holding the greatest amount of fresh water of any lake in the world. Staying in a cosy log cabin surrounded by taiga forest, with views over the lake to the snow capped mountains across the lake was amazing. As was the cold. Although it is cold for the season there seems to be general agreement that we'd feel short-changed if we were in siberia and it was warm! I'm not sure how I can really describe where I've been, and photos won't do it justice, but I will upload some pics for you all when I find an internet cafe that has fast enough internet!
Things that are surprising about Russia :
- The Taiga is silver birch trees and fir, probably with more birch than fir, meaning that the colours at this time of year are amazing. I don't know why, but I expected coniferous forests all the way.
- Borsch is GOOD!
- Cyrillic is surprisingly easy to learn.
- Russians are incredibly shy (unless on the vodka), and never smile - until you get to know them
- Babushkas scare people more than the dogs running around the streets
- When a taxi driver starts miming shooting a gun then digging a grave, it isn't necessarily cause to scream!
- The Urals seem to be the mountain range that isn't - much of Russia seems to be rather flat. Of course there is the possibility that we went through the mountains at night....
- Flora and fauna so far look just like the UK, only the buildings and people are changing
Today is a slow day. Tonight we have a train to Ulan Ude, where we arrive at about 4am. It sounded better when we looked at the tickets (which are all in Moscow time - 5 hours behind us). I'm still very relaxed from the Banya we took yesterday. A Banya (for the uninitiated) is a Russian sauna. Very civilised - apart from you hit each other with birch and fir twigs! Many inappropriate comments and 45 minutes later we were completely stewed and even didn't scream (much) at the bucket of cold water thrown over you at then end!
So now onwards and Eastwards...
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