Aidan & Karen’s Travels

it seems a long time ago now but Lake Baikal was such a stunning place and broken bone aside it needs an entry of its own! We were met at the station in Irkutsk by our guide who as he said “wasn’t top of the guide list” and it soon became apparent why. He seemed to dislike tourists with a passion and was totaslly disinterested in us. We stayed with a local lady in Listyanka village. A great place built of wood with all rooms around the central stove. Inside was so warm but any trip to the loo required layering up and only done when absolutely desperate. The outside loo did have a velour toilet seat so at least there wasn’t a moment of dread where you realise skin sticks to icy things like when your tongue sticks to the ice cream scoop when you’ve licked it. (yes, i am sure you have all experienced that at some point!) The best thing was the sauna in the garden which was heaven after 3 days on a train and a trip to the hospital. So we gathered our stuff, wrapped my cast in a trusty ASDA bag and hit the sauna. Could be very romantic… however we were just trying to get clean and cope with the fact life was going tp be a little more difficult for a few weeks.

The second day was glorious too so we walked for miles, unfortunately the steps onto the lake weren’t worth risking but it was all very bizarre seeing frozen lake as far as the eye could see. We hit a few souvenir shops, bought some terrible postcards and phoned home to ensure the tale came from the horses mouth as oppose to finding out about my break from the blog.

Jean joined us at the house and we swopped tales and notes as he was heading to Moscow and we were off West.

With all the drama of the past few days we are well behind with the blog. The ballet in Ekaterinburg turned out to be really good. The theatre itself was really impressive and the ballet was beautiful. However, it took a while to get over the lead dancer’s choice of tights which left nothing to the imagination - those Russian lads pack a punch!

The next day we went Husky dog sledging with an ex Arctic Explorer, Andrei. He was a real Ray Mears survival guy. Having been in an ex Russain army van for a hour whilst we drove to the sledge track he let the dogs out and they went wild - lots of yellow snow around us! He hooked up four to a sledge and with Karen on the sledge and me driving we headed off into the woods. Unfortunately, the dogs went at a quicker pace than I realsied and when we hit a bump and made some air I came off and left Karen in the sledge being driven by a pack of mad dogs with no driver and no way of stopping. As she got nearer and nearer to the van I realsied that she was going to hit it, but luckily she just missed it. We joked about how she was lucky not to get abother break travelling - oh the irony.

After that we got the hang of sledging and made the most of teh vodka to keep us warm as we headed through the Russian woods. We had lunch made for us on an open fire as we trecked up a hill and had the most picturesque and coldest wee we will probably ever have.

Another train trip followed.

Disaster has struck and the Dunkirk spirit came through. Adapt, improvise and overcome is now the motto of our trip.

Whilst staying in Lake Baikal and hiking around the hills around the shore, Karen slipped in some ice and landed on her wrist. Immediately she knew that she had broken her wrist and we had to then explain to our guide, Ramon, that we needed to be taken to the hospital in Irkrutsk (an hour away). After hitching a lift home to the family stay by a random Russian blooke (in a big fur hat and a lada) Ramon made some phone calls and said that a driver would be about two hours. We waited and waited and Karen was really feeling the pain by this point. Finally Sergei, the driver arrived, and so did the strangeness.

Sergei can be best described as a Russian version of Manuel from Fawlty Towers crossed with Arthur Daley. He immediately took us into town in his car and promptly got stopped by the police on the highway for speeding )doing 70 in a 40 zone). When we got to Irkrutsk he didn’t take us to a hospital but to a shop that sold bandages and started pulling bandadges down to see if they would fit. At one point he pulled a manequins hand off - not a good sign! We made it clear that we needed a plaster we left for the hosiptal.

The hosiptal was equally surreal. Sergei didn’t bother with patient confidentiality and opened every door until he found the doctor he wanted and we were immediately shown in. Well I say we - Sergie wouldn’t let me in and it was just him and KAren. At this point I don’t really knwo what happened inside but I sat in the corridor for ages. (Go to Karen’s page for her account)

Karen had x-rays done and her hand put in plaster and it was all done really quickly an defficiently. It was then that Ramon (after a hushed conference with Sergei) said, ‘You may want to give the doctor some moeny. You are not registered in Irkrutsk and what he has just done is illegal’. OK, then. We paid the doctor $40 and we were back into the car to be taken back to our home stay.

On the way back we were stopped twice by the police again - seems Sergei never learns!

When we got home we had a Russian sauna out in the back yard and finally made it to bed!

After all that excitement it was nice to have a realxing and uneventful day yesterday. Who knows we might be able to write something about all the fantastic stuff we’ve seen and done on the blog!

We have made it to Ekaterinburg travelling on the Trans Siberian express. Looking out the window from the train it was as if we were travelling through Narnia. We also had a compartment to ourselves - not many people travel at this time of year because of the cold - but we still found it a tight squeeze. Not sure how we will manage with more than two people in a compartment - but we may find out.

Ekaterinburg is an interesting city, but unfortunately the main thing that we have noticed is that it is much colder than Moscow. We have walked around the city and just taking a quick break in the City’s post office before heading into the cold again.

We’re off to the ballet tonight to see ‘Giselle’ - not sure whether it will be our thing, but at least Karen has heard of this one so we reckon we’ll be OK.

Husky dog sledging tomorrow and hopefully some time for the blog - we still have things to write about Moscow!

Finally made it to Russia! We still have to keep pinching ourselves that we are here, but we think that the reality of our trip is finally starting to kick in.

Moscow is a very impressive city and it is very, very cold.Its like the coldest we have ever been in our lives and we have had to make the odd trip inside just to check that all digits are intact and still pink! I was a tad disappointed though when we walked past a thermometer thing that said it was only minus 8! It has got to be colder than that. A little worrying as siberia is supposed to be even colder.

We have been wandering around the city and seeing all the sights (the Kremlin, Red Square, even saw Lenin’s body!) Today has felt like we have been in a cold war espionage thriller - but we are more Austin Powers than James Bond - give us time though.

We are getting into the swing of taking layers off and on - freezing outside absolutely boiling inside. We are also becoming expert budget travellers already, rather than going to a museum/gallery we just have a look in the gift shop and look at the postcards. Anything worth seeing we might actually pay the entrance fee!

Anyway, it’s been a great start to the trip and we board the Trans Sib tomorrow and plunge ourselves further into the cold!

We still haven’t made it out of the country yet so we had a very traditional English day out. Karen’s parents took us out to Aldeburgh for fish ‘n’ chips and a bracing walk along the seafront. We had an excellent day and it was a perfect opportunity to test run some of our winter clothing for the forthcoming trip.

As I mentioned previously we feel like we are hanging around at the moment waiting for the great leap forward. Only a couple of days left to wait though. So with our final day looming and having had fish ‘n’ chips today, what are we having tomorrow? Roast beef of course - I don’t think we have ever been as English in our culinery habits. I suppose it is best to get it all in our stomachs before the borscht and vodka.

Some of the photos are up on flickr here