Siberia

So, first things first, spring in Siberia is cold - there is snow and cars drive on lakes! Secondly, despite what we had been told, Russian people are awesome (if somewhat confused at why we would leave Australia to visit Siberia). We visited three cities in Siberia; Ulan Ude, Irkutsk, and Listvyanka. All them were in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, a bloody massive lake that happens to be the largest repository of fresh water in the world and, most importantly, the only place where one can find fresh water seals.

Pictured: Cold (but, you know, not too cold).

We only spent one day in Ulan Ude (the first night was outlined in the Entry into Siberia post) but it was a great introduction into Russia. We had two Honchos and they took us on a  tour  that exhibited the rich history of the city. We started with an outdoor museum that had been reconstructed to resemble the  structures of early western settlers. Attached to this was a small zoo which had foxes, bears, wolves, and reindeer.

Rudolph - home at last.

Afterwards we wandered through town and the honchos showed us sculptures that commemorated things such as women's suffrage, various religions, and unity between their aboriginals and the western settlers.

One of the many sculptures in Ulan Ude. I am pretty sure this one was for Buddhism with the fish representing knowledge.

The native people of the area, who are of a distinct asian heritage, and the 'white russians' seemed to be completely integrated within their society. However, I guess they have had a few more hundred years than Australians to achieve unity. During this time Goof grilled the poor girls on local politics. Oh, and as mentioned earlier, the biggest head of Lenin resides in this town.

Leading a revolution is bound to give one a big head.

At 5pm the honchos left us with strict instructions be back at the hotel at 11pm so we could catch our train. We found a pub with some friendly Russians, who after offering us vodka, politely warned us of the folly of mixing beer and vodka. Lets just say that Goof and I barely made the train. Alas Rudolph was not so lucky and somewhere between the pub and the train he jumped ship. In all honesty he had achieved his goal, which was to leave the hot climate of Australia for his natural habitat. I like to believe he found his way back to the reindeer we had spotted earlier. Either that or he is with the Russian girls - and I cannot begrudge him that decision.

Yeah, we had about 15 mintues until we had to leave at this point.

The next morning I awoke in Irkutsk (one of the largest cities in Siberia) with very little recollection of our mad rush to the train and still somewhat tipsy. This was a good thing, as Goof was not in a talking mood and in my still inebriated state I filled in the void as Julia, our lovely new honcho, showed us around the historic town. As with all Russian towns there were monuments to founders, Lenin, and famous actors/writers/poets. It was a sensational tour, but at the time I beleived I had lost my camera the night before so Goof took all the photos. Alas he is yet to email them to me so  do not have any photos of Irkutsk right now (but watch this space, I will add some as soon as get them).

Without any pictures of Irkutsk I had to make do with this scenic view from our accomodation in Listvyanka. This is looking towards the lake.

Just as my hangover started to kick in we jumped in a car and drove to Listvyanka, a quant tourist spot on the shores of Lake Baikal and here the fun began (not in the car, we slept pretty much the whole way). Listvyanka was awesome, mostly because even walking seems like tourist activity when it is snowing, covered in ice, or you are actually walking on solid water.

Standing on Lake Baikal under a huge chunk of ice. at this point in time Goof and I were very nervous. 

To list some of the awesomeness we went dog sledding, rode on a hovercraft, climbed to the top of local hills, visited an aquarium, walked on the lake, drove on ice, and went ice fishing in the lake. Julia accompanied us on all our adventures, including our long walk on the icey lake. This must have bee frustrating for her is while it was a novelty for us, I am sure she has done it before. It is a pretty difficult endeavour as every second step our feet would slide in all directions. We had a running bet to see who would fall over first - I won one thousand tobruk (mongolian currency; appromately 80c (we made a lot of one thousand toburk bets).

Ice fishing - there was always a small concern we would fall in. You can also see a seal next to the fishing hole. He made many comments alluding to the fact that he was better at fishing than we were.

She also had to translate everything for us including menus, museum displays, and everything the ice fisherman said - and he said a lot. He really liked his job and Lake Baikal. The most fascinating thing he said was "usually you cant drive on the ice at this time of year because it is too thin. However its been a long winter so it should be okay" This was all said while looking at us and not where he was going. Granted, it was on a lake and there is very little to run into but we have all seen the crashed paddock basher that managed to hit the only tree in the paddock...

Eating our catch.

To cap off an amazing adventure that was Siberia (mostly Lake Baikal) I also found a fresh water seal who has indescribable urge to visit the Mediterranean. He returned our duo into a mighty trio and off we traipsed  to see what  European Russia had to offer (hint: it started with a  three day train ride. This is not recommended).

Baiky the Seal saying goodbye to his home as he searches for the warmer climates of the Mediterranean.