Geting There

Hello! Or in the lingo, Privyet!

I am a 20-something English guy on a 6 month placement with the Great Baikal Trail based around Irkutsk, Siberia. I lived in Moscow for two academic years some time ago and have longed to return to do something a bit different.

This blog will be random updates, musings, photo's and such like when I get the chance.

Seems sensible to start with getting here. Given that my stipend comes via eco-friendly streams, planes were a no-no, meaning a two-and-a-bit-knee-jolting day coach journey from London to Riga. The highlight was taking a boat from Dover to Dunkirk allowing me, in classic fashion, to wave goodbye to the White Cliffs, glowing red through the mist.

A day in Riga allowing an 'alternative' tour of the city preceeded an overnight train to Moscow with interesting companions. Taking an 'Obshche' wagon, it essentially meant sleep where you can, if you can, but the conversation and the excitement of crossing the border canclled out any discomfort.

A night with fantastic friends in Moscow, who not only helped me get the ticket to Irkutsk but fed, watered, and helped me out after HSBC froze my card, preceeded four nights on the train.

I won't bore you with the details of Russian trains, given the acres of coverage you can find elsewhere, suffice to say all the smells and sounds came flooding back - the swaying of the carriage, the endless tea drinking, the clunk-click of the wheels, the stuffy heat of the carriage.

As the train continued deeper in Siberia the smell of smoked fish, bought from platforms en-route became more common, along with the smell of 40+ people with no access to a shower. Conversations were stilted, as people ran out of topics. The 'provodnitsa', who looks after the carriage, kept an eye on events, scolding passengers who got out of line. Most memorably I had the pleasure of meeting Nikolai Nikolaevich (sitting on the left), a geophysist from Novosibirsk. As calm as it is possible for a man to be, he patiently went through various topics including his travels (extensive), his family (scattered) and the nature of the earth's magnetic field (complicated).

Several thousand miles and 8 timezones later I was glad to roll into Irkutsk at the un-Godly hour of 3.30am, to be met by a beaming Sveta from the Great Baikal Trail, who looked and smelt far fresher than me.