From Moscow to an autumnal Lake Baikal by train

Since our last blog, we've been through some up and downs.
Reading through our last post, we realised it might have sounded a bit negative? Sitting in the transsib to Irkutsk gave us some time to reflect and put a bit more emphasis on the positive things we've seen and learnt. However, our first day in Irkutsk was kind of a disaster,

Obviously, being in a city like Moscow (with over 11 million people!) is just not our thing. We miss the quietness, the sea and the willingness to interact with your neighbour. It makes us grumpy as well. No one smiles and you somehow stop to smile yourself.
Also, it's been 7 weeks now since we last set foot on German soil. A whole lot of new places, experiences, things, people and impressions. Our mind was a bit full and the batteries a bit empty. The trainride was excellent to recharge, to think about all the things we liked and would love to do or see still. And even though we have still 45 weeks ahead of us, it is way too short. When we had some time to read and see more of Russia through the train window, we felt that we need to go back someday, explore the countryside more and engage more with people. That is what we missed most in St.Petersburg, and we felt quite lonely! Majestic buildings and gold everywhere, but a really cold atmosphere. Moscow was different in the sense that wehad such wonderful hosts who were so kind to us! Feeling as if we've known them  for years, it was hard to part without tears. It is a really different  thing if you have warm friends around you, that makes us so much happier! So even if "you DON'T Smile on the subway" seems to be the credo, we could smile more yourself knowing we had someone smiling with us!
 

We also understood that even though we look like tourists (at least we think so!) we seemed to blend in too much? No one smiles, just stares or ignores you. the Japanese took photos of us as if we were the locals... And surprisingly, once we had our mega backpacks on, people were -without being asked!!- helping us to the right station!! All of a sudden they seem to speak English after all. Wow. Don't really know what to think about it. So after posting our last blog we had the feeling that someone has heard our complaints:). We were optimistic and more positive regarding our second half of Russia...

Our train compartment (kupe) had 4 beds. From outside of Russia you are not allowed to book 3rd class and We didnt want to take the risk of waiting for 2 days for a ticket or the danger of high prices...so we ended up in 2nd class. Our companions: 55 year old Boris from Irkutsk and Ivan, 71 years old from Czech Republic. Half with German,half with a point-it book (thanks Angelica!) and the rest with sign language we seem to be able to conversate. In the meantime we are able to decipher the Cyrillic letters and our first sentences (thank you Nastya!) sound not too bad!

The train drives with the amazing speed of averagely 50-60 km per hour, so there is enough time to soak up all sorts of impressions. We passed through villages, small gardens and lots of colourful forest. Autumn is coming(actually here already! and all the leaves are turning yellow and red, it's what we think how Indian Summer looks like! Siberian Indian Summer so to say. :)) Most of the trees being birches, rapidly being exchanged for Taiga while I wrote this part of the text. The three guys in our kupe snoring (quick nap on midday) just before we arrived in Balezhino, where we stopped for 23 minutes.
On the platform you will find people with trolleys, selling smoked fish,vegetables, plush animals and Kvas, a typical Russian drink made of bread. Enough to be stuffed for days,and we didnt get ill from anything! But it is easy to lose money on food, so bargaining is necessary. Many of the babushkas (meaning old woman) are quite stubborn, but so were we!!

So in the end it was not so warm, noisy, everlasting, damp or sufficating hot as feared but totally amazing!! Imagine 80 hours of time without pc, internet,... So what to do first?! Right.... Sleeping, then finally getting time for exploring the train and further destinations, postcards,... It quickly felt comfy. The first day was missing some social interaction outside our coupe which changed later when we met some German guys, Swedish girls, Americans, British,...and we had a really good time even playing some skat!!:). So if you ever consider taking the transsib for more than one night, it's wise to spend the money on a coupe as the 3rd class was unbearably hot and smelly on this trip, highlighted by the presence of (really) drunk Russians.
 

The only downturn were the reoccuring quarrels with the drunk Russians e.g. in the restaurant wagon attacking one of our German fellow travellers, and continuously harassing the Swedish girls in 3rd class. This was our first direct encounter with male Russian violence, On the first day,we experienced it personally. All the good faith we built up during the three days in the train, all the dreaming about spending more time with the locals and exploring more of this country were suddenly really low priority. On the first morning we felt that it was stupid only being here for 3 nights. In the afternoon we were unhappy about being stuck here for three days as the train was already booked.

Of course, it might be true that no city (except maybe Bergen) is charming in the rain, and Irkutsk did not get the best cards in that sense. Its been described as one of the most beautiful cities of Russia, if not the prettiest in Siberia. And indeed, there are less "crooked" houses that look like they are about to fall apart. There are more western stores (United Colours of Benneton was spotted,next to Sisley and Quicksilver) or maybe they don't bother to translate it into Cyrillic here.  And, more people somehow speak English!! So inspite of the rain, Jan felt really positive. I was too tired to be really enthusiastic   (slept only 2 hours; the train continues on Moscow time, while we are now on Irkutsk, meaning 7 hours ahead of you in Western Europe, except Finland! ) quite a sudden change.

But the longer we walked along the streets and the market, the more we felt observed...chased. after paying way too much for two bananas of bad quality, even Jan grew sceptical. Even if you ask the right thing in Russian, we dont make any sense of the answer. It's a real handicap.

The bus to Listvjanka, apparently the best "kurort" /spa resort of Siberia, was only 1,5 hours, we actually found the hotel without problems, a quiet little place in a town right (Nikola) right before Listvjanka, where everything looks like those small "garden" houses we have in Holland and Germany (volkstuintjes/Schräbergarten). So when we went into town, the 10 minute minibus tour to the waterside was just as expensive as the whole trip hereto...sounds like another ripp off. (we walked the 7 km on the way back).

Quite annoyed about this, we went into the tourist office (yeah there is one!), without luck as the only thing we got is a "free " tourist map the non-English speaking lady wanted 100 rubels for. Getting even more annoyed about the fact that you have to pay for using dixie-toilets here, we bought us a treat: a lovely fish called Omul, which we wanted to eat by the waterside. And indeed it was really really worth it, a mixture between salmon and trout, only found here in Baikal. But if you want to sit down, you soon notice that none of the Benches are for free, they are being rented out!! And mostly filled with heavily drunken Russians. (the men, while the women explain their kids they'd better look away). When we finally found a spot in the middle of what looked more like a ghetto than a jetset bathing place, a very drunk Russian approached us quite close and apparently mumbled something about Omul... Thinking of the wise advise of my parents, we ignored him. 2 minutes later, a shoe soared passed our heads, directly aimed at us. Trying to keep calm we decided this was the time to leave. We were not wanted. And that's what we felt more and more, not wanted here. We decided to treat ourselves with a second fish, which we actually didnt get as the prices asked were ridiculous compared with those on the first market. Obviously insulted about our price negotiations they laughed about us when we turned around. Again, tourists are not wanted here, it seems.

As a summary of the first day, we wrote:
" We do NOT feel welcome here. Maybe it's only this place in Russia that is so tourist unfriendly. Maybe we just hoped too much of it, maybe it's our lack of sleep, maybe it's the rain, maybe we are simply getting paranoid. But for the first time we really miss home.
We're glad we're not staying downtown but in this cute hotel made of of wood, that feels like a Norwegian mountain cabin or a cottage. Tomorrow it will be sunny and after a long sleep we will go for a walk in the fantastic autumnly painted woods. We're positive that tomorrow everything will be bright again!" 

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In fact, the next two days were much better. We stayed out of the crowds, went into the woods and spent more time down at the lake. No more drunken Russians, no more aggressive looks, no more shoe throwing...

The woods are fantastic, they are bright red, radiant yellow and green. If the sunlight is in the right angle, it looks like it is on fire. We felt good, breathing in the fresh air, the cool breeze on our skin and the stunning views from above. The hundreds of leaf-pictures are our witnesses.

With not much to do here, we also took a trip to Port Baikal on the other side of the river, by ferry, For about 1 euro you can get there. The place is desolated, there's nothing here but a few wooden (dismantled) houses. It used to be a much in use train station, before they rerouted to train from Irkutsk, leaving it with a dead end, and only the circum baikal tourist train. The only museum here is " guarded" by very angry looking two ladies. Instead of asking if we would like to see it, one of them closed the doors so we couldnt have a sneak preview. The point it book did another miracle, and even put a smile on here face. Souvenir stores are closed, the train doesn't drive today. It's quiet, except from the loud Russian " schlager" music coming out of one of the houses. Stray dogs enough, and a few youngsters on scooter. A harbour filled with large ships that look like they are just here to rot away. It made us a bit sad. I couldn't help thinking about Billy Joel's lyrics " A Russian life was very sad..... (Leningrad)" and actually it still is.... 

By the way, it was hard to get money here, as there are only 2 ATMs, one in Listvjanka (7km away) and one in Hotel Baikal that didnt take any cards except from the real expensive Mastercard from the Commerzbank....

We closed our trip in Russia with a real treat: a Banya. (russian Sauna) Hope that no one will be offended with the half-naked pictures, but we just had to show this: equipped with felt hats on and fir tree branches (the smell was infatuating) we steamed off all the worries. Russia stays in our memory as a country  of hot and very cold moments....

Next stop: Ulaanbaatar, arrival Friday morning (6 hours ahead of Germany). 2 weeks of Mongolia..... here we come!!!!! :)