Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Zoe and Ed's Travels
Hi, We have had a great few days in Russia. Left Moscow on the 17th and spent the next 4 days on the trans-mongolian train. The scenery was nice but didn't change at all during this time. We shared a compartment with a couple of Irish people who were lovely, and managed to entertain ourselves with card games and backgammon and drinking beer.
We got to Irkutsk and were taken down the bumpiest road I've ever been on to Lake Baikal where we were staying in a village in a newish but fairly traditional wooden house. We had walks along the lake and banya (saunas) which were fantastic. The area is beautiful and unspoilt.
We are now staying on a homestay in Irkutsk for a night. It's my birthday, and I celebrated it last night with lots of Beer And Vodka with the other people in our house and had a great night. So am feeling a bit tired today. Still, I had some lovely Blinis which helped, and the food has been really good: we had yummy smoked fish from the lake, borscht, chicken and pasta. Weather has been greast but it sounds like we might be getting snow in Mongolia. Time to buy some Russian furs perhaps!
Tomorrow we get back on the train, this time for two days. Apparently the train can spend anything up to 11 hours at the border crossing into Mongolia, so that's not going to be much fun. Also, this train doesn't have a restaurant car, so we need to make sure that we take sufficient provisions for the trip.
PS The more discerning amongst you may have noticed that the picture on the postcard is in fact Scotland rather than Siberia; there weren't any pictures of Siberia to choose from.
- comments