Hotel Sergievskaya - Nizhny Novgorod

The hotel options in Nizhny Novgorod are extremely limited. We really only had three hotel choices: one close to the train station, one close to the Kremlin, and one in between. Emily kept asking me which one we should stay in, because they were all similar in price. After some discussion, we decided (I decided), we should stay in the one that was in between the train station and the Kremlin. Emily replied, “Yay! That's the one with the pretty rooms!” The rooms are indeed very pretty.

Pretty.

Online, you see pictures of blue rooms and pink rooms. I thought those were two different rooms. It turns out that the pink room is the bedroom and the blue room is the dining room/sitting room. The room was our most expensive to date by far, 4100 roubles (just over $100), but it was totally worth it. The hotel only has about six rooms, but the service is excellent, and the rooms are well taken care of. The bathroom has a bathtub and heated floors. The hot water takes a while to get going, but stays a nice temperature and never gets to scalding temperatures. The bedroom has down pillows and blankets, and the bed is extremely comfortable. We both said that we got some of the best sleep we've had on the trip. Of course, wi-fi is available throughout the hotel.

Sitting room/dining area.

Bedroom.

In the morning, breakfast was served in our room. Emily got sausages and I got fried eggs. Breakfast included orange juice, tea, yogurt, and a bread basket. It was very good. We highly recommend staying at this hotel if you don't mind spending a little extra. I'm pretty sure it will be one of our favorite hotels from this trip.

Our wonderful breakfast spread. And Emily.

Silent Hill

Nizhny Novgorod was our next stop after Kazan. We took an overnight train, which was full. The train cars were an older model, so they weren't as comfortable, and they were an ugly red color. We had the standard 4 berth compartment, but for the first time, our cabin was full. A younger man and an older man, both from Nizhny Novgorod accompanied us. From what we gathered through sign language and a tiny bit of English, they were in Kazan for business, but weren't traveling together. We tried talking, but usually finished with nervous laughter when no one understood each other. At the end of our trip, the older man pulled out a bottle of vodka, shook my hand, said, “Richard. Vodka.” and handed me the bottle. Russian people are so nice.

The Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod is on top of a very large hill overlooking the Volga River. The view is beautiful, but marred by a factory spewing smoke from its stacks in the distance. The kreml in Nizhny Novgorod is not very touristy, despite the souvenir shops that line the outer wall. The majority of buildings are government buildings with only one small art museum, a cathedral, and an eternal flame monument to heroes of World War II open to tourists. For this reason, we are dubbing it Silent Hill.

My hair looks ridiculous. One of the guards couldn't stop laughing for some reason.

Nizhny Novgorod's train station is far from the city center which is also a Unesco World Heritage site. The tram lines run into the city, but in a completely different way than indicated in our old Lonely Planet guide. We got on the right tram, but got off about a mile and a half from our hotel. We wandered around for a couple minutes. Emily eventually flagged down a nice old lady after allowing a few younger people to pass by. Emily's reasoning was that all old women are helpful and sweet, just like grandma. She pointed us in the right direction and told us through sign language that we should take the tram, because it was too far to walk. We decided to walk anyways, and got there in about 20 minutes.

The hotel was the highlight of our stay. See our review for details. After we checked in, we relaxed for a little while then took off for the pedestrian street. It was a very nice street that was bigger than the one in Kazan. There were definitely more restaurants and bars than in Kazan. We did a little shopping, and Emily decided to buy a pair of more fashionable boots. She looks even more Russian now. We also ate dinner at the CCCP cafe and had dessert at a blini (basically crepes, but Russian) restaurant.

Stalin punching Hitler in the face. Lenin putting the moves on Greta Garbo.

Nizhny Novgorod is fine for a day, maybe two, but not much more than that unless you're staying in the Sergievskaya Hotel, in which case, you may want to just relax there for a week.

Crazy sculpture.

Mikado Hostel - Kazan

Mikado Hostel just moved into a new building, directly across from the old one, a month ago. The interior is brand new, and all the beds and linens seem like they just came out of the box. They are all from Ikea, so they definitely came out of boxes. It is very clean, almost sterile in fact. The staff is very nice, and they all speak English very well. There is a large kitchen that guests can use, but no lounge space that we saw. We never went upstairs, so it may have been up there. There is wifi available, but the signal is a little weak downstairs, where our room was.

The hostel is centrally located, so once you have actually found it, it is easy to get to. Most of the sites are nearby as well. The directions online are not very helpful however, and finding it the first time can be a bit difficult.

They do have a few things to tweak, but I'm sure they will fix them in time. The wallpaper contains fiberglass, which is something you don't think about until your guests all get a rash from touching it. Emily woke up with a small rash on her back from sleeping against the wall. They also need to put bath mats in the shower, because Richard almost fell. They also haven't sorted out the keys. They don't give a key to the front door, which is always locked, and they couldn't find the key to our room. The hostel is very nice, but I would give them a few months to figure things out before staying there again.

The Citadel

Kazan is home to the largest minority population in all of Russia, the Tartars. Because of this, Kazan is the capitol of the Tartarstan Republic. Like the Buryat, the Tartars were part of the great Mongol Empire at one point despite being descendants of the Turkic people. When the Golden Horde moved back toward Mongolia as the empire fell apart, the Tartars stayed. Today, they reside all over Russia, but their population is concentrated in Kazan. The Tartar population is largely Muslim as well, which is why Kazan has a good number of mosques.

Mosque.

The Kremlin is by far the most prominent site in Kazan, and it is the first one we have run into. It is home to the Kul Sharif Mosque and the Annunciation Cathedral. It was deemed a Unesco World Heritage site in 2000. Kremlin in this case is not the polit bureau. A kreml is a citadel or fortress that was built to protect traders from bandits and nomadic raiders. The Central Kremlin, when capitalized, refers to the government, and most of the buildings inside the kreml these days are government related.

The Kazan Kremlin is a very popular tourist site these days, and is the central point in all of Kazan. All the roads in the old city lead to the Kremlin. This includes a nice pedestrian street, Baumana. Here there are various restaurants, bars, cafes, shopping centers, stores, and banks. We ate at a very, very busy and very, very large cafe called “Dom Chai”, or “Tea House”. It was two floors and four rooms of people all eating lunch.

Kazan is also home to Lenin State University. They have a statue of a young Lenin running off to class. The funny thing, is that Lenin never finished his studies; he was expelled for revolutionary activities.

Young Lenin, but still Lenin (again).

Last, but not least, we saw our first McDonald's of the trip. We went 26 days before finally seeing the golden arches. It was really kind of nice not seeing them for so long. It kind of acts as a signal that we are entering the more international/European part of Russia. It also proves that McDonald's is not yet everywhere!

The golden arches.

Meeting Point Hostel - Yekaterinburg

Meeting Point Hostel is conveniently located in relation to the city center, but not so much in relation to the train station. Actually, nothing in Yekaterinburg is conveniently located in relation to the train station.

The hostel is completely dorm-style, but your choices are Meeting Point, another hostel rated at 50% on Trip Adviser, or a selection of hotels that cost $100+/night. We went with Meeting Point despite being a couple on their honeymoon. We were pleasantly surprised. The hostel is clean and Katia, the woman who runs it, is pleasant and full of energy. She eagerly explained to us the best route to see all the city sights in a single day. Linens are provided and towels are free to use, which is a huge plus in a hostel of any kind. There is a kitchen that guests are free to use.

Due to the crazy schedule Russian trains are on some people left at 4:30AM on our first night here, and someone else came in around 4AM, so we didn't sleep all that well, but the hostel isn't to blame for that. It is definitely one of the better places we've stayed in on our journey thus far. If you're single, or just a group of friends traveling together, it's a great place to stay.

Journey to the Past

For those of you who are animated movie buffs (or girls, for that matter), you may recognize the title from the 90s movie, "Anastasia", a cute song-and-dance movie about the last remaining Russian Romanov, Anastasia. Today we got to visit the city where they were presumably murdered, Yekaterinburg.

According to the Lonely Planet Russia guide, they tested the bones of the Romanovs in the 90's - Anastasia's was with them. Turns out it was another daughter who was not accounted for. Sucks for the movie :(

Church of the Blood, where the Romanovs were killed. Monument to the Romanov family.

Anyway, Yekaterinburg is a lovely city with most of it's historical center spread out over many blocks. It's a modern city with trams, trolleys, and buses connecting all corners. There are a plethora of pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, and shopping centers (even a Gucci!). It feels like the first cosmopolitan city we have hit since we left Seoul.

In the center of Yekaterinburg is the City Pond, created by a dam. Around the pond are some nice parks including Lover's Lane and the Keyboard Monument, a walking path, and the Governor's Mansion. And what Russian city would be complete without it's statue of Lenin!

City Pond and Lover's Lane

Keyboard Monument and Lenin

We walked around for 3 hours admiring the sights, architecture, streets, and people before we hit the post office (see previous post). Our favorite church, among a dozen, was the Ascension Church. From the side it was a beautiful sky blue and white, with gold towers. From the front it was old and peeling; obviously it hadn't been restored yet!

Side and front view of Ascension Church

Yekaterinburg is a good city to stop in for a day along the Trans-Siberian. We liked the history behind the city and the sights it had to offer. We also liked how walkable everything is. If you get a chance to visit you'll enjoy yourself.

From Russia, Without Love...

Emily and I decided to mail a few things home today so we could make space in our backpacks. We realized we didn't need some of the clothes we brought, because it isn't nearly as cold as we thought it would be. So, we went to the post office in Yekaterinburg. We didn't think it would be as easy as Korea where they have all forms in Korean and English and they have examples of each in addition to staff that probably speaks at least a little English. We were shocked at how difficult it is to send a package from a Russian post office.

First, we needed a box. There is no line to do so, you just cut in front of everyone, ask for a box, a woman asks how big, you tell her, and poof you have a box. That's easy if you're used to places with no lines and you speak Russian. Doing that as a foreigner who doesn't speak Russian is like climbing Everest. After you finally get a box, you have to figure out which of the six windows you go to. Just getting to that point took us nearly 45 minutes. Luckily, our guidebook told us what "international mail" looked like in Cyrillic. Without that, we would have been lost.

At the window (after waiting in line with more pushy Russians), you give them the box with a customs slip. At this point, you usually only have to fill out one form with your address, a line-item list of what is in the box, and the address you are sending it to. Not in Russia. We only had to fill out three forms to send our box, but people ahead of us had to supply a copy of their passports with six to seven forms, and in one woman's case a green card.

In addition to all of this, the international mail lady only spoke Russian. Luckily, there was a man who spoke German in line who asked, "Sprechen sie Deutsche?" Do you speak German? He had a sort of perplexed look on his face when I said, "Ja, Ich spreche Deutsche ein bichen." Yes, I speak German a little. Out of all people in the entire post office that would speak German, I'm sure the Asian guy was the last on his list. He told me what the postal clerk was saying, how to fill out each form, etc. Despite the frustrating circumstances, we figured it out with a combination of written French and spoken German and sent the package. Whether it will ever arrive is another question...

Trans Sib Hostel - Irkutsk

The Trans Sib Hostel is in an amazing location less than 10 minutes from the train station by foot. That is where our amazement ended. There is currently only one room open, because the hostel is under construction. They, I'm assuming the owner and his friend, are building a shittily constructed wall to separate the two dorm-type rooms from the main reception area. According to some old reviews, this was once an open space. After growing up in a house that was being built, and helping to build parts myself, I can safely say these are more “walls” than real walls. They are insulated with egg holders that have been foam sprayed to keep them together. Very classy. They used what looked like 2x2 studs to hold up the sheet rock that forms the wall itself. I think I could probably step through their wall without much effort. I think privacy curtains would do as much as their walls, but they just don't give that same sense of false security I guess.

Giant key.

The staff was extremely nice and helpful whenever they weren't turning the television up so they could hear it over the pounding of nails that comes with construction. They really should have closed shop for a couple weeks, or really a couple days with that kind of quality, and just reopened when the wall was finished. If the wall had been finished before we got there, I wouldn't be writing about how poorly they put it together, and I would be writing about how awesome their gigantic bathroom is and how comfortable their beds are and how fun it was to have a giant key for the front door.

Water, water everywhere...

and none of it was still. That's what we discovered in Irkutsk. It was nearly impossible to get water that wasn't carbonated. We finally found some at a grocery store, but we were both shocked when we saw it. They even gave us carbonated water on the train to Yekaterinburg. It tasted like sweat.

Aside from that, Irkutsk was a nice, small city. It is home to over 500,000 people, and if I remember correctly, is the largest city in Siberia. It is definitely a city, but it doesn't really feel that big. Most things are centrally located, and you can walk to the big sights from almost any hostel, save the one that is over 4 kilometers from the train station.

The biggest things to see are definitely the churches. They hover near the river, and loom above the surrounding buildings. Every church is beautifully colored and has murals and icons painted on the outside walls. There is also an eternal flame, but Emily and I never found out what it was for. It is behind one of the churches, and just over the hill from a bushy-bearded statue of Tsar Alexander III looking imposing with his sword and musket.

We ate at a restaurant called Pervach one night. We have come in well under our budget, because many of the home stays have offered meals, so we decided to splurge a little bit. The food was excellent, but the portions were a little small, and you had to pay for all sides. The English translations in the menu are pretty funny, and you are never quite positive of what you're getting. I ordered beef in its own juices, which I thought would be a steak of some sort and got a bowl of beef stew. The translation was correct, but not what I was thinking. We also found out that since the tourist season is ending, certain dishes are unavailable, like 4 out of 6 desserts. We were told 'nyet' to both fried ice cream and tiramisu, so we opted for the apple strudel. It was tasty, but I really wanted the ice cream.

It was definitely better than an earlier meal where we tried the old, let's just point at stuff on the menu trick. The first choice was solid, a nice meaty soup with vegetables called solyanka. The next choice was randomly chosen from the salad section and didn't turn out too well. The name literally translates into, "herring in a fur coat." It consists of: shredded beets, diced onions, loads of mayonnaise, all topped off with cubed herring. We thought the herring was potato at first, so we dug in. That was a mistake. Every bite reminded us of what a bad idea it was to just point at the menu.

The next day, we took the tram out to the Volkonsky House Museum. The Irkutsk tram is only 12 rubles per person, which comes out to roughly 34 cents for the Americans or around 350 won for those in Korea. Top that New York MTA. The Volkonsky House Museum was a little pricey, around $6/person, but very fun to look around. The Volkonsky's were Decemberists. I am going to put my history hat on here for a second. Decemberists were people who were opposed to the rule of Tsar Nicholas I, who was the youngest brother of Tsar Alexander I. Nicholas I was set to be crowned Tsar December 26^th, 1825. Prior to his crowning, the Decemberists attempted to stop Nicholas from taking control of Russia, and were stopped by soldiers loyal to Nicholas. Some of the Decemberists were executed, but most were exiled to Siberia. Most of the Decemberists were military officers and aristocrats, so they were quite wealthy. Their wives were responsible for paying their own way to Siberia, which was around $200 in 1825 money. Despite the difficulty in raising the money, they faithfully followed their husbands and brought with them European, mostly French, style and taste that you can still see in Irkutsk architecture today.

This house is a good example.

We took a picture of this, because it was awesome.

After that, we hit the fine art museum. The museum looks a little run down fr om the outside, and you can see just how outdated it is on the inside. The lighting is terrible, and more than a few of the paintings look like they belong enclosed in glass. They are being degraded by sunlight that pours in through the large windows. To be honest, I think we could have skipped it. The portraits were beautiful, and the Chinese and Mongolian art they had in their collection was nice, but I don't know if it is worth the mandatory 200 ruble ( $6) entrance fee.

Before we got on the train, Emily decided we needed to try to find the Nerpa seal aquarium, Akvarium Nerpy. So, we took the tram back across the river toward our hostel and the train station. We got off about where Emily thought we should, and then began walking. This was our discussion:

She said, “Ok, it's 300 meters that way. How far is 300 meters?”

I said, “A little more than three football fields.”

“Well, I know, but I can't visualize that.”

“Ok, think about one football field. Now triple it.”

“Uh, ok.”

Following that exchange, we walked. We walked about 300 meters and then decided we had no clue where this place was. After trying to figure out where it was supposed to be on the map (the map ends and then has an arrow pointing straight off the page with a caption that says, 'Nerpy Aquarium 300 meters'), we decided to head back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, Emily decided to look online to see where exactly the aquarium was. Of course, she decides to do this AFTER we already tried to find it. I called it, we walked right past it and had no idea it was there.

We got a few supplies at the store, went to the train station to get our tickets, ate dinner, and then got on our 30-hour first-class train ride to Yekaterinburg.

The pretty much empty dining car. Our train was the #1, so it had a name, the Rossiya.

(Yet another) Olga's Baikal Guesthouse – Listvyanka

Despite the difficulty we had in finding this place (see entry "A Fish Called Omul" about Listvyanka), it turned out ok.

Olga, of course Olga, runs a nice little homestay in Listvyanka. It's about 15 minutes from the center of the village, but right down the street from the shore line. She has two twin rooms that are available for visitors. It's very clean and the bathroom has heated floors. She will give you endless coffee and tea, and cooks a pretty good breakfast. She also served us some apple preserves that were amazing.

In her house there is a cat and he loves hanging around visitors. He even jumped into Richard's bed during the night. She has no internet. In all, it was a fine stay although it took a while to find it. If you want to stay closer to the bus station and the Mayak Hotel, the only bastion of internet service, don't stay here.

Admiral Hostel - Irkutsk

Admiral Hostel is run by a husband and wife. Guess what the wife's name is. Olga. We have stayed in four hostels or home stays thus far, and we have run into five Olgas. We met one on the train from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk. The other three were home stays, and now one more at Admiral Hostel. I have wondered out loud to Emily if Russians are just trying to live up to the stereotype at this point.

Admiral Hostel itself is clean and has great wifi, which we have found isn't that common in Russia. Both the husband and wife speak English very well, and they are very helpful. They leave you alone unless you have a question, which is nice, but they come off a little cold as a result. They don't offer any sort of breakfast, but you can use their kitchen. Something that struck me as a little odd is that they give you two sheets and a blanket to put on a bed that already has linens on it. It seemed like they were trying to keep the cost of doing laundry down by just having to clean sheets.

Despite all of that, the hostel is in a very convenient location. There is a trolley stop less than five minutes away where you can catch a trolley to the bus station or the train station. They are close to the Marriott, so if your taxi driver doesn't know where the hostel is, he can at least drop you off there. Their Olkhon Island tour is priced well. Of all the people we met, we paid the least by about $10. They will also store your bags for free for a couple days if you are out on a tour. I can think of more good things about the hostel than bad, but it likely won't be one of my favorites of our trip.

A Fish Called Omul

The day after we returned from Olkhon Island, we boarded a bus bound for the small village of Listvyanka on the western shore of Lake Baikal. This time it was only an hour ride. We got off right where the harbor is, but since it's low season all of the boats were docked.

Because we had our heavy bags with us, we decided to find the home stay first. It was supposed to be near a fairly well-known cafe, or so we thought. We asked one man where the street was, and he sent us in the wrong direction. Then we asked someone else and they didn't know the name of the street or the cafe near the home stay. Then we asked a lady in a market and she said it was far far away (ugh). Then we asked a girl working at a cafe, and she pointed at herself and said, “Irkutsk.” Which meant that she had no idea where anything in town was. Then we asked at the main hotel in the town and she said it was just down the street (no it wasn't). She also had no idea where the cafe was. Finally, we found someone who knew exactly where the cafe near the hostel was, but didn't know exactly where the street was, and she said keep walking for 15 minutes. So after about an hour of wandering the one main street that lines the shore, we found Olga's Baikal Guesthouse (see review).

We were treated to a nice hot cup of tea, relaxed for a little, and headed out to actually explore. Listvyanka is mainly one long main road that goes along the lake, with smaller roads that head up into the mountains. All the houses are traditional wood buildings with beautiful carvings along the window sills and door frames. The weather was windy and cold, so it was a little dreary. The lake comes right up to the town, so the view is incredible. It seems like a tourist town during the summer, but in October most stalls and information centers are closed.

The dark one is actually Russian vodka. It tastes like whisky. The clear one tastes like what Americans think of as vodka. Not nearly as good.

First, we did what anyone visiting Russia should do; we ate some caviar and drank some vodka! It was fantastic. Then we walked along the road some more and discovered Omul, the traditional smoked fish that Baikal is known for. We bought a small fish, went to a cafe, bought a beer and some fried rice, and chowed down. The lady who we bought the fish from at first showed us a very large, arm-length fish. We said, no no small fish, and pointed to one in her smoker. She looked at us and said, “Ok 2!” “No, just one.” “One? Two people!” “Yes, just one.” “...ok.” We discovered later that we should have taken two, because the fish was delicious.

That is the little smoked fish that left us wanting more.

We shopped around the souvenir stalls, bought some nice things. Richard even found a wedding ring for himself. Then we headed to a cafe for dinner. After some good old meat dumplings, we went back to the guesthouse for the night.

Lake Baikal jade.

The next morning, we were treated to a fantastic breakfast and got on a bus back to Irkutsk.

Land O'Lake

Olkhon Island is the largest island on Lake Baikal. It is home to approximately 1500 people. To get to the island, you can take a ferry whenever the lake isn't frozen, you can drive on the ice when the lake is frozen over, and when the ice starts to melt in early spring, you can only reach the island by plane. It is a 5 hour drive from Irkutsk.

Most of the hostels and home stays are in the largest village, Khushir. From Khushir, you can book tours or rent bikes. We chose to just walk around the first afternoon and rent bikes the second day. Our third day we took a bus back to Irkutsk.

Emily fell just short of getting to the top (insert height joke here).

The island is beautiful, as you can see in our photos, and we could imagine spending an entire summer there in the future. The bike ride was fun, even though Emily got quite tired. We were going to try to bike to a small lake that is mineral rich, and will turn your skin red if you stay in too long. We discovered very quickly however, that the lake was behind two sets of hills. The first set went up about 1000 meters, and the second we never really got to. The first hill got steep enough for Emily to give up on the ride and just walk the bike up (she claims it was faster to walk the bike than to ride it, although she couldn't go much slower haha). The view was amazing, but we decided that it would be better to just continue up the road rather than attempt the second hill.

Beautiful view less than 15 minutes from our home stay.

The priest at the church played those bells for a few minutes. He also speaks pretty much fluent French and English. The next picture is the sunset from the very same church. We found out the stay is free as long as you do some labor.

We went to a cove that had what appeared to be a man-made sandbar that would create a small lake during low-tide. We took a break there and drank some of the lake water. That's something we discovered about Lake Baikal on the bus ride to Olkhon Island; you can drink the water. The lake takes up an area greater than all five Great Lakes combined, and someone told us that it is around 1000 meters deep. That's nearly 4000 feet. It's also longer than the country of Austria. And to top it off, the lake gets so cold in the winter it freezes over enough for someone to drive on.

Steamed Omul (it may not look pretty, but it is delicious), and Emily drinking from Lake Baikal.

After the bike ride, we went back to Olga's for dinner. A fter dinner, we got to do a Russian banya, which is basically a dry sauna followed by a cold bath. It was the perfect end to our first Lake Baikal excursion.

Olga's House - Olkhon Island

Olga's House (yes another Olga) is in the largest town on Olkhon Island, Khushir. Olkhon Island only has 1500 residents, so I use the word town loosely. We saw Olga a grand total of three times, when we got there, when other guests arrived, and finally when we left. Her daughter did all the cooking, and was quite the cook. All meals were great, and we even got the fish dish that Lake Baikal is famous for, ohmul. The homestay is very small, only three rooms, but the place was very clean, and Olga's daughter, we never got her name, was very friendly.

From Russia, With Love

The train from UlanBaatar to Ulan Ude takes approximately 24 hours. You spend around 11 of those in customs or waiting for them. The train ride itself is pretty pleasant though. We started at 9PM, so we met our neighbors and then were asleep about an hour later. When we woke up in the morning, we were sitting in a station on the Mongolian side, where we sat, and sat, and sat for about 4 hours total (most of the time our car sat without an engine...just the car).

This is the car we called home for 24 hours. This is what a normal engine looks like.

Soon after we woke up, we were joined by two Russian women with 4 or 5 extremely large bags full of cashmere products. The had extra papers, so I can only assume that they were importing goods into Russia, because they were with 4 or 5 other people who had a similar amount of baggage. When we finally got going, we were treated to views of mountains, rivers, and forests for a while. Then we hit Mongolian customs less than a half hour later. They came on the train, grabbed our passports, had a laugh at my (Richard's) last name, and eventually gave them back after an hour. Then we waited more.

If you order tea or coffee, you rent one of these with a glass. Emily in our cabin.

Finally, we crossed into Russia where the gers turn into houses and the people turn white. Guess what happened next...We were met by Russian customs and waited more. A customs official took our passports, looked us over, laughed at my last name (again...), and then went off to do whatever with our passports. When the officials finally came back about 2 hours later, they talked to the two women and kicked them off the train. They had to take their bags in to be inspected and weighed. A couple hours later, they came back, grabbed their personal bags, and we never saw them again.

Then we were off to Ulan Ude! It only took another seven hours to arrive. The whole time we chatted and played cards with a Frenchie and a Brit who were heading to Irkutsk. I got my ass handed to me in Hearts, which I learned on the go. We arrived in Ulan Ude around 11PM, and went straight to Olga's Homestay (see our review for a description). The next day, we walked around the city, which is small, but quite nice.

Food.

Ulan Ude's main attraction is the world's largest head statue. Of course, it is of Lenin. We are in Russia after all. There is also a beautiful shopping district, and an imposing cathedral. We aren't sure if it is Eastern Orthodox, but that's our best guess. The buildings in Ulan Ude look very new, or at least they have new paint. They are quite colorful. Around 4PM, we jumped on another train to Irkusk.

Lenin's monstrous head.

The cathedral. (Anyone got a name?)

The shopping street.

This time, there were no long stops along the way, and we were joined by a Russian babushka (grandmother) who spoke a little English, but was extremely friendly and outgoing. Completely the opposite of what we had come to expect from Russian people. We spent the next seven hours chatting and using sign language to talk about various topics such as: Putin, Putin's hobbies, Putin driving a tank (complete with illustrations), our lives, and our families. We arrived in Irkutsk at 11PM, got a cab to our hostel, and now it is time to say goodnight!

That is a 1 liter CAN of beer that apparently is only for women, because it weighs in at a dainty 4.8% alcohol, which is quite low in Russia. We had 8.2% beer the night before.

Richard in our much older train cabin on the way to Irkutsk.