I bet you thought it was always cold in Siberia. Yep, so did I. And, a tiny confession here, I thought it was always snowy. But we’ve just spent the day wandering around Irkutsk wearing shorts, singlets and sandals, and the forecast for the next few days is Fine, with top temps of 27 – 29C. It’s late summer here, even though it’s only the middle of August. Trees are starting to change colour, flowers are going to seed and the local produce market is full of vegetables I associate with autumn at home – tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini. It’s a short summer, and a very, very long, hard winter. Food preserving is a big thing here. The market had quite a few little stalls that were selling jar lids, setting agent and other bits ‘n’ pieces.
So, we’ve spent 2 nights in Irkutsk, staying in an apartment attached to the Irkutsk Hostel. We’re going to Lake Baikal today and will spend a couple of nights in a cabin at the Derevenka Family Hotel at Listvyanka, then on Thursday we’re going on the Circum-Baikal Railway, which is a day trip that goes around part of the shoreline of the lake, along the old Trans-Siberian route. We’ll be back in Irkutsk on Thursday night, at the Irkutsk Hostel again, and get back on the Trans-Siberian train on Saturday night.
See you in a few days!
Judy coping with the Siberian weather at the market in Irkutsk
What about MOZZIES I recall a tv show of a certain tribe rounding up rain-deers in the part of the world you are in now and the M where driving them mad the Russians are not tiny people so why build small beds I just think its there way of thinking dont do it as it should be done but do it because we think its right I though there was a pipe line bring oil and gas from Siberia to eastern Europe I thought someone blew it up and Europe where short of supplies.
Actually there isn’t many mozzies, or insects. The insects were much worse when we camped in the forests in Sweden and Norway. There is a pipeline that takes oil to the pacific coast, and one that takes oil from western russia to Europe, but I think there are many smaller oilfields not covered by pipelines.
Ron, I’m sure you’re right about ‘don’t do it the right way, just do it how we think it’s done’ – I haven’t yet found a bed sheet in Russia that will actually tuck into a mattress on all 4 sides. They are always too narrow or too short, or both! And there’s this strange thing here where you have to make your own bed in hotels. They hand you the bed linen and leave you to it!