on the move, a break in Siberia, then on the move again
Day 6
Trees trees trees and grass. beat Dee at scrabble.
Grass grass grass plus trees. a few stops but none any longer than 15 minutes or so. lots of food on offer out there.
Beautiful sunset again. we had a pink sky for about an hour! and the trees and forests became misty as dark set in.
lots of abandoned buildings in the process of crumbling or getting close to ruins status. long since used. and the houses are small wooden boxes, like cheaper versions of log cabins. i was literally reminded of Asterix comic books. the cars though, all seem less than 10 years old. oh yeah, the wake up music at 10am nearly blew my ears off. very dance, very rave though. my thoughts went back to Chinese trains and the Kenny G on loop play....
Day 7
sleep and trees and grass and rivers. big big rivers. with ruins. either modern buildings a few decades since being abandoned, or even castle-like behemoth skeletons overlooking those rivers. Dee bought us some nice food at one of the stops and befriended a couple of railway workers sharing our carriage.
they spoke very little, or no English, so they enlisted Anya, one door from us, to help translate. she was a little shy at first, but for no reason. very capable of english conversation. she lives in Chita with her husband, and she's a railway engineer. the two men also worked for the railway, although i couldn't figure out what they did. perhaps they drove trains? no idea.
soon enough though, having knocked back a few shots of Vodka, the boys started hitting on Dee, so we retired back to our cabin which had a slight smell of BO. settled in for the "night", although the sun went down around 11pm and it was still light at midnight.
Day 7
a fairly strong version of body odour woke me up. i'm certain it wasn't me, but rather from our cabin mates in the bunks below. an older couple who hadn't left their beds for 2 days. a short stop in Ulan Ude and our ever-increasingly friendly carriage attendant pointed the way to a photo opportunity with BEARS!! (carved from wood).
around Lake Baikal (wikipedia or google, people, it's very impressive), we were treated to incredible scenery: snow capped peaks, clear, clear lake water. Dee cleaned a window, pissing off the afore mentioned friendly attendant when she saw the colour of her previously white towel. made for great pics. Dee then scored 332 in scrabble!!!
and then, we arrived in Irkutsk, and, under the boiling evening sun, drama!
ticket sellers wouldn't sell us anything so we finally went to the "service" centre, where we were sold the wrong tickets, despite our very clear instructions!!! when we tried to change them, they closed in my face, saying "tomorrow". ARRRRRRR!
afer a few minutes to an hour of phone calls, most of that time being dedicated to finding a phone, we found a fantastic hostel. very lucky.
then i almost broke the washing maching because i don't listen...
Days 8 & 9
drama at the train station became a slightly expensive lesson in frustrating Russian logic as their mistake cost us money. but we spent the day chatting to other travellers, learnt a bit about Siberia from Alena, the hostel captain, and had a walk around town.
next day, we woke up too early due to failing the timezone change on my alarm clock! yet we still missed the bus to Lake Baikal. took a faster mini-cab, which was still quite cheap, and arrived at Listvyanka, a small town by the freezing cold water!!! we had a walk along the shore, then went to a small cafe to hide from the icey wind. a man made a rice risotto thing over a coal fire outside, so we had a feed of that, followed by sunbathing as the day heated up, then a speedy ride back to Irkutsk.
we got a little lost at the bus station, then had an argument with a German mechanical engineer in the oil industry over a beer at the local pizza restaurant (no, we didn't argue oil).
Day 10
finally, a sleep in, and no electricity at the hostel. cruised through the day, met some very beautiful and friendly Finnish girls, then found a www cafe. went to the train station in time to wait stressfully for our very late (by 15 - 20 minutes) ride to Moscow.
we gave up waiting in the station and headed to a/the platform. made it to our lower bunks, saw half of China disembark, then we left Irkutsk, Dee kicked my ass at scrabble, and that was another day as the sun kind of sunk below the horizon, but the sky was still a dark shade of blue
Trees trees trees and grass. beat Dee at scrabble.
Grass grass grass plus trees. a few stops but none any longer than 15 minutes or so. lots of food on offer out there.
Beautiful sunset again. we had a pink sky for about an hour! and the trees and forests became misty as dark set in.
lots of abandoned buildings in the process of crumbling or getting close to ruins status. long since used. and the houses are small wooden boxes, like cheaper versions of log cabins. i was literally reminded of Asterix comic books. the cars though, all seem less than 10 years old. oh yeah, the wake up music at 10am nearly blew my ears off. very dance, very rave though. my thoughts went back to Chinese trains and the Kenny G on loop play....
Day 7
sleep and trees and grass and rivers. big big rivers. with ruins. either modern buildings a few decades since being abandoned, or even castle-like behemoth skeletons overlooking those rivers. Dee bought us some nice food at one of the stops and befriended a couple of railway workers sharing our carriage.
they spoke very little, or no English, so they enlisted Anya, one door from us, to help translate. she was a little shy at first, but for no reason. very capable of english conversation. she lives in Chita with her husband, and she's a railway engineer. the two men also worked for the railway, although i couldn't figure out what they did. perhaps they drove trains? no idea.
soon enough though, having knocked back a few shots of Vodka, the boys started hitting on Dee, so we retired back to our cabin which had a slight smell of BO. settled in for the "night", although the sun went down around 11pm and it was still light at midnight.
Day 7
a fairly strong version of body odour woke me up. i'm certain it wasn't me, but rather from our cabin mates in the bunks below. an older couple who hadn't left their beds for 2 days. a short stop in Ulan Ude and our ever-increasingly friendly carriage attendant pointed the way to a photo opportunity with BEARS!! (carved from wood).
around Lake Baikal (wikipedia or google, people, it's very impressive), we were treated to incredible scenery: snow capped peaks, clear, clear lake water. Dee cleaned a window, pissing off the afore mentioned friendly attendant when she saw the colour of her previously white towel. made for great pics. Dee then scored 332 in scrabble!!!
and then, we arrived in Irkutsk, and, under the boiling evening sun, drama!
ticket sellers wouldn't sell us anything so we finally went to the "service" centre, where we were sold the wrong tickets, despite our very clear instructions!!! when we tried to change them, they closed in my face, saying "tomorrow". ARRRRRRR!
afer a few minutes to an hour of phone calls, most of that time being dedicated to finding a phone, we found a fantastic hostel. very lucky.
then i almost broke the washing maching because i don't listen...
Days 8 & 9
drama at the train station became a slightly expensive lesson in frustrating Russian logic as their mistake cost us money. but we spent the day chatting to other travellers, learnt a bit about Siberia from Alena, the hostel captain, and had a walk around town.
next day, we woke up too early due to failing the timezone change on my alarm clock! yet we still missed the bus to Lake Baikal. took a faster mini-cab, which was still quite cheap, and arrived at Listvyanka, a small town by the freezing cold water!!! we had a walk along the shore, then went to a small cafe to hide from the icey wind. a man made a rice risotto thing over a coal fire outside, so we had a feed of that, followed by sunbathing as the day heated up, then a speedy ride back to Irkutsk.
we got a little lost at the bus station, then had an argument with a German mechanical engineer in the oil industry over a beer at the local pizza restaurant (no, we didn't argue oil).
Day 10
finally, a sleep in, and no electricity at the hostel. cruised through the day, met some very beautiful and friendly Finnish girls, then found a www cafe. went to the train station in time to wait stressfully for our very late (by 15 - 20 minutes) ride to Moscow.
we gave up waiting in the station and headed to a/the platform. made it to our lower bunks, saw half of China disembark, then we left Irkutsk, Dee kicked my ass at scrabble, and that was another day as the sun kind of sunk below the horizon, but the sky was still a dark shade of blue
posted by the Emperor Fabulous at 9:49 AM
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