INVIERNO EN LA ISLA DE OLKJON/ ON OLKHON AT WINTERTIME

Por fin tras mes y medio de busqueda, haber pagado tres dias de albergue y haber pasado una noche en la oficina, tenia un sitio donde vivir… Y esto ademas de significar tranquilidad para cuerpo y alma, tambien significaba que por fin me podia ir a la isla de Olhjon (Foto1- de camino a Olhjon).

El tiempo disponible fue una semana. Y gracias a Bidana, una chica que trabaja en la asociacion, solo iba a tener que pagar 4 de las 6 noches, las otras 2 las pagaria realizando labores de voluntario. Y es que el complejo turistico “Nikita” situado en Juzhir, la “capital”de la isla, no es un lugar tradicional, es digamos lo mas parecido a una comuna economicamente sostenible. Y es que si se esta dispuesto a realizar pequenas tareas en beneficio de la “comunidad” (Limpiar, repartir madera para las chimeneas, hacer clases de… lo que a cada uno se le de bien…idiomas, gymnasia, cocina…) y una vez que hay un poco de confianza, es posible pasar periodos de descanso sin cargo en cuanto a lo que se refiere a alojamiento y comida.

La isla se encuentra a unos 300 km de Irkutsk, que teniendo en cuaenta lo lamentable de las carreteras se tarda 5 horas en llegar. Para hacerse con un puesto en la marshrutka hay que reservarlo con antelacion.
El lugar de quedada era el Mercado central, pero el sitio concreto no estaba muy claro, ademas de camino al centro hubo un tremendo atasco, por lo que iba mas bien justo de tiempo. Y cuando por fin llego solo veia gente y marshrutkas por todas partes. De repente un chaval me vocea algo, y cuando le preste un poco de atencion resulta que me preguntaba si era Gaspar el espanol, que si iba a la isla…Yo no me lo podia creer, que tengo cara de espanol esta claro, pero que sea tan evidente debajo de tanta ropa, y entre tanta gente…

El viaje en marshrutka(Foto2), a pesar de lo lo incomodo, largo y peligroso (Carreteras malas, adelantamientos por el medio de la carrereta, y malos conductores…) se torno muy interesante. Sentadas a mi lado dos chicas jovenes, que resultaron ser periodistas, que poco a poco se abrieron al dialogo, tras intercambio de vanalidades (Quien eres, de donde vienes, a donde vas…), descubri que iban a la isla a escribir un articulo del medio ambiente en Olhon y tambien una resena acerca de Nikita.
Y tambien un frances, Etien, que al principio me parecio un tipo muy raro y por desgracia, pense yo, tambien iba a estar alojado en Nikitas. Pero todo o casi todo tiene una razon, y es que Etien era discapacitado, no tenia apenas movilidad en las piernas. Eso no explica sus rarezas pero si que tenia una enfermedad degenerative desde que era un rapaz, y que se paso su infancia un ano en la escuela, un ano en el hospital… Sin embargo eso no le habia impedido sacarse una carrera y pedalear 7 meses por sudamerica, sin hablar de que se encontraba en medio de Siberia en una de las semanas mas frias del ano, con sus muletas y la mochila a la espalda, se me ponen los pelos de punta solo de pensarlo, hay gente que tiene una fuerza sobrenatural.

Los primeros dias en la isla los pase de caminatas a lo largo de la isla (Foto 3) y sobre el lago (Ya que por supuesto a estas Alturas del ano todo el lago Baikal esta completamente comgelado, y no solo se puede andar sobre el, sino que hay incluso “carreteras” invernales). Resulto ser una de las semanas mas frias del ano, y ademas el viento soplaba con fuerza, y se hacia sentir sobre todo en lo alto de las montanas y sobre el lago ya que no hay proteccion contra el y ademas levanta la nieve que se acumula en su superficie. En algunos momentos del dia me vinieron a la cabeza imagines de documentales sobre viajes a la Antartida, ya que lo unico que se disponia ante mi era hielo(Foto4), mas hielo, y nieve levantada por el viento, sin ser menos impresionante el que se me congelaron la barba y las pestanas y que los parpados se me quedaban pegados al pestanear (Foto5). Si las caminatas eran un verdero placer, el te a la vuelta junto a la estufa no era para menos.
Ademas el “equipo de voluntarios”resulto ser muy amigable, y cuando disponian de tiempo tomabamos te en medio de divertidas conversaciones sobre topicos hispano-rusos, vimos alguna pelicula de la epoca sovietica…

En medio de esta dinamica, un dia Natasha, una de las voluntarias me comento ‘Acaba de llegar un portugues, seguro que os entendeis…”.Tiago, que asi se llamaba el portugues, pretendia llegar desde Porto a Beijing para los juegos olimpicos conduciendo un citroen 2cv del ano de la polca, y no solo eso sino tambien regresar de la misma manera. Evidentemente lo de los juegos olimpicos ya se le pasaron, pero es que se le rompio una pieza a la altura de Yekaterimburgo que le mantuvo parado 5 meses esperando que llegase desde Inglaterra. Sin embargo es un tio decidido y queria llegar al final...o casi, solo hasta Vladivostok, porque resulta que para entrar en China con el coche hay que preparar colecion de solicitudes acompanadas como no de respeto (Como llaman por tierras asiaticas a los sobornos puros y duros), y despues de 9 meses de pelea continua el pobre Tiago ya tenia la moral minada de historias.

Ese fue el punto de inflexion del viaje, como habia predicho Natasha nos entendimos muy bien, dos jovenes del sur que llevabamos ya un tiempo viviendo por las gelidas tierras Rusas. Nos pasamos dias de aventuras en aventuras, nunca un 2cv habia sido tan parecido a un hummer, no habia limites, condujimos el coche donde locales no se atrevian a meter sus todoterrenos por miedo a quedarse atrapados por la nieve...Y no es que no pasase, es mas nos quedabamos atrapados frecuentemente, pero nada que no pudiera arreglarse rememorando viejos tiempos de jugador de rugby, emburriando. O en el peor de los casos haciendo camino entre la nieve a mano.
Un dia en nuestro afan de llegar al final de la isla por tierra, nos quedamos atrapados en la nieve, y no es que no fueramos a salir, sino que gracias a ello unos locales que nos habian visto desde la lejania cogieron su coche y una vez nos alcanzaron nos dieron la noticia de que un poco mas adelante habia un metro de nieve. Y todavia no repuestos del sock de ver a un espanol, un portugues y un suizo (Noe que nos acompanaba este dia) en un 2cv en una isla en medio del lago Baikal, nos condujeron hasta la entrada al lago, sobre el cual en invierno es posible conducir. El dia era soleado, ni una nube en el cielo asique nos decidimos a descapotar el cirilo, claro que la temperatura era ‘fresca’, unos menos 30 grados...Nunca un viaje en descapotable habia sido tan divertido.Los rusos no cabian en su asombro, asique nos invitaron a la vuelta a pasarnos por su casa.















El conducir por el lago congelado es una experiencia asombrosa y mas teniendo en cuenta lo bonito de la isla y el dia tan impresionante que hacia. Alcanzamos la punta de la isla, donde se encuentran acantilados de 80 metro de altura, cuando el sol ya estaba bajo por lo que ante nosotros se produjo un autentico espectaculo natural de colores entre azulados, blancos y anaranjados sobre el hielo y en semejante entorno.















A la vuelta por supuesto decidimos parar en casa de nuestros nuevos amigos. Alli estaban ellos junto con unos amigos, todos ellos pescadores, y nada mas vernos empezaron a preparar el festin...Omul crudo solo aderezado con sal y pimienta, o omul crudo pero esta vez congelado acompanaban al ‘salo’ (Tocino) y todo ello regado con un poco del imprescindible vodka para ser una verdadera fiesta rusa.

Lo pasamos en grande comiendo, bebiendo y hablando como podiamos los unos con los otros. Hasta el punto que no nos habiamos dado cuenta que la noche habia caido hacia tiempo, por lo que encontrar el camino de vuelta no fue nada facil sin luces conduciendo entre hielo y nieve, pero no imposible.
No fue el ultimo dia que vimos a nuestros amigos, ya que no nos pudimos resistir a devolverles la invitacion al dia siguiente. Asique recordando vagamente deonde estaba la casa en medio de la nada, volvieron los hijos prodigos con botella de vodka y tentenpies debajo del brazo. Y es que si algo me han ensenado mis padres es que hay que ser agradecido en esta vida.

‘ОПАСНО!’ (Se lee “apasna”) palabra rusa que sirve para identificar una situacion de peligro. Puede ser la palabra que mas haya oido desde que estoy en Rusia, pero es que la utilizan para definir todo aquello que nunca han echo y puede o puede que no conllevar riesgo. Me imagino que sea derivado de los tiempos sovieticos cuando todo fuera de lo ‘normal’ era considerado prohibido. Por ejemplo llegado el fin de semana, nos apetecia hechar una cerveza con los locales, y cuando invitamos al resto de los voluntarios abrieron los ojos como si estuvieramos hablando de saltar de una avioneta sin paracaidas. Peligrosisimo! Dijeron al unisono, nosotros ya habituados al lexico ruso, si antes teniamos ganas de ir, despues de esto todavia mucho mas, sobre todo cuando acto seguido confirmaron que ninguno de ellos habia estado alli.Asique junto con dos australianos que acababan de llegar, pasamos una noche estrana porque evidentemente os podeis imaginar la discoteca, un cassete y cuatro luces de colores en medio de una habitacion en la que habia entre 15 y 20 persona, con los que dicho sea de paso congeniamos perfectamente...Por supuesto gracias al tema estrella, el futbol, del que por cierto no soy ningun experto, pero como soy espanol lo que digo va a misa y es tomado como realidad absoluta y unica.
Al fianl ninguno de nosotros tenia la cara como un pan, todos nos ibamos con lo nuestro en nuestro sitio, y con una historia mas que contar a nuestros nietos (Cuando esten creciditos eso si).
Cuando salimos del bar, veo que tengo como 10 llamadas perdidas de numeros extranos. A la manan siguiente ante unos sorprendidos voluntarios al ver que conservaba todos mis dientes, me explicaron que pensaban que no ibamos a ir a la discoteca y cuando se percataron que nos habiamos ido nos llamaban para que regresaramos, y al ver que no contestaba se habian imaginado lo peor pero no se habian atrevido a ir a ver si todo estaba bien.

Para reponernos de nuestras andanzas nada mejor que una buena bania por las noches. En la que como manda la tradicion rusa hay que salir a revolcarse por la nieve para bajar la temperatura corporal y regreasar dentro donde la temperatura ronda los 100 grados. Y si todo ello esta acompanado por una cervecita pues mejor que mejor...

Los ultimos dias de la estancia, tube que trabajar 2-3 horas diarias que seria el pago por mi alojamiento y comida. Entre ellas fregar los platos, limpiar la cocina,cortar lena, repartir la lena a las diferentes chimeneas... Pero el imperativo para los voluntarios era que teniamos que estar tranquilos y agusto. Gran patron el Nikita.

El fin a semejante semana no podia ser normal, y es que regresaria a Irkutsk en el coche junto con un amigo de Nikita. Mas rapido y gratis pense yo. Pues lo de gratis nanai, ya que pague lo mismo que en marshrutka ...al menos seria mas rapido pensareis. Pues si deberia de haber sido, sino fuera que el coche se estropeo y pasamos esperando 4 horitas en un bar de carretera a que lo arreglaran...Por lo menos practique algo de ruso...

-----------------ENGLISH VERSION----------------------------

At last after a month an a half searching, paying 3 nights in the dormitory, and spending a night sleeping in the office, i had a place to live... And this not only gave me tranquility but also enable me to go to the island of Olhon.

I had available for the trip a week. Thanks to Bidana, a girl who works in the association, I only had to pay only 4 of the 6 nights, the other 2 I was going to pay them with some volunteering work. And that is because this touristy complex called “Nikita” placed in Juzhir, the island’s capital, is not a traditional one, let say it is very close to a profitable community. If you are ready to carry out small task (Like doing the dishes, cleaning, chopping wood…) and after getting some confidence with Nikita, it is possible to spend some time resting off with accommodation and food for free.

The island is 300km from Irkutsk, but taking into account the awful roads it takes 5 hours to get there. In order to get a place at the marshrutka, it is needed to order it in advance by phoning the marshrutka’s company.

The place where I had to meet the marshrutka was the central market, but the exact place wasn’t that clear, furthermore when getting there I found a tremendous traffic jam, so I was tight in time. When I did finally arrive I just saw many marshrutkas and loads of people all over. Suddenly a guy shout me something, when I paid attention, I realize that he was asking if I was Gaspar from Spain, and if I was going to the island… I couldn’t believe it, it is evident that I have Spanish features but under all these clothes and among so many people…

The trip on board the marshrutka, though it was uncomfortable, long and dangerous (Bad roads, bad drivers and overtaking through the middle of the road…) turned to be very interesting. Siting right next to me two young girls who were journalist and eventually we got to have a conversation and after a basic conversation (Who are you? Where are you from? Where do you go?....) I got to know that they were going write and article about the ecology and a review about Nikita’s.

And also a French guy, Etien, in the beginning he seemed to me a strange guy and unfortunately he was going stay at Nikita’s also. But since almost everything in this life has a reason, later on I realized that he was a disable person, he hardly was able to move his legs. That doesn’t explain his peculiarities but as far as concerns to me it does the point that during his childhood he spent a year in the school and other in the hospital alternatively…However that didn’t prevent him to get university studies, ride a bicycle for 7 months along south America, and also this time he was alone in Siberia in one of the coldest weeks of the year with his crutches and the rucksack at his back. It is just amazing to check how people are able to get over barriers.

The first days on the island I was hiking all along the island as well as the lake (Since, of course, the lake at this period of the year is completely frozen. And not only is possible to walk over it, but also to drive). It turn out to be one of the coldest weeks of the year, and also the wind was blowing very strong, you could feel it on the top of the mountains or when over the lake due to there wasn’t any protection from it and also because it rose up the snow which ended up hitting my uncovered face. At some extend some images from documental in Antarctica came to my mind, the only thing in front of me was ice, more ice and the snow raised up by the wind. It wasn’t less amazing that my beard, eyelashes and even the eyelids when blinking. If hiking was a real pleasure, it wasn’t worse when being back home and drinking some tea right next to the chimney. Furthermore the other volunteers were very nice and when they had some free time we used to gather together and have long funny conversations about Spanish-russian topics or watching a sovietic times film.

One day Natasha, one of the volunteers, come to me and told me “A guy from Portugal just arrived, You will understand each other….”. His name was Tiago, and he was trying to drive a very old citroen 2cv from Porto to Beijing initially for the Olympic Games, and then get all the way back home. After having a problem which kept him stopped in Yekaterinburgh 5 months waiting for a part of the car to arrive from England, he had to give up getting his mayor aim. However, he was determined to get to the end of his adventure, or better said until almost the end since he got to know that getting with the car to China is not that easy as may be thought (You must apply for many licenses apart from paying frequently briberies) and after 9 months on the road he wasn’t up for it…so that his new aim was to arrive to Vladivostok.

That was the inflection point for the trip, as Natsha predicted we got along very well, two guys from southern Europe who had already living in cold Russia for some time already. We jump from adventure to adventure, never a 2cv was so hummer- like, it didnt have any limits, we drove the car through places were the locals with a all-terrain vehicule didnt dare to go being afraid of getting stuck with the snow... And of course this happened, many time actually, but nothing which couldnt be solved recalling old times playing rugby, pushing !. Or in the worse of the cases digging a way among the snow.

A day, we strongly wanted to get to the enf of the island driving along the island, and as hundreds of times before, we got stuck. Some locals saw as from far away traying to release the car, and knowing that some hundresd of meters later there was minimun a meter depth of snow and was completely impossible to pass through, they decided to come and warn us. They also told us that there was a way to get to the lake and driving on it was possible to get to the very tip of the island, and not only that, but still not recovered from the surprise of seing a guy from Portugal, a guy from Switzetland (Noe, who this day was with us) and other from Spain driving such a strange car for them, they drive us to the place. It was a very nice sunny day so that we decided to take of the car ‘s top, though the temperature was a bit fresh, around -30C...anyway it was worth, we had lots of fun. The russian guys had never see anything like that and invited us to call into their place on the way back.

Driving on the lake is a great experience and more taking into account how nice was the island and the amazing weather. When we reached the tip of the island, where stand cliffs 80 meters high, the sun was already quite low and we enjoy an authentic natural espectacle of colors bluish, whitish, orangish on the ice and sorrounded by a so beautiful environment.

On the way back we couldnt resist to stop at our new friends place. There they were with some other friends, all of them fishermen, and once they saw us they started to prepare a feast consisting of raw Omul only seasoned with perper and salt, frozen raw omul from the street and tradicional salo (fat) everything of course acompained with some russian vodka this in order to be a real russian party.

We all had a very nice time there, eating, drinking and communicating in one or other way each other. Up to the extend that we didnt realize that was already dark outside and it wasnt that easy to find the way home driving on ice and almost whithout lights, but it wasnt impossible.

Actually it was so good time that the day after we decided to return the invitation. So that scarcely remenbering where there place was, we got there bringing some vodka and snacks with us. If something I have learnt from my parents is to be grateful.

‘ОПАСНО!’ (It is read ‘Apasna’) is the russian word to identify a dangerous situation. And maybe the word i listened the most in Russia since i arrived, but I learnt that they use it to identify what the have never done and may be risky or may be not.I guess this costume comes from the sovietic times when everything out the normality was forbidden. For example, once the weekend had come, we felt like going for a laugh with the natives to a local we were told, and when we tried to invited the rest of the volunteers the open the eyes like we had proposed them to jump from a plane withouth parachute. Very dangerous !!! Shouted all at once, since we were already used to the russian language, if before we wanted to go, now even more, above all because right after they confirmed us that none of them had ever been there. Toguether with a couple of buddies from Australia he had just met at Nikita’s, we spent a strange but unhazardous night at the town ‘s club...A cassete and some lights placed in an emprty room where I counted aronf 20 people, and with whom we got along perfectly.... Of course thanks to football, Im not an expert at all but knowing the point that Im from Spain, whatever I say it is accepted like true.

At the end none of us had swollen face, we were perfectly fine and with another story to tell our grandchildren.

When leaving the club, I checked that i have 10 missed calls from diferent unknown telephone numbers. The following morning obviously surprised because we were keeping all our theeth, explained me that when they realizad that we finally decided to go to the local, they wanted to call us to ask us to go back home, and due to i didnt answer the phone they though that something bad had happend, but still they were afraid of going to check it out.

To recover from our adventures there was nothing better than a russian banya at night. It is tradition also to roll ever the snow to lower the corporal temperature form time to time. And if it is with a fresh beer even better.

The last days of my stay at Nikita’s I had to carry out some task during 2-3 hours a day for paying for my accomodation and food. Among them doing the dishes, clean up the kitchen, chop off wood, share the wood to the chimneys...But the most important thing for the volunteers was to be calm and relaxed. Great landlord this Nikita.

As well as the stay on the island the wat back home couldnt be normal, at the end i was going to go back to Irkutsk with a friend of Nikita. Faster and for free I thought. But it turn out not to be for free, I paid exactly the same like going in marshrutka, and not even faster because the car broke down and we had to wait for the mechanic to fix it 4 hours at a gas station...At least I practice a bit russian language...

Lago BAIKAL/ Lake BAIKAL

Una vez instalado en Irkutsk, mas o menos ubicado en la ciudad, me empezo la curiosidad de saber que hay en los alrededores. Sitios donde poder encontrar un rato de silencio, una buena caminata, naturaleza... Y por supuesto encontrandonos a 70 kilometros del lago Baikal, este se convirtio en mi objetivo prioritario.



No tarde mucho en alcanzarlo, ya que la formacion a la llegada que la organizacion de acogida, Baikal Environmental Wave, me tenia preparada junto a otra voluntaria estonia y nuestros respectivos "mentores" (Personas que tiran de la cadena en caso de problema) iba a tener lugar en Listvianka, la ciudad a orillas del Baikal mas cercana a Irkutsk, todo un fin de semana. No es la zona mas bonita pero nos brindo unas impresionantes panoramicas del lago, ademas del dia mas frio del ano para algunos y de mi vida, ni mas ni menos que -40C. (Foto1-derecha)

En la formacion a la llegada, nos lo pasamos muy bien, se ve que no es la primera vez que Natasha la presenta, y no se hace pesada en absoluto, y tiene los tiempos muy controlados. No podian haber elegido un mejor alojamiento, se trataba de un complejo turistico compuesto de cabanas de madera siberianas(Foto2-izquierda), que respetaba todas las normas del ecoturismo como no podia ser de otra manera, por lo cual le habian sido otorgado numerosos premios. En las cabanas la calefacion era una chimenea tradicional que utilizaba como combustible madera, la cual habia que salir a recoger de cuando en cuando a la calle. Aunque eso si el bano estaba en el interior de la habitacion, lo que no estan frecuente en este tipo de cabanas.


Ademas por si se nos podia presentar alguna queja, nos invitaron a un restaurante del pueblo donde nos dimos un banquete (En la foto3 de la derecha Natasha preparandose para el mismo) y pude probar uno de los famosos pescados del lago, el Omul (Foto4 de la izda), riquisimo, tanto que mas tarde no me podria resistir a comprarlo en el mercado del pueblo ahumado para cenar (Durante el verano preparan el pescado ahumado, para durante el invierno, mientras el lago esta congelado y no se puede faenar venderlo).


El Sabado como antes mencione, nuestro primer dia en Litsvianka, fue el dia mas frio del ano, se registraron los -40 grados. Pero era mi primera vez en el Baikal y no teniamos la intencion de quedarnos en la cabana, asique nos armamos no solo de ropa sino tambien de valor, y nos lanzamos al reconocimiento de la zona. El paisaje del pueblo era desolador, estaba absolutamente todo congelado (Foto5), senales, casas, coches, el puerto, los barcos... Despues de unos cuarenta minutos de paseo, empezaban los signos de congelacion entre los miembros de la expedicion, con lo que nos refugiamos en una cafeteria, donde Olga nos amenizo con unas cancioncilas tocadas con una guitarra que alguien le habia dejado.

Pero llego el temido momento de abandonar la cafeteria, se hacia tarde ya que Natasha habia contratado una banya (no habria podido tener una mejor idea este dia-foto6 de la izda)). El sol ya sa habia ido, y el viento soplaba... Ocurrieron cosas que en otras sitiaciones no tan frias me habian pasado como que los guantes se conjelaran completamente, no sentir lo pies, no sentir la cara (Las orejas y la nariz duelen mucho hasta que se congelan, luego no hay de que preocuparse)...pero nunca habia sentido congelarseme los ojos,cada vez que pestaneaba los parpados amagaban de pegarse con el globulo ocular.


Una vez de vuelta a la cabana, y tras todos y cada uno haber arrimado el culo a la chimenea, llego la hora de la Banya. Las chicas me echaron de la cabana mientras se cambiaban, y el dueno del complejo me invito junto con su companero de trabajo, a un tentempie regado con un poco de vino armenio mientras intercambiabamos informacion de nuestros diferentes lugares de procedencia y como el habia acabado poniendo el presente negocio tras haber tenido que cerrar su fabrica de cigarrillos en San Petesburgo por la feroz competencia desde la caida del la URRS.

La banya, o al menos la que me toco experimentar, es mas o menos como una sauna escandinava, pero a diferencia de esta se lleva unas ramas llamadas Venikis, con las que los participantes se masajean el cuerpo unos a otros, a base de golpearse con ellas una vez reblandecidas por el agua. Es muy agradable.... en funcion de quien te fustigue, yo no tengo queja, de echo alli segiria si no fuera porque mis companeras se negaron.
Ademas cuando la temperatura del cuerpo es tan alta que no se puede aguantar mas dentro de la banya, ciertos medicos de cuyo nombre no me acuerdo acosenjan meterse en piscinas de agua frias para bajar la temperatura del cuerpo y volver a la sauna... En nuestro caso no habia piscina, el lago estaba a desmano pero la temperatura del aire de -40C y rodar por la nieve (Foto7 arriba a la derecha) sirvirvieron .

El domingo la temperatura ya se habia suavizado gracias a los vientos templados (-20C, estos siberianos tienen un raro concepto de lo que es templado) procedentes de Mongolia. Por lo que nos decidimos a ir al museo del lago que se situaba a unos dos kilometros del pueblo. Por el camino el resultado de las bajisimas temperaturas del dia anterior nos permitieron tomar increibles fotografias(Fotos 8 y9)



















De hecho fue mucho mas interesante el paseo hasta el museo, que lo que fue la visita propiamente. No es que el museo estuviera mal, pero es que el lago este dia fue un autentico espectaculo, los colores del cielo jugando con la nubes, las montanas al otro lado del lago, todo congelado... Y un paisano pescando con -20C tranquilamente (Fotos 10 y 11)



















Y el lago se comportaba mas bien como un pequeno mar y no precisamente en calma, las olas golpeaban con fuerza la orilla como se puede ver en las siguientes fotos (Pics 12 y 13)



















En el museo explican como el Lago Baikal es uno de los mas grandes del mundo con sus 680km de largo X sus 80 km de ancho en forma de platano, y el mas profundo del mundo ademas de contener el 20% del agua dulce no congelada del mundo, lo cual da una idea de su importancia y tambien de la importancia de su conservacion.
Se explica tambien la dinamica del lago y sus especies animales y vegetales y que no me voy a extender aqui porque no viene a cuento. Otra parte del museo consiste enun modesto acuario (Foto 14) donde podemos ver las especies piscicolas mas representativas del lago y en una pecera que en mi opinion dista en mucho de ser suficientemente grande podemos observar 2 focas Nerpa(Foto15), unica foca del mundo que vive en lago. Se caracterizan por ser mas pequenas que su equivalente marino, y por tener unos ojos negros grandes y muy penetrantes.
La ultima de las actividades propuestas en el museo consiste en una pelicula que resume el viaje de un submarino a traves de los casi 1650 metros de profundidad del lago. Para ello te meten en una habitacion en forma de submarino y una mujer que hace de conductora explica lo que se encuentra a diferentes profundidades, muy didactico.



Como fin de semana panoramico para abrir boca, no estuvo mal, pero lo que yo realmente queria era disfrutar activamente del lago, asique volvi los dos fines de semana siguiente:


- El primero de ellos, junto con Andreas(Foto16-a la derecha) una pequena ruta de unos 15-20 kilometros que transcurria entre montes y bosqes de coniferas (Foto 17 a la izda) cubiertos de nieve hasta llegar al Baikal a la altura del pueblo "Angalskoe", al sur-este del lago Baikal. Que luego bordeando el lago siguiendo los railes del tren (Foto 18-abajo a la izda) nos llevaria a Kultuk donde debiamos de coger el "elektrichiski" (Equivalente al tren de cercanias en Espana, para en todas las estaciones) de regreso a Irkutsk.
En el camino desde Angalskoe a Kultuk, nos encontramos este monumento sovietico en recuerdo de un naufragio acontecido y en el que un joven perdio la visa enlas frias aguas del lago (Foto 19-Abajo a la derecha)




















-El segundo, junto con Andreas de Alemania, Thomas de Eslovenia, Miriam de Estonia y hablando en ruso, menuda mezcla. La idea era parecida, atravesar los bosques y colinas que nos separaban del lago Baikal, pero esta vez desde mas lejos. La ruta la dividimos en dos dias, el primero consistiria en unos 25-30 km hasta Angalskoe donde hariamos noche en el albergue. Y el segundo dia, cubrir la distancia de unos 25 km que nos separaba de Sliudanka.


El primer dia fue complejo, ya que el camino no estaba marcado en primer lugar y tenia unos 50 cm de nieve que habia caido recientemente con lo que caminar se hacia muy pesado en sugundo lugar(Fotos 20 y 21).

Pero por fin alcanzamos el Lago Baikal (Fotos 22 ,23 y 24) a la altura del famoso Km 149 de la via del circunbaikal. Para alcanzar Angalskoe, nuestro destino para hacer noche, deberiamos de























seguir la via, trayecto en el que nos encontrariamos cruzando tuneles (Fotos 25 y 26) en los cuales no se veia absolutamente nada y solo rozando la via con los pies nos podiamos orientar, experiencia bastante divertida aunque ciertamente peligrosa si tenemos en cuenta que la via esta en funcionamiento aunque el trafico es muy escaso. Al fin tras algo mas de tres horas desde que por primera vez vimos el Baikal y ya hacia un rato con la luna brillando sobre nuestras cabezas llegamos a Angalskoe.


















El segundo dia, con la baja de Miriam a la que el dia anterior le habia castigado el largo y exigente camino que decidio volver en tren desde Angalskoe, fue mucho mas relajado tanto en la dureza del terreno como en su orientacion. Nos desplazariamos de norte a sur por la costa este del lago, pudiendo siguir en la mayoria de los casos con la vista la orilla del lago Baikal.

Nos levantamos temprano para ver el amanecer sobre el lago (Foto 27), y posteriormente nos metimos un desayuno de campeones en la "stalovaya" (comedor) del albergue.

La primera parte del trayecto, durante aproximadamente tres horas que separaban Angalskoe de Kultuk, el camino era comun al del fin de semana anterior.

Una vez en Kultuk hicimos un pequeno descanso en una tienda del pueblo, donde tambien conseguimos un te caliente. La segunda parte, correspondia a cubrir el camino entre Kultuk y Sliudanka, para lo cual no existe un camino marcado, con lo que nos vimos saltando vallas, cruzando rios helados, las vias del tren de izquierda a derecha y de derecha a izquierda...

Ya cerca de Sliudanka, y por fin al refugio del fuerte y helado viento que nos habia acompanado desde Kultuk, paramos para comer en un lagar precioso en el agua del lago Baikal cubria congelada la superficie de las rocas que se encontraban en la orilla, dando lugar a diversidad de formas(Foto29).
















La ciudad de Sliudanka, no ofrece encantos turisticos relevantes, en la mayoria de los casos solo constituye un punto importante de transporte. Sin embargo en mi opinion guarda el encanto de una ciudad rusa a la cual no se a cubierto de pintura para presentarla al mundo, en sus edificios sovieticos con pintura descascarillada y bolsas de pielmini colgando de las ventanas, casas de madera siberianas y a orillas del lago Baikal (Alli se pueden ver donde se prepara y almacena el pescado ahumado durante el verano)... que mas se puede pedir.
A la derecha la estacion del tren de Sliudanka,(Foto29) famosa por estar construida de piedra.

Desde alli regresamos a Irkutsk en Marshrutka, mas cara y peligrosa, ya que el siguiente tren que unia a Sludianka con Irkutsk llegaria tres horas mas tarde. Este viaje en marshrutka lo recordare toda mi vida, nos pasamos todo el camino adelantando a coches por el medio de la calzada al estilo ruso, frenazos, bandazos de un lado al otro al tomar las curvas con exceso de velocidad... Una verdadera aventura.

------- ENGLISH VERSION------------------------------

Once settled down Irkutsk, I started to feel curious of knowing what is possible to find around the city. Places where to find silence and peace for a while, a good hike, wild nature… And course, being located only 70 km away from the Lake Baikal, it became my first goal.

It didn’t take my too long to reach it, since the ‘ On arrival training’ that the organization, “Baikal Environmental Wave” had prepared for me and also for another volunteer from Estonia and our mentors (People who help us in case of problem) was going to take place at Litsvianka, the closest city at the bank of Baikal from Irkutsk, and a whole weekend. Is not the nicest part, but still offered us incredible panoramics apart from the coldest day of the year for people from Irkutsk and for me the coldest in my whole life, it was -40 degree (Fot-1))

The ‘On arrival training’ was very funny, and was also evident that it wasn’t the first time for Natasha to present it, it wasn’t boring at all, and she has everything really good organized. The accommodation wouldn’t have been better, it was a Siberian wooden houses complex (.Foto2-izquierda) which was an example of eco tourism, and they had got many prizes because of this. The heating system was a traditional chimney, and the combustible was wood, which was placed outside and was needed to pick up from time to time. But it is also true that the toilet was located inside which is not very frequent for these kind of cabins.

Furthermore to avoid any complaint, they invited us to a lunch at a restaurant downtown, where a feast was offered to us. (Pic-3 Natasha preparing herself for it) There I could taste on of the most famous fishes of the lake, the ‘Omul’(Pic4), very tasty, and I couldn’t avoid buy some more, smoked this time, at the town’s market later on. (During the summer people prepare smoked fish, in order to have fish enough during the winter when the lake is frozen).

This Saturday, as I have already said, it was the coldest day of the year in Litsvianka, as cold as -40 degrees. But it was my first time at Baikal and we weren’t up to stay at the cabin, so that after wearing our best clothes and plucking up courage, we recon the area. The sight downtown was devastating; everything was completely frozen (Pic-5), signs, houses, the docks, boats… After some 45 minutes walking, we started to feel frozen and decided to call into a coffee shop, where Olga, one of the mentors, played some Russian popular songs with a guitar who someone had given to her.

The moment we were afraid of had come, it was time to leave the coffee shop, it was starting to be late and Natasha had contracted a Banya for a certain time (This idea wouldn’t had been better for a day like this. Pic-6). The sun was gone and the wind was blowing… I had already been under very cold conditions when the gloves were completely frozen, I didn’t feel my feet, my face was not red but white after been red! (The nose and ears hurt only until be frozen, afterwards everything is fine, no more pain…)… But what I never had before was to feel my eyes frozen, every single time I tried to blink and my eyelids were getting stuck.

Back in the cabin, after warming up our asses by placing them close to the chimney, the banya time had come. The girls kicked my ass out the cabin while they were changing their clothes, but I was invited by the complex owner and his friend to drink a glass of Armenian wine and share their dinner. We very nicely chatted about own respective countries and how we had ended up there. He was a business man in Sant Petesburgh, he had his own cigarettes company, but after the Sovietic Union collapse there was too much competence and he decided to close the factory and build up this complex with the money he had left.

Banya, at least the one we had, was pretty much the same as the Scandinavian, the only difference I found was that in Banya a branch called Venikis may be used to massage each other by hitting each other with them (They are soften by placing them in warm water). In came up that is very nice…. Depending on who is massaging you, I have no complaint because I still would be there if my partners wouldn’t have refused.

Also when the body’s temperature is so high that you cant longer stay inside banya, there are certain so called doctors which name never came up, who advise to have a dip into cool water pools…This time the lake was too far , but the air temperature was -40C and rolling over the snow was a good alternative (Foto7,up to the right)

On Sunday the temperature change and became milder thanks to the mild winds coming from Mongolia, so that we decided to call into the Lake’s museum which was situated about 2 km from the town. On the way there, resulting from the low temperatures reached the day after, we could take unusual but amazing pictures (Foto8 y 9).

Actually the walk for getting to the museum was more interesting than the visit itself. The museum was ok, quite interesting but this day lake Baikal was an spectacle, the sky was colorful, the mountains on the other side of the lake plenty of snow, everything frozen all over… An a guy peacefully fishing when the temperature was about -20C. (Fotos 10 y 11)

Apart from that the lake’s behavior was like a rough sea, the waves were hitting one time and another the bank of Baikal (Pics 12 y 13)


In the museum there were some explanations about how lake Baikal is one of the biggest of the world with it’s 680km wide and it’s 80 km wide banana like, as well as the deepest in the world, which gives an idea about how important it is as well as it’s conservation.

The complex lake dynamic it is also explained, the flora and fauna, but I wont spent more time on it.

Other part of the museum consisted of a humble aquarium (Foto 14)where we can see the fish species that we can find in the lake and also another aquarium (Not big enough at all, under my point of view) where a couple of Nerpas (Foto 15) may be seen, which is the only seal in the world which lives in a lake. It is clearly smaller than the equivalent founded in the oceans and they have big rounded penetrating black eyes.

And the last activity proposed it is a film, inside a room submarine like, which resumes the submarine trip down the 1650meters of the lake. There is a person telling whats going on at each depth, it is very didactic.

As panoramic weekend it wasn’t bad at all, but what I really wanted was to enjoy the lake by walking, so that I went back the next two weekends:

- The first of them was with Andreas (Foto16-to the right), it was a not very long itinerary , about 15-20 km, crossing hills and forest covered by snow until reaching lake Baikal at "Angalskoe", to the south-east of Baikal. And afterwards it continued following the railways along the bank of the lake (Foto18-down to the left) to Kultuk, where we had to take the “elektrichiki” (It is a train stopping at every single stop on the way) back to Irkutsk.

On the way from Angalskoe to Kultuk, we found an old, sovietic monument in memory of a shipwreck, in which a youngster lost his life (Foto 19-down to the right)

-The second one, was with Andreas from Germany, Thomas from Slovenia, Mirjam from Estonia and all speaking in Russian, what a mix!. The idea was similar to the first excursion, to cross hills and forest that were separating us from Baikal, but this time from further. We divided the itinerary in two days. The first one was 25-30 km long until Angasolkoe, where we stayed overnight in a hostel. The second day was about 25 km long until Sliudanka.
The first day was very hard due to the itinerary wasn’t properly marked and also because the snow accumulated, until the knee and recently, so that walking wasn’t that easy (Fotos 20-21).

But all together, at the end we reached the lake Baikal (Fotos 22, 23 y 24) by the famous km 149of the circumbaikal’s railway. In order to get to Angalskoe, our final destiny for this day, we had to follow the railway, which had several tunnels to cross (Fotos 25 y 26). Which came up not to be as easy as we expected, since there were pretty long and without light, so that the only way to know where we were was walking with one of the railways between our legs, it was quite funny but certainly dangerous if we take into account that the railway wasn’t abandoned though it is also true that the trains were sheldom. At the end, after a bit more than three hours since when for first time we saw the lake and when the moon was shinning over us, we arrived to Angasolakoe.

The second day, with Mirjam’s left (The first day was too hard for her, and she didn’t feel with the energy for a new day walking, and finally decided to go back by train to Irkustk from Angasolkoу) by far easier in terms of hardness as well as orientation than the previous day. We were moving from North to the South at the east coast of lake Baikal, being able most of the time to follow with our sight the lake’s shore.
This day we got up early in the morning willing of watching the sunrise from among the mountains (Foto27), and right after, completely frozen we come into the stalovaia (The dining room) in order to have a good breakfast and thus get the energy for another hiking day.

The first part of the walk, the way from Angasolkoe to Kultuk, for about three hours was already known since we had already done it the week before.

Once in Kultuk, after doing a short break at a shop down town where we got some warm tea. We started with the second part of our walk, which corresponded to get from Kultuk to Sliudanka. For this part didn’t exist any way, and we found ourselves jumping over fences, crossing frozen rivers, crossing the railway from the left to the right and from the right to the left….

Already close to Sliudanka, and finally sheltered from the strong and frozen wind which was blowing since we left Kultuk, we stopped in a wonderful place for a lunch break. Lake’s frozen water was covering the rocks at the shore, shaping in many different ways (Foto 29).

Sludianka itself, doesn’t have any touristic highlight, in most of the cases is just a relevant transport point. However, for me had the charm of a real Russian city, which wasn’t cover by paint to present it to the world. You can see it in its faded, old, sovietic building, from their windows there hanging huge bags plenty of pielmeni, wooden Siberian houses at the shore of Baikal (There can be seen, where the smoked fish is prepared in summer)… what else can we ask for.
Sliudanka’s railway station is known because it is build using stone (Foto 29).

From there we did our way back to Irkutsk by marsdrutka, more expensive and dangerous than the train, but our only possibility since the next train was three hours later. I will remember this trip in marshrutka all my life, we were all the way long overtaking cars in the Russian style (Using the line as a third road), hardly breaking, lurching when bending too fast…. A real adventure.

Irkutsk

La llegada a la ciudad no pudo ser mejor, el sol brillaba sobre un cielo completamente azul, sin rastro de nubes. La nieve como me amiganinaba lo envolvia todo, y la temperatura era 'Tiplo' (caliente) para Natasha unos diez grados bajo cero, pero claro estamos en Siberia.

La ciudad de Irkutsk es la capital del'Irkutskaia oblast'y se dispone sobre las dos orillas del rio Angara, que fluye hasta su desembocadura en el lago Baikal a unos 70 kilometros. La ciudad es bastante extensa, y tiene u monton de barrios, que son como pequenas ciudades rodeandola. En total alrededor de 600.000 habitantes.

El centro de la ciudad no decepciona, no es muy grande pero tiene todo lo que se puede esperar de una ciudad rusa siberiana, sus iglesias y catedrales (En su mayor parte ortodoxas, ya que la raza rusa es la mayoritaria en Irkutsk, aunque tambien se pueden encontrar otras cristianas o judias)(Catedral de la epifania-foto1 arriba izda), un mercado central donde mezclarse entre los locales y conseguir productos, casitas de madera siberianas, parques y plazas (Plaza Kirova en la fotografia de la izda, donde durante el periodo invernal se moldean esculturas en hielo ademas de un tobogan tambien hecho de hielo- con sus respectivos monumentos de heroes sovieticos, enormes edificios gubernamentales (En la foto de la derecha el edificio gubernamental del "oblast", donde se levantaba una catedral que fue derruida durante el periodo sovietico, y en cuyo recuerdo se reconstruyo justo enfrente una de sus cupulas), museos (Entre 2 y 3 veces mas caros para extranjeros).



Lo que levanta mas curiosisdad de Siberia, es su meteorologia. Y sorprende mucho saber que la mayoria de los dias el sol luce sobre un basto cielo azul, lo que le da mucho alegria. Nieva muy de vez en cuanto y relativamente poco, pero la nieve se acumula a lo largo de la estacion fria.
La temperatura no decepciona, y es que quien se viene a Siberia en invierno es para experimentar con las temperaturas extremas, de media se podria hablar de unos - 20C , pero no es constante, en mi experiencia varia de los dias calidos unos -12C a los -40Ce los mas frios En definitiva, que hay que estar preparado para que no se te congelen las... orejas.

Tambien es verdad que el frio es diferente al de Espana, aunque parezca una estupidez, eso es debido a la poca humedad que tiene el aire, yo diria que a la misma temperatura en Espana la sensacion termica es de mas frio. Y por ejemplo esto provoca que en la calle la nieve no se forme hielo, sino que permanece en polvo, como cuando callo. Es un alivio porque los resvalones, y porque no decirlo, las caidas son ya bastante frecuentes sin hielo.

Pero sin esta temperatura, quien iba a poder patinar sobre hielo en campos de futbol, quien podria coger los esquis y eskiar practicamente desde la puerta de su casa, y los toboganes de hielo (Foto de la derecha) y las esculturas de hielo de los parques... los rios y lagos congelados (Recordemos que el Lago Baikal, uno de los mas grandes del mundo y el que tiene mas agua dulce del mundo, unos 600km x 80km, se congela e incluso se "construye" una carretera sobre el para que los coches la atraviesen). Ademas en mi opinion, lo mejor son cuatro estaciones lo mas diferentes posible unas de las otras, como aqui ocurre, ya que te permite disfrutar de un lugar de cuatro maneras distintas.



Tambien es impresionante ver como el rio Angara despide una especie de niebla desde su superficie (Foto de la derecha), y poco a poco el agua se va haciendo mas espesa, comienzan a aparecer trozos de hielo llendo rio abajo, se multiplican, hasta que por ultimo se funden en uno solo y por fin el rio se congela.

Hay un embalse construido no hace mucho tiempo que constituye otro puente de paso de una parte de la ciudad a otra.Desde alli se puede obtener una impresionante panoramica de la ciudad.(Abajo)




Una de las grandes dificultades para moverse por la ciudad, y no solo por los posibles problemas con el idioma, es el transporte publico. Pese a que hay trambia y troleibus, estan muy anticuados y solo tienen una linea, lo cual hace que el medio de transporte mas utilizado y relativamente comodo sean autobuses y 'Marshrutnoi taxis" (Basicamente furgonetas).

Los autobuses se distinguen por un numero, que indica la ruta circular que sigue, al que solo acompana el nombre de alguna de las paradas mas importantes a lo largo del trayecto. Hay paradas en toda la ciudad, pero raramente hay carteles que indiquen que autobuses y hacia donde se dirigen.

Los autobuses y "marshrutkas", se acercan a la parada donde paran el tiempo suficiente para que los viajeros se posen y los que anden listos se suban, acto seguido continuan su ruta. Hay que pensar que en las paradas normalmente no hay menos de 5 autobuses y marshrutkas y que estan en continuo movimiento, unos llegando otros marchando. Es un autentico caos! Pitidos de los auobuses que llegan para que les dejen sitio, pitidos de los autobuses que se van para que les dejen salir, pitidos de los coches que vienen por el carril porque los autobuses se reincorporan a la circulacion no miran si viene alguien, sin mas se incorporan.... Sin embargo es un caos asumido y al que todo el mundo esta acostumbrado, por lo que solo es un caos para los visitantes.

Una vez solucionado el problema de saber en que autobus te tienes que montar, y consigues estar dentro, surge otro, como identificar tu parada. Las paradas casi nunca estan indicadas con carteles, por lo que no vale solo con mirar por la ventana....Si esto fuera posible, porque normalmente el autobus va lleno y la mayoria de la gente va de pie. Aun asi recordemos la temperatura fuera es de alrededor de -20C, y la de dentro bastante mas alta, lo que significa que las ventanas estan completamente congeladas y no se ve absolutamente nada a traves de ellas (Foto izda).

Con lo cual la mayoria de las veces la unica solucion es preguntar al conductor, pero de nuevo mucha gente en el autobus, mucho movimiento en las paradas y el conducor se olvida, por lo que tienes que estar continuamente recordandoselo. Evidentemente esto es posible solo si tienes un razonable manejo del ruso, sino me imagino que la mayoria de las veces la unica solucion posible es pagar un taxi 25 publos el km X Numero de kilometros X 3 o 4 por ser extranjero.

Al principiono, cuando llegue, no sabia que autobuses coger, me confundia de autobus, me pasaba las paradas... Sin embargo despues de un mes y medio de aprendizaje forzado, y la verdad no se muy bien como, todo empieza a tener sentido y no suelo tener problemas. Aprendi a interpretar los carteles de los autobuses, tengo una idea en cuanto a la duracion del viaje a los diferentes sitios, estableci algunos puntos de referencia, y tambien hacer pequenos agujeros en el hielo de la ventana cuando consigues sentarte ayuda.



La ciudad hasta hace alrededor de 200 anos estaba en su mayoria construida de madera, pero un gran incendio la destruyo casi por completo. Razon poe la cual se decidio reconstruir el centro de la ciudad en piedra, como asi se puede ver entre las calles principales Ul.Lenina y Ul. Karla Marxa(Foto de la derecha, Ul.Urizkogo).

Sin embargo, en toda la ciudad se encuentran pequenos o no tan pequenos barrios de casas tradicionales de madera. Lo que convierte a la ciudad en un autentico coladge.

Las casas de madera habitualmente estan talladas lo que las hace bonitas y atrae a los turistas. Pero la vida en su interior es mucho mas dificil que en un feo edificio sovietico de hormigon. En la mayoria de los casos no tienen calefaccion central sino chimeneas, y los banos suelen estar fuera de la casa (Lo que hace que te pienses dos veces el ir al servicio), incluso muchas de ellas no tiene agua corriente.



En cuanto a la gente, hay clara diferencia entre generaciones, cabiendo distinguir:

Personas que viveron la mayor parte de su vida en la URRS, normalmente por encima de los 60 anos y cuyo comportamiento se acerca mucho mas al de aquellos tiempos que a lo presentes. Son austeros en su modo de vida, visten con ropas que cumplen con su cometido de resguardarles del frio pero sin ningun tipo de concesion a la estetica, compran exclusivamente lo que necesitan y no entienden el capitalismo actual, mantienen vivas tradiciones antiguas.

Personas que vivieron la URRS como ninos o jovenes, actualmente tienen entre 30-50 anos y aunque los inicios de su vida se enmarcaron dentro comunismo de la URRS, la adaptacion progresiva a los tiempos modernos no supuso un gran trauma. Son el punto de union entre las dos Rusias sovietica y capitalista, ya que mantienen ciertas costumbres y tradiciones comunistas pero tambien se hicicieron suyas otras del nuevo sistema.
La apreciacion en cuanto al consumo de alcohol que existe en occidente de Rusia, se toma en mi oipinion de este grupo poblacional que vivio los momentos mas duros del cambio.

Entre los mas jovenes ya practicamente no existe diferencia con occidente. Quizas los cambios vitales como el casarse y tener hijos se adelanta en el tiempo a alrededor de los 25 anos. Pero de otra manera comparten suenos y problemas con los jovenes de occidente.


La ciudad ha sufrido en los ultimos anos una notable transformacion en cuanto al sector servicios,en parte por el turismo y en parte por la mejora de las condiciones laborales. Aparecieron innumerables restaurantes de comida rapida, tiendas de ropa de marcas occidentales, cines, bares-cafes-restaurantes, discotecas... Lo que se vio tambien acompanado de una gran subida de precios tanto en articulos de lujo como en otros esenciales como vivienda y comida, cuyos precios se parecen a los de una ciudad de iguales caracteristicas en Espana.

En cuanto al ocio, cuenta con una gran oferta, ya sea de los tradicionales teatros,("Dramatichiski teatr"foto de la derecha) marionetas, auditorios, cines. O otros incorporados mas recientemente como lugares de patinaje, boleras, macro sala de fiestas, festivales de musica.
Ademas a esto hay que sumarle las posibilidades de disfrute de la naturlaza. Ya que el lago baikal se encuentra a escasos 70 km, pero alrededor de la ciudad hay numerosas zonas practicamente virgenes donde caminar entre las colinas y bosques, hacer esqui cross country...


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(English version)


The arrival to the city couldn’t have been better, the dun was shining and the sky blue and clear. The snow as I imagined was evolving everything and even the temperature was “Tiplo” (Warm) for Natasha, about -10C, was it is also true that we are in Siberia.

Irkutsk is the capital of the” Irkutskaia oblast” and it is located on both sides along river Angara, which flows to Baikal Lake about 70km further. The city is quite spread out, and it has lots of neighborhoods, which are like small cities, surrounding it. All together there are around 600.000 people living here.

The city center doesn’t disappoint, is not that big but it contains everything that you may expect from a Russian Siberian city, churches and cathedrals (In general they are all orthodox, due to the Russian ethnic group is predominant, though it is also possible to find others Christians or Jewish (pic-Epiphanies cathedral), a central market where to mix with locals and get good products, Siberian wooden houses, squares and parks (kirova square, pic on the left, where ice statues and a slide are molded during the winter time, monuments remembering old soviet heroes, huge governmental buildings (Pic on the right- Oblast’s governmental building, where used to stand a cathedral which was pulled down during the CCCP, in order to remind this one of the domes was rebuild in front of the building), museums (2-3 times more expensive for foreigners).

The most attractive thing in Siberia, I guess it is the weather. And I was surprise when I saw that most of the days the sun shines over a blue sky. It only snows from time to time and relatively not much, but since the temperature is several degrees below cero all the time, it just accumulates during the cold season.

The temperature doesn’t disappoint either, since I guess people coming to Siberia during the winter also want to feel these extreme temperatures. In average we could talk about -20C, but is not constant, my experience is that it range from warm days when is around -12C to very cold days when the temperature could be about -40C. So we must be ready if we don’t want our ….ears…..frozen.

It is also true that the cold here is not the same as in Spain, though it sounds senseless, and this is because the low humidity in the air, I would say that the wind chill factor is colder in Spain. And that’s also why the snow doesn’t get frozen in the street; it remains like flakes, the same as when it fell. And what a relief because slips and falls are already quite frequent without ice.

But if it weren’t so cold, it wouldn’t be possible to skate over football pitches, or ski just almost from your house, and the slides and ice statues in the parks…the rivers and lakes frozen (Must be remind that Lake Baikal, one of the biggest in the world and the one which contains more fresh water, around 600km X 80Km, gets frozen and even a road it is built in order cars to may cross it). Also my opinion is that it is better to live in a place where there are four different seasons, in this way it is possible to enjoy the same place in four different ways.

It is also amazing to see how river Angara releases fog from its surface (Pic on the right), and gradually the water gets thicker, peaces of ice appear flowing down the river, the multiply, and finally all the peaces merge into one and the river gets frozen.

There is also a dump not a long time ago which serves also as bridge to link both sides of the city. And from where incredible panoramic pictures of the city may be taken.(Down)

One of the biggest difficulties for moving around the city, and not only because of the language problems, is the public transport. There are both trolleybus and tram, but they are old and there is only one line of each, that’s why buses and marshrutnoi taxis (Basicly they are vans) are more convenient and relatively comfortable.

Busses may be differed by a number, which shows which circular itinerary they will follow, the same letter also shows some of the most important stops on the way. There are stops all over the city, but letters informing the name are very rare

Buses and marshrutnoi taxis approach to the stop where only stops for the time needed for travelers to get off and if you are fast enough to get into it, afterwards they just continue the itinerary. Normally at the stops there are at least 5 of them and continuously moving, some of them arriving others leaving. It is a real chaos! Busses beeping for getting space, busses beeping for have the chance to leave the stop, cars beeping because bus drivers don’t pay attencion if other cars are coming when going back to the road… However this chaos is assumed by everyone and everyone is also used to it, that’s why it is only a chaos for visitants.

Once you got to solve the problem to know in which bus do you have to get into, you actually are into it, other problem come up…How to identify your stops. Stops are rarely shown by signs, so it is not enough to look through the window… If that would be possible, because usually the bus is full of people mostly standing, anyway we also have to take into account that outside the temperature is around -20C and inside is by far warmer, that means that the windows are completely frozen and it is just not possible to look through(Pic on the left)

So at the end most of the times the only possibility is to ask the bus driver, but there are lots of people at the bus, lots people get off and getting in, and the bus driver easily forgets about that, so that you need from time to time to remind it to him. Certainly that’s only possible having a reasonable knowledge of Russian language. Otherwise I guess most of the times the only possibility is to pay for a taxi 25 rubles/km X Number of km X 2-3 times for being foreigner.

In the beginning, when I had just arrived, I didn’t know which bus to take, I confused the bus, I missed the stop… However after one month and a half learning, and I don’t know very well how, everything started to have a sense and now I usually don’t have problems, I learnt to interpret signs, I have an overall idea of how long should take, I established some references all over the city, and I also learnt that make small holes on the ice of the windows when it is possible also helps.

The city until around 200 years ago, mostly it was made of wood, but a fire almost completely destroyed it. That’s why it was decided to rebuild it using stones instead, how it is possible to see at the main streets Ul. Lenina and Ul. Karla Marxa (Foto de la derecha, Ul. Urizkogo).

However all over the city, small patches or not that small of Siberian wooden houses are found. Which converts the city into a real coladge.

These houses usually are carved which make them beautiful and attract tourists. But life inside may be not that easy, and it is by far more difficult than in one of those soviet concrete made buildings. Most of the cases they don’t have central heating but chimney, and toilets are outside (You think it twice before going), and even many times there is not running water.

In terms of people, there is a clear difference between generations, and it is possible to distinguish:

People who lived most of their lives in the CCCP, normally they are more than 60 years old and their behavior is more similar to the one they had during the soviet times than the current times. They are austere in the way they live, they were clothes which keep them warm but not very into fashion, the buy exclusively what they need and don’t understand the current capitalism, they also keep their traditions alive.

People who lived during the CCCP times as children or teenagers, currently between 30-50 years old. Though during the first years of their life they lived the communism, most of them got to progressively adapt to the modern times. They are the joint between the old communism and the new capitalist Russia. The keep some reminisces from the soviet times but they got other new from the new system.

The western appreciation in terms of alcohol consumption, in my opinion is taken from them, due to they lived very hard times in their life.


Among youth, there isn’t a big difference with occident. Maybe the vital periods occur before, like usually they get married and have children a bit earlier, when they are about 25 years old. But in any other way, they share dreams and problems with occidental youth.

The city has suffered a big change along last few years regarding to the services sector, on one hand for tourism and on the other for the improvement of working conditions. Numerous fast food restaurants established, occidental brand clothes shops, bars, coffe coffe shops, night clubs... But at the same time prices also raised up for luxury goods as well as for survival goods. Prices are mostly the same as in an Spanish city with similar characteristics.

Regarding to leisure, there is a wide offer either from the traditional theatres (Dramatichiski theatre on the right), puppets, auditories, cinemas… or other newer like ice skating rings, bowlings, huge night clubs, music festivals…

Furthermore, is very easy to enjoy the nature all around Irkutsk. Lake Baikal is very close, less than an hour by marshrutka, though there is no need to go very far from the city to find great places for hiking, cross country skiing…

Transiberiano; Camino de Irkutsk / Transsiberian; on the way to Irkutsk

Una vez solucionado, todos los problemas para conseguir el visado y con mas de tres meses de retraso con lo previsto el 7 de diciembre de 2009 cogi en Barajas el avion que tras previo paso por Roma, me llevaria a Moscu. Moscu es la capital de Rusia, pero estamos hablando del pais mas grande del mundo, y mi destino final, Irkutsk se situaba aprox. 5.200 km al este.

En un principio la idea era llegar desde Mieres (Asturias) a Irkutsk (Rusia) utilizando medios de transporte terrestres, principalmente el tren. Sin embargo por su excesiva duracion, y la incopatibilidad de ello con el programa EVS, el trayecto terrestre se redujo de Moscu a Irkutsk, utilizando algo mas de la mitad de la linea popularmente conocida como transiberiano que une Moscu con Vladivostok.
Los motivos principales para ello eran en primer lugar que no tiene sentido acudir a un lugar a trabajar como ecologo, si no predicas con tu ejemplo. Y es que el avion contamina mucho mas que el tren. Y en segundo lugar, tampoco entra en mi cabeza el conceptode mudarme a vivir a perdiendome todo lo que hay en medio, sin poder ver los cambios en el comportamiento de las personas,...
Para recorrer estos 5.200km se necesitan algo mas de 4 dias en el tren. Pero para evitar un colapso nervioso por inactividad, decidi parar un dia en Yekaterinburgo y otro en Novosibirsk. Ademas asi poder tener una idea mas amplia del concepto Siberia. En conjunto desde que llegue a Moscu hasta que finalmente alcance mi destino final transcurrieron 7 dias.

En Moscu ya habia estado dos anos atras, y con un solo dia disponible me limite a recorrer zonas de la ciudad desconicidas y a regresar a otras que me habian gustado. Plaza roja, el paseo a lo largo del rio y calles centrales principalmente, parando de vez en cuando para tomarme los cafes mas caros de mi vida, y es que Moscu de barato no tiene nada.
Mas tarde por fin me reuni con Katia y Ania, las hijas de una amiga de mi profesora de ruso, que muy amablemante me habian ofrecido ensenarme la ciudad y alojamiento para mi noche en Moscu.

El dia 9 de diciembre a las 16.00 de la tarde hora de moscu (Y es que Rusia es atravesada por varias franjas horarias, lo que quiere decir que la hora varia dependiendo de en que region te encuentres, pero no para el tren, ya que en todo el pais el tren sigue la hora de Moscu), comenzo la aventura desde la estacion Yaroslavski y camino de Yekaterinburgh.
Se habia acabado la seguridad aparente que te da el tener un numero de telefono al que llamar en caso de problemas, y el poder recurrir al ingles en caso de aprietos. Ahi estaba yo con tres cincuentonas, avidas de saber como es la vida en espana con toneladas de comida que no dudaron un minuto en ofrecerme y lo mas importante una botella de conac armenio. Una vez comidos, bebidos y su curiosidad saciada cada uno se dedico a sus menesteres, dormir, leer, beber te del omnipresente samabar...
Las noches en el tren son mucho menos pesadas de lo que cabe esperar, ya que cada persono dispone de cama con su respectivo colchon, almohada y sabanas. Unicamente la gente que al pasar roza tus pies puede molestar, y esto solo ocurre en platkart (Es la clase mas barata, en la cual los compartimentos no estan cerrados), si el viajero requiere mas intimidad simpre puede a costa de un mayor precio disponer de un compartimento coupe, aunque este en mi opinion es mucho menos interesante.
A mi llegada a Yekaterinburgh mas de 1 dia despues de haberme montado en aquel tren, me esperaba Alex, un couch surfer que me habia acogido para pasar la noche en la ciudad. Tanto el como Anna su novia, con la que vivia me acogieron como si de un viejo amigo se tratara. Anna preparo una deliciosa cena durante la cual tuvimos unimadas conversaciones, esta vez mezclando el ingles con el ruso acerca de la vida en los Urales, la vida en Espana, y repasando la actualidad mundial como la guerra de Chechenia, Kosovo....temas controversicos y mas estando en Rusia, pero que pudimos debatir en paz. Despues de esto pasamos la noche los tres en la misma hanitacion, tipica salita-habitacion de tiempos sovieticos, eso si ellos en su cama y yo en la mia.

Ya por la manana ellos se disculparon una vez mas por no poder acompanarme en mi visita por la ciudad, pero sus obligaciones se lo impedian. Eso si Alex me llego en si shiguli de 30 anos al cual le fallaba un "poco" el embragre, los frenos, y despedia un denso humo por el escape, pero que consiguio sortear la trampa matinal en que se convierten las calles de Yekateriburgh cuando la gente se dirige a sus puestos de trabajo.
Yekaterinburgh es una ciudad de mas aprox. 1 millon de habitantes, cuya calle principal, para variar se llama Av. Lenina y cuenta con una gran estatua del revolucionario. La ciudad es famosa fundamentalmente por dos cosas, ser la rica capital de los urales y por haber sido el lugar donde los bolcheviques acabaron con el zar, su familia y por tanto con la monarquia rusa. Para conmemorarlo y solo post union sovietica se construllo una iglesia.
La temperatura ya se asemejaba mas a lo que se puede esperar de Rusia en Diciembre (Despues de los decepcionantes 6 grados pasados por agua de Moscu), pero la nieve todavia no hacia acto de presencia.


Tras las visitas de rigor, me hice con comida ya que me esperaba de nuevo un dia entero en el transiberiano camino de Novosibirks. Esta vez me toco una babushka (Abuela) y un dadiuska (Abuelo) que no estaban dispuestos a hablar demasiado y atajaban mis preguntas con afirmaciones y negaciones, probablemente era el primer extranjero que veian. Tras varios intentos me di por vencido, comi algo y a dormir.
Poco mas tarde, tres chavales con pocas ganas de dormir y con muchas de juerga que habian dado cuenta de una botella de vodka, comenzaron con sus canticos, a respetarse mutuamente en voz alta y demas. Uno de ellos sucumbio bajo el vodka, mientras que los otros dos cada vez estaban mas excitados. Y mira tu por donde que uno de ellos me pregunto algo, y al percatarse de que era extranjero, me hice centro de su excitacion. Por lo que me fue imposible rechazar la invitacion a un par de vodkas, a responder un monton de preguntas con poco o ningun sentido, y a escuchar su punto de vista (Y el del vodka) como era vivir en Rusia.
Uno era checheno pero su mujer vivia en Novosibirks y se dirijia a verla y el otro era un ruso medio de unos 30 anos, con una hija que cuidaban sus padres mientras el "se esforzaba" por sacar el permiso de conduccion de locomotoras.
Cuando la conductora del vagon se canso de las voces, y nos llamo la atencion por cuarta vez, yo les convenci para cambiar de sitio e ir entre los vagones donde hay un pequeno habitaculo donde se puede fumar. Al rato querian volver al vagon, pero de nuevo les convenci para tomar una cerveza en el vagon-restaurante, que por desgracia acababa de cerrar. Por lo que fuimos de vagon en vagon intentando convencer a alguna conductora mas permisiva de que nos vendiera una cerveza, y como quien la sigue la consigue aparecieron dos conductoras a las que les gustaba ser aduladas, por lo que ambos utilizandome a mi como pretexto se pasaron 1 hora diciendoles lo guapas que eran y lo buenas que eran. Para mi ya era suficiente y aunque no fue facil al final me permitieron irme.

En Novosibirks me esperaba Johanna una couch surfer alemana con la que habia coincidido en una reunion de CS en Gijon, y que habia estado de profesora en Novosibirks los ultimos tres meses. Y justo la noche que yo iba a pasar en Novosibirks era su ultima noche en Rusia.
Nada mas llegar cogimos un taxi hasta la casa de sus amigas donde habia pasado la ultima semana, y donde yo tambien pasaria la noche. Alli dejamos mis cosas y recogimos a sus 2 I amigas ldiko y Carolin, y sin tiempo para una ducha, acudimos a la presentacion de un festival de cine aleman al que ellas habian sido invitadas, ademas tambien acudimos a la primera pelicula del mismo "krabat"(Entrada de cine mas cara de mi vida por cierto, casi 10 euros). Pero que mas tarde por hazar recupere con creces. Y es que al final de la pelicula, habia un bufet para invitados VIP, con todo tipo de esquiciteces como caviar, salmon, pato y todo ello regado con buen vino y champan... debido a un calenton del alcalde de la ciudad invito al grupo de alemanes con el que yo me encontraba, sin darse cuenta que un espanol mal oliente (Recordemos que mo me habia duchado los ultimos dos dias, ya que en el tren no hay duchas) y hambriento se colaba entre ellos.
Despues un grupo de VIPs junto conlos dos actores principales de la pelicula, decidieron ir de fiesta, llevandose consigo al que creian un trabajador del consulado alemana unos o un consagrado actor espanol que habia trabajado con almodovar otros.

Novosibirks, es la considerada capital de Siberia, titulo que le arrebato a Irkutsk. Cuenta conunos 2'5 millones de habitantes, por lo que se extiende ampliamente por el territorio, no asi su pequeno y poco interesante centro que cuenta con un teatro (Mas grande que el Balshoi de Moscu, dicen) y... buena compania para tomarme un cafe. Y es que para entonces me habia encontrado con las hijas de otra amiga de mi profesora de ruso.

Como agradecimiento a las amigas de Johanna (Para entonces ella se encontraba camino de Alemania), les prepare la tortilla de patata mas rica que existe regada con un vino espanol en cuya etiqueta aparecian la silueta de un toro y una bailaora de flamenco, adquirido a precio de rioja reserva.

Y por fin, ultimo tren antes de mi destino final, eso si, era el trayecto mas largo, un dia y medio con dos noches. Fue ademas el menos interesante de todos porque me toco en el sitio mas incomodo posible, paralelo al pasillo (Mas cortos por lo que no entraba de largo) y al lado de la puerta del servicio que borrachos, fumadores y meones utilizan no menos de 500 veces en una noche (Sobre todo una chica mas bien feona, peliroja y su novio que iba de lado a lado, los cuales pasaron al menos 50 veces en cada direccion), y ademas rodeado de ninos recien llegados de un torneo de Moscu, a los cuales no les atraia en absoluto la idea de escuchar a un estranjero.
Pero la verdad que tampoco necesitaba hablar demasiado esta vez, estaba sumido en una conversacion conmigo mismo en la que trataba de imaginar detalladamente lo que me esperaba.
Por fin, despues de un precioso amanecer siberiano, en el cual los colores rojizos y anaranjados se mezcalaban con el azul del imenso cielo, llegamos a Irkutsk!

Alli me esperaba Natasha, la encargada de mi progrecto, que me condujo primero a mi casa para el siguiente mes y medio (Una residencia para estudiantes), y la oficina.

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Once solved all the problems for getting the viza and delayed more than three months, the 7th of December of 2009 I took the plain at Barajas airport, which after doing a transfer in Rome lead me to Moscow, Russias’s capital. Though we are talking about Russia, the largest country in the world so that I was still 5.200km away to the west from my final destination, Irklutsk.

In the beginning, my idea was to get from Mieres (Asturias) to Irkutsk by land means of transport, mainly by train. However because it would be to long and that was uncompatible with the programme “EVS” I was gonna carry out, we decided to reduce it from Moscow to Irkutsk, using a bit more than have of the worldwide known transsiberian railway, which links Moscow and Vladivostok.

Mainly I had two reasons not to fly directly to Irkutsk, on one hand it has no sense to go over a place to work as environmental scientist, if you don’t lead with the example. Because, the plane is by far more contaminant than the train. And on the other hand I don’t see the point of moving 10.000 km away from your hometown if you don’t see at least a bit about was going on in the middle and also without feeling how progressively people’s behavior changes.


Normally about 4 days are needed to cover this 5.200km by train. But in order to avoid getting bored on board, I decided to stop a day in Yekaterinburgh and other one in Novosibirks. Furthermore I would wider view of what Siberia is. All together it took me 7 days to reach Irkutsk from Moscow.



I had already been in Moscow two years before, and having this time only one day available I decided to walk along the city center over some unknown places, and go back to others I had already been but I liked. The red square, the walk along the river and the streets in the city center, stopping from time to time in order to drink the most expensive coffes in my life, Moscow is not a cheap city at all.


Later on, I met Katia and Ania, the doughthers of a friens of my Russian teacher, who kindly show mw a bit around and host me the night I was going to spend in Moscow.


The 9th of December at 16.00 in the afternoon, Moscow’s time (In Russia there are several time zones, which means that depending on where you are the time may be different from other parts of the country, but not for the train since it always follows Moscow’s time) started the adventure from Yarovslavski station on the way to Yekaterinburgh.



The apparent security of having the possibility of calling to an acquaintance in case of trouble disappeared, or to turn to speak in English. There I was with three women in their 50’s, willing to know things about how life is in Spain and having loads of food and what is more important a bottle of Armenian coniac. Once we all had already eaten, drunk and got the answers we wanted each of us did our own stuff, sleeping, reading, drinking tea from samavar…

Nights on board the train are not as tedious as you may think, every person has a bed with it’s mattress, pillow and sheets. The only thing may disturb is people pushing your feet when passing next to your bed, and that only takes place on the plastkart (It is the cheapest class, on where the compartments are open), but if the traveler requires more privacy there is the possibility of getting a place at the more expensive and less interesting (In my opinion) coupe class.


On my arrival to Yekaterinburgh more than a day after getting into that train, Alex was waiting for me, he was a couch surfer who accepted me to spend overnight at his place. Both Alex or his girlfriend Anna treated me as anf old friend. Anna prepared some food and we had a delicious dinner while we were speaking about Russia, Spain, and other current issues like the war in Chechenia,Kosovo… Topics which could have been conflictive, but we were able to discuss peacefully. Afterwards we spend the night all at the same room, but of course, not in the same bed, it was one of this typical sovietic rooms where the living room and the room are all together.

Already in the morning, they apologized for no being able to show me around, but they had obligations. But Alex was nice enough to take me right to the city center by his Shiguli 30 years old. It didn’t matter if the clutch and brakes weren’t in the best conditions, or the thick smoke from the pipe, he succeed escaping from the traffic trap that the streets became when everyone head to work.


Roughly 1 million people live in Yekaterinburgh, which’s main street is called Ul.Lenina not for being too original, and of course there is a statue of the revolutionary. The city is famous mainly because of two things, It is the reach capital of the Urals and for being the place where bolcheviques killed the tsar, his family and with it the monarchy in Russia. In order to commemorate it a church was built.The temperature was closer to what I expected from Russia in December (After being so disappointed for the wet 6 degree in Moscow), though there wasn’t snow yet.


After visiting the most important highlights that the city may offer, I got some food for the next step on board the transsiberian train on the way to Novosivirks, This time I shared the place with a babushka (Grandma) and a dadiuska (Grandpa) who weren’t willing of talking more than necessary and from whom I just got affirmations and negations. Maybe I was the first foreigner they had ever saw. After some tries I gave up, I ate something and fell asleep.



A bit later, three guys who didn’t feel very much like sleeping but in the mood for parting and after drinking a full bottle of Russian water (vodka), they started to sing quite loudly, to respect each other and so on. One of them surrendered to vodka, while the other two were feeling more and more excited. Eventually one of them asking me something realized that I was foreigner, what made me the center of their excitement. At was impossible by any means to reject their invitation for drinking a couple of vodkas while answering loads of sense or senseless question that they in turns asked me, and also I got to know their (And vodka’s also) point of view about how life is in Russia.One of them was Chechenian and he was heading to Novosivirks to visit his wife and the other an average Russian 30 years old who had a daughter, but his parents where taking care of her while he was struggling to get the license for driving trains.


At some point the wagon’s stewardess got fed up with us, and after some of her complaints and threats I manage to convince them in order to change the place and go to the place between the coaches where it is possible to smoke. After a while they just wanted to go back to the coach but again I could convince them to go instead to the restaurant to drink a beer, which unfortunately was close. They decided to go from coach to coach to try to find a permissive stewardess to get some beers from her, and after a while two of these stewardesses who liked to have three young men around appeared, after that the two Russian guys spent an hour saying how beautiful, intelligent and so on the stewardesses were, but this was too much for me, it wasn’t easy but after that I got to escape back to my seat.



On my arrival to Novosibirks, Johanna a German Couch Surfer who I did met once before in a CS meeting in Asturias and who was living in Novosibirks working as a teacher, was waiting for me at the railway station. And that day was also her last day in Russia. We took a taxi and headed to her friend’s, where we both would spend the night and we picked them up, Idiko and Carolin, and without time even for a shower we jumped back in to the taxi and went to a German film festival presentation. There we also watched the first film that they showed “Krabat” it was by the way the most expensive ticket for a cinema in my life (who the hell said that Russia was cheap?). Though later on I got all the money back, because after the film there was a buffet for VIP’s with all kind of delicatessen like caviar, salmon, duck, good wine and champanscoe… and due to I still don’t know why, the city mayor invited to it the German group which I was with, I guess he didn’t realized that an smelly, hungry Spanish guy was among them (It is goof to remember at this point that I didn’t had a shower last two days, since there are not at the train).


And it didn’t end up there; afterwards one of the real VIP group, which eventually didn’t know we shouldn’t be there and we weren’t as VIP as they were, including the two German actors who played in the film we had just watched, invited us to go to a party. How not to invited important workers at the German consulate in Novosibirks and a young Spanish actor who was acting for Almodovar…


Novosibirks is considered Siberia’s capital, title which snatched from Irkutsk. About 2,5 million people live there. And it is quite spread out along the territory. Though there is a lack of tourist and interesting highlights, since the city center is rather small. The most interesting thing maybe the theater which it is said is the biggest in Russia, even more than the Balshoi theatre in Moscow… and it’s people, at least the once I knew, which again were my Russian teacher’s friends daughters.


I very much appreciate Johanna’s friends (Since by this time she was already back in Germany), so I decided to prepare one of those typical Spanish omelets and also bought some Spanish wine with a bull and a flamenco dancer on the label which cost as much as a good Rioja.



At last I found myself taking the last train before the last destination, though it was the longest one, a day but two nights. And it was the less intereting one also since I got the most uncomfortable place on the train, parallel to the corridor (Shorter than the transversal ones) and right next to the toilet and smoking place, where drunk people and smokers were heading every 30 seconds (Most of the times a red- haired girl and her drunk boyfriend who pushed me no less than 500 times) and also I was surrounded by loads of children who were coming back home from some competition and of course they weren’t attracted at all to talk to a foreigner who was not that easy to understand as their friends.Anyway this time didn’t bother me, because I had the time to think and imagine about my future in Irkutks.


And at the end, after a colorful Siberian sunset we arrived to Irkutsk. There Natasha, my host’s organization coordinator, was waiting for me. After that she took me new place for the next month and a half an my work place for the next year.