All posts by Oliver

Irkutsk

In the last episode we left our heroes during their tremendously dangerous odyssey from Bolshiye Koty to Irkutsk. The storm grew strong and inside the ferry they resorted to… listen to music and audio books.

Well, it was some quite strong weather and while we were actually traveling on a river, it felt like rough sea. But nothing to be really worried about. We got picked up at the ferry terminal to be brought to our accommodation. Since Irkutsk seems to be missing a decent drainage system, the streets seemed to be an extension of the river Angara. Having a chaotic road system doesn’t help either.

But they managed to bring us to the Trans-Sib Hostel, which is actually more a home-stay. Just that they didn’t want us to stay, or at least couldn’t since they didn’t have a free room for us. They must’ve been surprised, since we only booked a few months in advance. But the good news was, that the agency actually brought our luggage. So for the first night, they shifted us into the Good Cat Hotel, which was kind of an upgrade. Going from a two bed home-stay to a four-bed hotel (which we didn’t have to share) is quite good. We wouldn’t have minded if we had to stay there. On the next morning, they picked us up again and brought us to the Trans-Sib, where we would spend the next night.

Before that, we set out to explore Irkutsk of course, which also included some Geocaching. We walked around through some urban parts, to the statue of Alexander III, who is responsible for building the Trans-Siberian Railway, to the statue of Lenin at the corner of Lenin Street (there can’t be a Russian city without one) and Marx Street. We tried to get souvenirs to no avail and so just got some postcards, and after walking a little further had dinner and coffee.

The rest of the day consisted of washing cloths and being online. The next morning we left the Trans-Sib for the Transsib and were bound for Ulaanbaatar.

[Images will have to follow, because the internet (or at least our connections) in Mongolia and China sucks!]

Baikal Lake and Bolshiye Koty

As mentioned before, right after the first stage of our trip on the Transsib, we went on a hike. For this we were taken with our guide, Sergej (who was kind of mandatory, since you need a hiking permit for the Pribaikalskiy National Park – where Bolshiye Koty is located – and that way we could get that and find our way to the destination), along a road on the shores of the Angara river (the only flow away from Baikal Lake, which is actually more a barrier lake before Irkutsk at this point) to Listvyanka, a very small town at the point where Lake Baikal changes/flows to the river/barrier lake.

In Listvyanka we had a small breakfast and left our main luggage in hope that the travel agency will bring them to our home-stay in Irkutsk. Right after that we put our trousers into our socks (to prevent tick collecting) and hit the road… well, the trail. Hiking is one way to get to Bolshiye Koty, the other one is over the lake, either by ferry or by car, the later only in deep winter of course.

The first part was also the hardest. We had to hike up some very steep hill through the woods from 520 m to 867 m absolute altitude. That made us feel quite old (some youngers felt older), so Sergej took the time to explain a bit about the local flora on this mountain. A lot of stuff still seems to be used by locals for flavoring, salads and herbal medicine. We also learned why there are so many birch forests along the Transsib, they just grow fast and indicate a young forest.

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Once we were at the top of this mountain chain (all without breathing gear) we could catch the first glimpse of Baikal Lake. Marvelous, but still a lot of trees between us and the water. We descended again into one of the many valleys on the shores. From there we finally could get close to the water, to your first bay. There we had a small lunch and after a while a group old elders joined us. We hiked past the on the way up and now they have catched up. We shared some food (well, since all we had was the stuff Sergej brought, they did most of the sharing) and spiced up our food with fresh bear’s garlic. We took some first photos of the lake and hiked on. That wasn’t even half of the way so far.

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The next few hours we had a lot of ups and downs on the trail, but the view was fantastic on both sides of the trail. Beautiful forests on one side and the vast Baikal Lake on the other. At times you might’ve thought to be at the Croatian Adriatic. We met the elders several times and learned that the were doing their hike along with some photos that seemed like promotion as part of the Great Baikal Trail (Большая Байкальская Тропа; short: ББТ), which is being created by volunteers since 2003.

Of course we met other hikers as well, but since they were usually going into the opposite direction, we were just exchanging greetings.

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After a long hike (which was actually just ~4:30 hours pure walking time, plus maybe 1:30 hours breaks, but felt longer), we arrived in Bolshiye Koty. A tiny (about 40 locals), rural, backwater (in the truest meaning of the word) settlement (village would sound too big) with a ferry stop, a research center (Biostation #1, run by Irkutsk State University), a small natural museum, one shop, as well as some small hostels and home-stays. We stayed at the Bolshiye Koty Chalet, the only House with running water. Coincidentally (?) the Chalet was run by Natascha, Sergej’s mother. She gave us a warm welcome, was very nice and – as Sergej – spoke very well English. We had a very nice room and most importantly: A shower!

After we decompressed and relaxed a little, we went to the dinning room for dinner. There we met five other welcoming people who all (but one) spoke German. Rahel and Andrea were from Switzerland (we’ll count that as “spoke German” for simplification) and a couple with a toddler who’s names we never got. Well, the first story was that they were the Au Pair of the Swiss ladies, taking care of the toddler for them, which is better than relying on social security. (I was waiting to see if the story would get a little political flavor regarding Russia’s agenda against LGBT, but they blew their cover before that.) We had some interesting discussion and exchanges with them for a while, till we parted and went back to our room. And here’s the only problem we had out there. We shrank our luggage to the most mandatory things. Nothing for entertainment like a simple book. And without internet connection… let’s say we went to sleep early.

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The next day after breakfast we set out for a small hike along Baikal Lake. At some parts we encountered Rahel and Andrea, just like we did with the elders on the day before. But at one gravel beach they stayed behind, while we walked a while longer. Soon after we left we heard them screaming, for they tried to take a swim in the Lake Baikal. Apparently it was to cold for them, because from the distance we could notice their small figures taking short dips in the lake.

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According to a story we heard the evening before, it adds ten years to your lifespan if you swim in the lake for one minute.  Of course we were planning to do that as well, so after we figured we had done enough hiking, we went down to the next beach and rushed into the water.

OH HOLY SH****T THAT’S FRICKIN’ COLD!!! WE’RE GONNA DIE!!

Well of course we stayed there like the tough men we are but figured that ten years are enough for starters. If we want to live longer, we can always come back, so we left the water nonchalantly, let the sun dry us and strolled back to the chalet. We have no idea how cold what the actual water temperature was, but according to some websites (it’s on the internet, so it must be true) and considering the little sunshine and time of the day, we figure  something about 6-8° C.

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At the chalet we had some tasty lunch (called chicken roulette, which is most likely a loose translation), said our good-byes and explored Bolshiye Koty. Not that there is much to explore, but we took some photos of the free roaming cows, visited the museum and… well that’s it, we went for the ferry. Over the last few hours some dark clouds arrived over the settlement and as it started to rain, we took our seats in the ferry and waited for it to leave for Irkutsk. During our wait and during the trip with the ferry, the weather got worse and worse. But we’ll continue at this point the next time.

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To finish this post, a little something for the ladies and of course everyone else who enjoys flowers.

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Trans-Siberian: From Moscow to Irkutsk

This post is a bit late. I wrote it partly on the train with my cellphone, partly in Irkutsk and now am finishing it in Ulaanbaatar.  I will need to catch up a bit.

We were on the Trans-Siberian Railway on our way from Moscow to Irkutsk. Being on a wagon of the second class, we got a somewhat comfy little compartment with four bunk beds and a broken TV. We shared our “room” with Jian, a Chinese student of computer sciences from Paris on his way back to Beijing. At the beginning the fourth bunk was occupied by Alexej, a vodka loving Russian (a pleonasm I know). He left on the afternoon after the first night, which improved the air in our compartment, but also took away some form of entertainment. Since Alexej only speaks Russian (and a hand full of German words) which none of us speaks, conversations were usually a guessing game.

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The other people on our wagon were mostly Scandinavian, who were on a big, organized tour. While they have the same stops like we do, we don’t share the same timetable, so we’ll part with everyone, including Jian, after arriving in Irkutsk (but should meet the Scandinavians again in Ulaanbaatar) They officially gave their support to the German football team, which is surely one of the reasons they won. Unfortunately we weren’t able to watch the game and our only connection to the internet was luck in finding an open Wifi at a train station or Steffen’s expensive data option. Neither Steffen or I are what you would call a sports fan, but we would’ve liked to witness the final game.

Biggest challenge on the Transsib is to kill boredom. While we were passing beautiful scenery (wide planes and a lot of evergreen and birch forests) and nice little towns, it got old quite fast. At least it’s a good way to catch up on some books, though. But Steffen was done with his two books half way to Irkutsk. I got an ebook reader, so I’m lucky to have more material, but am of course dependent on power. We had four power outlets on the wagon, unfortunately none of them in our compartment, but a bit away in the hallway. We also carry battery packs, but those are more for emergencies. But actually boredom isn’t really an issue if you got the right company and are prepared for long distance traveling. It’s just that you could be so much more productive with steady power and an internet connection. But then again you would miss all the fun of the ride itself.

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Every stop of the Transsib is a welcome break to walk round a bit, experience the outside of the train and hunt for Wifi. The later isn’t as easy as in Moscow, where you found free Wifi at every second corner. Actually, outside of the towns you often don’t even get a phone connection.

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The train was actually quite good. When you think of the Transsib, you usually get the image of old well-used trains with a steaming samovar. This had a modern samovar, quite good banks/beds, an air-con and displays at each side of the hallway showing the next stop, the inside temperature and most importantly, if the restroom at that side of the hallway was in use or free. We got fresh sheets that came in plastic bags like you get your stuff on airplanes. The food in the dining car was good (but no caviar  for my pancakes), though, we mostly relied on snacks and something we could pour hot water over (our mothers would be so proud that we were cooking and eating well ). The crew spoke English good enough to get around and even a few word German. They cleaned the carpets every day and the restrooms all the time (you got the feeling they rush in to clean it, right after you leave).

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So all in all, the first ride on the Transsib was quite comfy. The only time where it got a bit stressful was for me, when I didn’t get back in time for the train to leave, so I had to jump onto a wagon at the end of the train. That one was behind the dining car, which was locked, so I had to convince the local conductor to let me through the wagon so I could get back to mine.

Irkutsk – Some kind of civilisation

We’ve finally arrived in Irkutsk. After a long trip on the Transsib, we switched from railway to hiking trail and took a extensive hike along the shores of Baikal Lake to Bolschoi Koty, a small rural backwater village on the banks of the lake. The day after that (kinda today) we spent there and now finally really arrived in Irkutsk by ferry. The weather began to suck when we were boarding the ferry and didn’t get better since. Our hostel didn’t have a free room, so they gave us a makeshift room in another hotel, which is kind of an upgrade, since it’s a four bed room all for ourselves. But tomorrow we’ll have to switch to our original hostel again. Yeah, it’s complicated. But having a shower and being online again is really a good start, so we won’t complain.

Tomorrow will be our only day in Irkutsk and we will try to make the best of it. We hope the weather/odds will be (ever) in our favor.

The posts about the first Transsib stage and Baikal Lake will follow, but for starters, have a life sign.

Hike to Bolschoi Koty

A Walk Through Moscow

Our day started with a walk in the park. Well, with the idea to have a walk in Gorky Park, but before we got there, we got sidetracked…

Ah, let’s make things short (this time for real): Headed out for Gorky Park, wanted to get a geocache before, saw the Monument of Peter the Great in the distance, went there, also discovered Muzeon Park of Art, took photos of many statues there, finally went to Gorky Park, enjoyed the time there, ate Shawarma, crossed the river, walked through urban Moscow back to Red Square, stopped at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, found other geocaches, bought T-shirts, got miss-led by metro signs, but arrived back at the hotel after using the correct station.

The whole day the sky was clouded, but it was okay, since it was said to clear up and let the sun shine through in the next hour… every hour.
(Insider für PH Kollegen: VNP-Stunde)

Tomorrow night we’ll board the Trans-Siberian for Irkutsk. So while we might try to post once more before we leave Moscow, don’t expect any updates for a few days.

Moscow – Izmailovsky Park & Kremlin in Izmailovo

Expecting bad weather, we wanted to do the outdoor part quickly and just headed to the Izmaylovsky Park, which is very close to our hotel. This is mostly a regular urban park, but has quite a few entertainment sites, ranging from simple playgrounds to performance stages. Music is played throughout the park, so all in all a fun, family friendly area. But shortly after getting that impression, we’ve been reminded, that we are in Russia at this little square.

Izmailovsky Park War Square, Moscow

But there are of course other impressions as well.

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Seeing that the weather was still stable, we went into the other direction from our hotel and visited Kremlin in Izmailovo, which is part amusement park, but bigger part souvenir shopping area. They built a mock-up castle, that – if Russian architecture and fashion wasn’t actual so colorful and fancy – would seem like Disneyland. But since we are good tourists, we went there, took photos, bought souvenirs, ate at a Russian-Azerbaijani restaurant and enjoyed our stay.

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To end our activities for the day, we took the time to find the station from where we’re going to leave Moscow with the Transsib on Saturday.

And all day there was no rain. Hope that won’t get the better of us, like it did back in Hong Kong.

Oh and we stumbled across our daily Japanese surprise (which sadly didn’t have any Calpis). Looking forward to tomorrow.

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Moscow – Red Square

For our first day in Moscow we decided to tick of the most important station for tourists from our list: The Red Square

To get the educational part out of the way:

[…] The name Red Square does not originate from the pigment of the surrounding bricks (which, in fact, were whitewashed at certain times in history) nor from the link between the color red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya) can mean either “red” or “beautiful” […]. This word, with the meaning “beautiful”, was originally applied to Saint Basil’s Cathedral and was subsequently transferred to the nearby square. […]

[from Wikipedia]

Red Square, Moscow

(On the outermost sides is the Kremlin, then from left to right: The State Historical Museum, the Iverian Gate (the smaller red building), several less important smaller building, the GUM department store (the big non-red building) and – last but not least – Saint Basil’s Cathedral)

Saint Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

We entered the square through the Iberian Gate, which is already a worthy stop for tourists. Around the square are four main buildings or sites. The most eye-catching is Saint Basil’s Cathedral (see above), a beautiful church with colorful onion domes and most likely THE image people have in their minds when thinking of the Red Square. At the other end is the State Historical Museum, also a beautiful red building. On the long side to the south-west and south lies a huge site well – actually some kind of a citadel – with high walls and several palaces, churches, museums and lots of security: The Kremlin

We actually didn’t visit any of those buildings, yet. We’re expecting rain tomorrow and have that as one option to spend the time tomorrow. But we did visit the smaller Kazan Cathedral (haven’t seen that many pictures of saints in one place) and the place vis-à-vis of the Kremlin: The ГУМ (GUM)

The GUM is a department store or as we call them today, a mall. If you think mall, adjust your expectation to MALL. The place is frickin’ huge. If it wasn’t actually from the beginning of the 19th century , I’d say that this is what happened to Russia after they discovered capitalism. But it seems the aspect of consumerism is a bit older. In it’s high times it had about 1,200 (smaller) stores. Today the stores are larger, but 200 of them are still quite a lot. Well, to play the cheauvi card: The site was commisioned as a trade center by Empress Yekaterina Alexeevna (Catherine II; Catherine the Great), but I’m sure not all of them were shoe-makers.

(I really seem to like colons today.)

We also walked around the area a bit, past a Duma (not the State-Duma as we know by now), the Bolshoi Theatre (and found our first Russian geocache there) and finally got something to eat at Planet Sushi, obviously a Japanese restaurant (but we didn’t dare to try the sushi and settled for rice with chicken/eel). Yeah, we can hear you. “You’ll visit Japan in a few weeks, why go for Japanese food already?” Well, we were confused, thanks to this sight:

African Segway Samurai

Asia 2014 – The Beginning

We’re tired, so just a short summary.

Early in the morning we left the Bottwartal for our voyage to Moscow. Getting to Stuttgart was the easy part, but Steffen already got a mail that our ICE trip was half-canceled (would’ve ended a few cities too early), so we had to rebook. That actually went well, aside maybe the tiny little fact that the other train was already 20 minutes late before it arrived in Stuttgart. En route, this ICE continued to delay its own schedule, but we managed to arrive at Frankfurt Airport in time to catch our flight.

Getting onto the plane wasn’t much of a problem… well, except for Steffen who enjoyed an intimate frisk at the security check. Turns out his shoes were the problem, probably a bio-hazard alert. The flight was okay, just a bit chaotic, since Aeroflot doesn’t seem to care much about their own carry-on baggage rules and not everyone was able to store their stuff in the compartments.

We arrived in Moscow without any further problems. And… we got into the country and out of the airport without any further problems (aside a bit lacking orientation due to the Cyrillic letters everywhere). We expected a more thorough check after all that hassle we had filling out our visa applications (during the prelude, so to speak), but no, they didn’t bother. We claimed our baggage, passed the green tunnel without a second glance, got cash from the ATM, found the shuttle train to Moscow… all way too easy and fishy.

But it hit us after that. Understanding the metro system was above our tired heads in this muggy weather with 20-30 kg of luggage on our shoulders. We must’ve looked really confused and fortunately arose the mercy of a lovely young lady who spoke remarkably well English. She explained our route to the hotel and gave us valuable starters for the metro system, so we were able to head out and finally found our hotel.

More about the metro (war memorials everywhere) and our hotel (4 stars, 26th floor, not enough outlets) in the next few day.

Okay, that wasn’t really short.

Touristy Istanbul

Only having two days in Istanbul has it’s up- and it’s downsides. A major downside is of course the lack of time – you cannot see nearly enough of a huge city like this. The upside of this is, you can make some easy choices on what to see. There are a few major tourist sites that are fast to get to, so just pick the most important and/or most interesting ones.

For today, we picked Hagia Sophia and the Topkapı Palace, since both are just a few walking minutes away from our hotel. Hagia Sophia a museum, that was a mosque, which is actually a church in the beginning. An amazing place. There you are walking over marble that has been there for centuries or even over a millennium – and you can actually see that, since it’s quite worn, for example, the spots where the guards stood have deep moles. And the craftsmanship that has been put into this whole building is amazing.

While we got into the Hagia Sophia quite fast, we had to stand a while longer in line for the Topkapı Palace. We even had to wait in line inside the palace to see some areas. Actually it was so full of people, that it was quite annoying at some places. Anyway, a lot of interesting architecture (never knew they were so fond of decorating their walls with tiles) and treasures. We also visited the Harem, but for some reason it did not completely live up to my expectations. Also a wonderful park there, where kids chase seagulls (give them a weapon and train then to hunt down doves… just joking… but then again….).

But let’s get back to annoying people. What is it with people these days? Everyone is just taking pictures of the sites and themselves there – but no one is really looking at it. I could observe that for a while at a certain observation point. My idea was just to take a few pictures and then enjoy the view over the Bosphorus. Well, that didn’t work out as planned. First, I was just taking my second photo, when I got shoved aside, because some lady wanted to take a picture of herself there. After I was done with my forth picture, I got asked to take a picture of a couple (with an iPhone, which didn’t take anything close to a good photo), which I did after finishing my last shot. Now, after that it was impossible to get back o any place where I could enjoy the view a bit more. I had to take a few more pictures of and for strangers, but that’s been it, since everyone was shoving around anyone and before I would start bludgeoning people with my camera, I decided to sit in a corner and observe the people. And yes, my hypothesis was correct, no one really did enjoy the view. And this wasn’t the only place where that happened. Well, why see the interesting things with your own eyes, when you can take a picture and look at it later – because that totally is the same thing. Bah, humans…