Relaxing at lake Baikal!? & The last days of Russia

And we are on the road again! The supposedly prettiest part of the Transsiberian railway lies ahead of us and it is snowing. The plan was to spend a relaxing week at lake Baikal to recharge for our adventure in Mongolia. This is not what happend…

We arrived last wendnesday happily in Irkutsk having the nicest fall weather one could have. First interesting trip brought us to the tourist informarion centre and then to the bus stop. Irkutsk to us seemed not to be a very welcoming place and in our thoughts we were already at lake Baikal the pearl of Siberia. On our bumpy ride which involved changing buses, because of unplanned technical problems, we met some of the probably best flight attandents in Russia. We had so much fun together!Beautiful wooden houses

fun on the road to Listvjanka

Listvjanka itself made us realize relatively soon that this was not the place we imagined it to be. We couldn’t find our hostel. We were unhappy with the tourist program (not much to do off season and quite expensive) and there were not as many possibilities for hiking as we thought. My favourite part of the town was the fish market where you could get hot smoked omul (fish of the lake) and I loved the little hike we did on the Circum Baikal Trail through the birch tree forest.

public transportation

We came up with a new plan to travel to Olkhon island (which brought us through Irkutsk again), the heart of lake Baikal. On the 7 hour bumpy and exciting bus ride, I had my doubts if we made the right decision but all bad thoughts vanished soon. We had met a new friend who wants to show us around in Shanghai and we were pleased with the nature around us. Long sandy beaches with some cliffs in between, grasslands and forests on the hills. We were in love. Our place to stay was Kampus. A lovely little hostel run by a dear lady who cooks awesome food. We had dinner at 7 pm and breakfast at 9 am, played ukulele and went for hikes. On sunday we were even invited to little chinese birthday party. At our hostel were cats to cuddle and a dog to play with. We enjoyed it lots. Chris even went for a swim, a very short one though.

Our new ride ???

look there is ice on the ground (right after the swim)

The ride back to Irktusk was not as bad, I guess you get used to the streets and the style of driving. And we liked the comfort of getting picked up in one hostel and being dropped off at the other one. We stayed with Anna at the Travel Hostel Club. Since the day before had been the first day of snow in Irkutsk it was quite cold and we had a warm welcome with tea. We sat together and were shown all the sights on a map. Our roughly 40 hours in Irkutsk we spent walking on the green line (if you follow it you get to see all main sights of the city with explanations), visiting churches, trying more buryat food (I love Pozas) and stocking up our food for the train rides ahead. 

Not Paris!

My new gloves that I bought in Irkutsk since I was strongly discouraged to take a pair with me…

Brotzeit, there is no english word for that.

This morning, the morning of departure, it was snowing and it still is. The city was white, the landscapes are white and it is beautiful. Only the view over baikal is not as pretty as it would be in the sunshine. Oh well, we enjoy our ride anyways. Tonight it is our last night in Russia and we will stay at a hostel nearby the train station Ulan Ude.

THE NEXT POST WILL BE ABOUT MONGOLIA! WE ARE EXCITED, HOPE YOU ARE TOO.