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Listvyanka, near Lake Baikal· Nov 9, 09:08 AM
Hi Everyone!
Well…the most inspiring pictures make their way onto the web site with more speed than the average travel pic….and Lake Baikal certainly fell into that category!
I spend 3 days on Lake Baikal in Siberia. I didn’t do a whole lot – just enjoyed spending time with the local people and soaking up the amazing beauty.
Lake Baikal is the largest fresh water lake in the world, containing 20% of earth’s liquid fresh water. It’s very deep to – 1650meters – and it holds wildlife that exists nowhere else.
Enjoy the pics!
Nate
Click on article title for more pictures…
Comments [19]
Siberia· Oct 31, 01:25 AM
Another preconception destroyed… it’s a beautiful, dare I say warm, day here in Irkutsk. There was snow on the ground for most of the TSR (trans siberian railway) ride…but not here. And I’m not complaining! :)
The trip was really good! It was something like 77 hours on the train and I actually through I could have used another day or two to relax and read. I was on the train 4 nights and the first night there were four guys in my cabin. The both got off there first day relatively close to Moscow. Then there was just Ura (yoo-rah) and I for the rest of the time. Ura is 44 and works in the Kremlin as a museum guard. He was going home to Irkutsk to see his family. We got along well and shared our food and our stories. Generally I’ve found it possible to talk with most people given enough time. It seems like a lot of people know some english…but are just a bit bashful about using it. And I’ve probably got 100 words that sound like russian figured out. So with enough objects to point at and paper for pictures it’s no problem at all! :)
I can’t upload pictures at this internet shop…but I’ll keep looking… “Internet” is one of my 100 russian words (OK…so maybe “internet” is the same in russian as english…but who cares, right? :) And, well, there’s still the cyrillic challenge. So ”Интернет” is the cyrillic version.
Hey, that was fun! Here’s a few more english words that I see around:
Мини-март (Mini-Mart)
Васкин Роввинс (Baskin Robbins)
Пепси (Pepsi)
...man, just like home!
OK, anyway… I’m planning to stay here for two days, then to Listvyanka for two days(to see Lake Baikal, home of 20% of earths liquid fresh water), then to Ulan Ude for two days and out to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. As I’ve gone along I’ve gotten some pretty good recommendations on Mongolia…so I think I’ll take that route instead of going all the way to Vladivostok. And hopefully it will be warm enough to spend some quality Gobi desert time. Nice!
Take care,
Нате (yep…)
P.S. I hope the cyrillic shows up on your computers…sorry if it doesn’t! Also, I think I was mistaken about the time zones… I’m 12 hours ahead of y’all on the east coast now, not 13 as I said in my last post. bye.
P.P.S. I got a question or two about where exactly I am and how I got here. There’s a good map of the route on www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm at the bottom. I’m in Irkutsk now…and you can also see Ulan Ude and Ulan Batar, Mongolia on the map.
Comments [10]
In Russia, with Love, Nate· Oct 26, 04:06 AM
Hey!
It’s snowy outside in St. Petersburg…so I decided to warm up for a few hours and post some pics.
I had a great time in Kiev and it was hard to say “see ya” to the Safe Haven fam…but all good things… ya know.
Though my visit has been extremely short, I’ve really enjoyed seeing Moscow and St. Petersburg. For me, it’s good to visit the countries that were “evil” during my formative years. Russia too… I see things here that seem better than we have at home…and some that are worse. The people are nice…like always. It’s all good. One thing that I really like here is the architecture…some of the buildings are very drab, but many of them have a powerful look of Soviet era propaganda. I like it.
So, I decided to shorten my time in Moscow and St. Petersburg even more and get on the Trans Siberian tomorrow night. At this point I only bought a ticket to Irkutsk…near lake Baikal. I’ll spend a few days there and in Ulan Ude…then decide weather to finish the trip to Vladivostok or to head down to Ulaa Baatar in Mongolia.
I’ve been practicing food preparation on the train rides so far…and I’ve got a nice little menu of meals that I can make with the hot water from the boiler in each car. Of course I can eat in the dining car too…but I think I’ll save that for special occations!
So, right now I’m 8 hours ahead of the US EST folks…and by the time I get to Irkutsk, it will be +13 (from EST). Going to Vladivostokwill add two more.
Wish me luck. I’ll write when I can and take a lot of pictures that it will take ages for me to post! :)
Take care,
Nate
Click on article title for more pictures…