Plans are made to be changed. This has, and will be one of my guidelines on this trip. Originally my plan was to go straight to Irkutsk from Moscow, but I changed that plan and decided to stop in Yekaterinburg. I bought tickets giving me about a day to spend in Yekaterinburg, being hosted by Irina, a wonderful girl from couch surfing. However, a few hours before my train was meant to leave for Irkutsk we had the great idea of changing the tickets so that I would have more time here. And so we did.
So I ended up spending four days in Yekaterinburg, and I have to say that these days have been extremely interesting. Activities included a tour of the local airport (at the end of the runway is the local teenage lovers hangout) to a very thorough tour of the different offices in the city trying to register myself here. I have also gotten acquainted with two cats and made numerous friends. Altogether I had a spectacular time there. But all good things end at some point, and after a quick saturday morning visit to an excellent photo gallery I was on the train for Irkutsk.
I have always liked traveling by train, and have to add that this has not changed at all. Like I said earlier the Russian trains are very good. The whole system works very well and even to an inept linguist that I am can manage quite well. So the 53 hours on the train went by quite quickly. It doesn’t take long to settle into the cycle that is sleep, eat, read, listen to music, sleep, read...with the occasional limited conversation with the people around you. Another aspect which I enjoyed was that its not often that a person is lying down for over 50 hours straight, with the exceptions of a twice-a-day 30 minute stop at a station, and trips to the bathroom. It really is quite relaxing to spend such a long time just killing time. There is no point wishing time would go by faster, better to live happy in the moment.
Irkutsk, on arrival, presented a positive little surprise. The train arrived just before midnight and I was not looking forward to finding a hostel somewhere ‘near the station’ or to surrendering myself to the mercy of a taxi driver finding a good one. What I found (by accident) was that station itself had a hostel on the second floor. They had two options: 4 person dorm, or in a big hall on good sofas, all on hourly rates. So it is now 0600 in the morning and I’m waiting for the ticket office to open, having saved 3/4 of the price of place at a hostel.
My plan now is to buy a ticket to Mongolia, and then head off for Ol Khon, an island in Lake Baikal. I will spend the remainder of the time on my visa there. I have to be out of the country on the 16th, so I am hoping that there is still free places on the train going over the border to Ulan Bator. The season is picking up and tickets are getting harder to get. But Baikal should be beautiful, and I think the ticket should be no problem.
Pimp my Samara:
Random fact generator:
What would the world do without bureaucracy?
Total man hours used: 12
Offices visited: 7
Offices visited twice: 2
Russian speaking friends used: 3
Foreigner registrations completed: 0
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