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May 24, 2005
baikal, irkutsk, host family goodbye
Sorry for the delay in my long-awaited photos and impressions of my most recent trip. Life has been keeping me quite busy recently.
Sheremetyevo-1 has as little seating as Sheremetyevo-2, but it has slot machines to help you pass the time while waiting for your flight. (Well, where aren't there slot machines in today's Russia?) We only had to go through security once, but it was like being in the States—shoes and coat off. I learned Tu-154s have less leg room than Boeings and Airbuses, but I hear that Chinese airlines have even less room. So I don't feel so bad. I've also learned that for domestic flights in Russia, they check your baggage tags when picking up checked luggage to make sure you have your bags and only your bags.
We arrived in Irkutsk extremely early in the morning, before any busses were running so. So we caught a ride from a crazy local (hitchhiking is the norm anywhere in Russia). He said he'd charge us half of what the others do, but it turned out to be about 3/4.
After crashing at the hostel briefly (since we didn't sleep too well on the plane), we caught a bus to Slyudyanka, a small town on the southern tip of Baikal. A few pictures from hiking in the mountains nearby:
We stayed overnight at friends' of the owner of the hostel we stayed at in Baikal. Here's a view from the balcony of the flat:
Then we hiked along the old Circumbaikal Railway Line (which doesn't, in fact, go all the way around the lake). A few shots:
This railway line snakes along the shore, going over many bridges and passing through many tunnels. We saw a biker—baiker in Russian—at one of the tunnels.
A view of the shore. We were far ahead of peak tourist season, so the treas and flowers were just starting to bloom. There were even patches of ice left in the water!
We continued walking till we were tired and then waited for the Motanya train to come along. We flagged it down and hopped aboard (as we were advised to do in Надя's research on touring Baikal). It was a long, slow ride in a very stuffy train car, so a bit disappointing. We arrived in Port Baikal and then caught an overpriced ride across the Angara to Listvyanka. There we hunted around for places to stay for the night (looking for signs that said "rooms to rent") and settled on one place with sub-European remodeling (including heat, though) and an outhouse. Caught a bus back to Irkutsk the next morning.
Back in Irkutsk, I gave my first talk, which went quite well. Then we went for a walk down by the waterfront:
Then we checked out the local 19th-century wooden architecture:
The next day I showed up to give my second talk, but nobody came. Oh well.
On Saturday we went back to Listvyanka and climbed a small mountain for a view of the lake. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera. It was pouring rain, so it might not have looked good anyway.
I moved in with my fellow Marylander, as I mentioned I would do a while back. So here's a going-away photo with my old host family:
Наталья is holding the smoked omul (a fish native to Lake Baikal) that I brought back for them. It's wrapped in a black plastic bag—the fish doesn't actually look like that.
Posted by kshawkin at May 24, 2005 09:58 PM
Comments
So how was the famous service on the Aeroflot flight? :))
Posted by: olga_kh at May 25, 2005 11:41 AM
Oh, right! I forgot to comment on the service! It was totally up to western standards, except with a bit less smiling. But that's to be expected. The food was arguably better than on many Western airlines.
Posted by: Kevin at May 25, 2005 03:18 PM