Final few days in Russia
Irkutsk
I spent the last day in Irkutsk wandering around the city
before my train journey. The hostel I stayed at was close to the train station
and a very pleasant 30 minute walk into town across the bridge and River Angara
through the tourist spots of statues and parks.
Did you know Russia had it’s
own Big Ben?
There is a quiet little plot of land someone has made into a tourist spot and placed benches with statues of the three wise monkeys, angels and a bloke or two so you can have your selfie with them. At the far end is Big Ben, it even chimed whilst I was there.
Sights of Irkutsk
only Baikal seal I managed to see
Eventually I came across 130 Kartal
(block) made up of old wooden buildings housing tourist shops and cafes. I
wandered around and then down to the shopping mall to find lunch. Within 10
minutes half of the city was in the middle of a power cut which lasted three hours.
Luckily the central market was still buzzing, stalls of fruit and veg,
smoked fish
cheese, Pack
goods and a few stalls selling 50 plus different types of coffee and then meat
and fish which were now getting warm due to the lack of electricity. I bought a
pair of Siberian wool socks and gloves ready for the British winter.
Meandered
back to the guest house via the riverside path which was alive with locals
Trans Siberian
Final leg of the Tran Siberian train Irkutsk to Novosibirsk which
took about 40 hours starting at 1:45 in the morning (doesn’t sound as bad if
you use Moscow time of 8:45pm). I was in a carriage with a nice Siberian
family, Paul, Natalie and their son Daniel. Daniel was learning English at
School and his mom could also speak some English which made the experience so
much easier.
I made the same mistake as last time, I started eating lunch
using local time and then get told dinner is arriving in 2 hours. Hmm gave up.
Dinner was a kids size portion ( all done by weight) Chicken,
veg and buckwheat again. The family supplemented their meals with extra cold
food - chicken, jacket potatoes,
tomatoes and cucumber.
The Trans Siberian is made up of a number of railway lines
and (can be trains if the journey is broken) The ones I ventured on are:
·
Far East railway +7 hours Vladivostok
·
Zabaykalskaya railway +6 hours
·
Eastern Siberia railway +5 hours Irkutsk
·
Krasnoyarskaya railway +4 hours
·
West Siberian railway +4 /+3 hours Novosibirsk
·
Sverdlovsk railway +2
hours
·
Gorky railway +1
·
Northern railway 0 Moscow
The views were much the same as the previous journey. Pine
and silver birch forest with the odd smattering of a house or two.
Having been up very late I spent most the day reading and
sleeping and by late afternoon managed to sleep until the early hours of the
next day. Natalie got up just behind me and told us all to get up.
Unfortunately she was an hour early so we were up 2 hours before we were due to
get off. No problem by the time we were ready there was just enough time for
breakfast. I thought I was going to see my first sunrise of the trip instead it was cloudy and raining when the sun
finally showed its face.
Novosibirsk
This hostel was easy to find, security guard escorted me to
metro and gave me a sweet. Then having eventually found the entrance to the
second tube line a woman walked me to the train track and then once off at the
correct stop all the way to my hostel. That’s service for you. No time to take
photos but that’s ok I could come back later.
I first ventured down to the local shopping mall for lunch. This
ended up being from the supermarket.
Bought Greek salad and a cabbage salad to go with a pastry followed by a
coffee flavoured éclair for dessert. I also treated myself to dinner whilst
there, caviar and rye bread.
I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the streets
looking at old fashioned wooden houses before going to see Kopcap ballet.
Tomorrow I take the plane over to Kyrgyzstan, two countries
down and about to start the Stan’s.
Things I have noticed in Russia
- · Men and boys carry a man bag and they are not obverse to carrying their partners handbag either (even if it doesn’t match their outfit).
- · Russians are happy to warm food up in a microwave, warm being the word opposed to hot. This even applies to the “hot” chicken counter and prepared meals available on the salad bar of a supermarket. Any snacks can be warmed up in a microwave. Not sure how they don’t get food poisoning.
- · Pedestrians can walk out on a pedestrian crossing regardless how busy the road is and cars should stop ( one of the hostel staff said she had only ever been hit four times and once was the previous week, hmm not instilling much confidence in me)
- · Drivers are very often on their phones. This is not breaking the law either.
- · Lake Baikal has 1/5th of the worlds fresh unfrozen water. Which is more than North America’s 5 lakes. Iti s the deepest lake in the world measuring 1637m at its deepest point.
- · You can buy draft beer in a supermarket, plastic bottles are next to it so you dispense your own.
- · This country still loves plastic bags. I often have to remove and give back.
- · They love cakes and biscuits. Anything made with pastry is a hit really.
- · They also love flowers, florists are almost as common as small convenience stalls and fruit and veg shacks.