Arived in Irkutsk

Hidelihow!

Here we are again in Irkutsk. So, we have a lot to tell. Lets start!


We arrived last week in the morning at 3.30 Am at Irkutsk after 80 houres train! It was a nice period to read, to sleep and to enjoy the view. The weather wasn't that great because it was rainy al the time, except the last day. So it wasn't pictureweather :) The 4 days on the train were chilled. We slept in the less expensive dorm were 54 people sleep in the same wagon. We thought it would be a lot of noise, but it was so quiet. We were lucky because next to us there was a russian young couple who could speak a little bit of english. We talked, laught, played card games and she taught Simon about the food in Russia that is not always trustworthy. A lot of food is expired so we have to look at the date all the time when we buy something. The couple was so worried about us and they gave us like tablets for not getting sick when we eat bad food and she gave us also a little bottle of arnika for the throat. They are fantastic!

The trainride was a good experience but just the arrivaltime was crappy. We got out of the train in the midle of the night and we didn't slept anything that day. We searched a place to sleep, our host of couchsurfing didn't had time for us, and took of the next day to go to the famous Baikallake. In the hostel we met a couple from Israel and Bosnie who were amazing and give us a lot of information about good places around the baikallake. Thanks Vanja and Nir!

Thuesday we had a bit of a trouble to find the right bus that did go to the baikal. We had like 20 minutes left to find the bus when someone told us that we were in the wrong place :( So a girl just pushed us in a taxi, payed for us and the taxidriver found the right bus just 2 minutes before it left. the most exciting 20 minutes in a hole time :)

So we stopped in Petrova, a litlle town near the lake. We started walking but the map whe got was so bad that we didn't knew where to go. We were so releaved when a car stopped and took us like in the good direction. Eventually he took us to a 'farm' ( there wasn't anything yet) and there we met Jora. He is a guy from Oezbekistan that saved some money and just bought a piece of land in the midle of pluto :) So he lives now in a container that once was a 24 hour shop :) untill his wooden house is finished, that takes normally 1 month. That night was just amazing, Jora let us ride his horse ( so great! for simont the first time without a saddle :)we could sleep at his place, but we slept like a couple of hours because of the noise of mice and because of to many tea ;)

The next day we walked like 15km I think, with beautiful sights and a dangerous tiring descent of a big hill. And it was so freezing cold! We are so lucky that we have good sleepingbags, a really freezing northwind never experienced. Eventually we arrived in a bay where some people were making a fire. We stopped by just to ask where we were but ended with glasses of vodka in our hands and a bunch of people who were trying to explain things in russian :) In the morning they were still or maybe again drunk. So they 'married' us at the baikal and they said we had to do a lot of wishes :)

Again we started walking, a bit stiffer then the previous days, and we were just stunned about the beauty of the lake. In the evening we walked to a bay where there were two houses and in one of them there was a fisher living and simon asked if he could buy 2 Umulfish, special from the baikal. He cooked them and simon said it was just an amazing tast. A sweet waterlake, but a really salty fish.

The 4th day we searched for the main road where we tried to hitch hike to the big island Olhkon. We stopped a litlle bus, we paid some 300 roebels and in the bus we met Jurek from Tjech Republic. He is so funny and we stayed with him the hole evening when we were trying to find a sleeping place and eat some sibberian stuff in a little cafe where they were not used to have a lot of tourists I think because the service was crap :) On the boat to the island we also met friends from Rita, our host in St-Petersburg. They were just in the last day of their 6 months travelling through Asia. But I think they were to tired to tell a lot about their journey.

the next morning we got up with beautiful weather, a blue sky. So we hitch hiked to the north of the island, cape Hoboi. The first 2 rides were great but then we met a guy who was searching tourists to drive them to the north for money. The first time we met him we explained we didn't want to pay and that we wanted to walk and hitch hike. So we walked and then he stopped again and was like saying "sit, sit, all oke" and simon said that we didn't had money. He drove us, and 2 other tourists, to some places and I felt the hole time that it wasn't right. So then he stopped at the northen point and he shouted ' money money'. It really pissed me off, he was a rude guy and eventually we gave him like 120 roebels ( like 3 euro) witch isn't much, but he was just a mean guy that tricked tourists. But the cape was beautiful, very nice and very very windy.
the rest of the day we just walked back and we got a ride back to town from a russian and his mother. They asked like 1000 roebels to drive us to Irkutsk, what is way to much we thought, so we got of at Kuzhir and thanked them for the bumpy ride :)
That evening we searched also Jurek again to say goodbye and then we saw the french couple who we met in Moscou. What a coincidence!
We put our tent near the town and got up very early to hitch hike back to Irkutsk with a stop in Petrova because a left my pocket knife in Jura's place. The last ride we got from Eugene who worked as a placeman for windows ( I don't know how you call them) and he drove us to the centre of Irkutsk. We found the same place where we could sleep in a good appartement, again our contact in Irkutsk didn't had time what frustrated us.

So we still live and we are now in a appartement from someone we don't know :) We were just on our way to another hostel, because its cheaper, and on the tram a american came to us and asked if we were frenchman ( he had a bet with his friend) and he had a telephonenumber of a friend that maybe could host us. So here we are, skyping and emailing in someones house we just met for 2 minutes. How crazy the world can be.

The next plan : tomorrow we'll take the train to Ulan ude and there we will take a bus to Ulaan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Because it seems that taking the bus is less expensive and takes less time than the train. We will see :)

see you in Mongolia!