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.

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.