Irkutsk

Irkutsk is a relatively small city near lake Baikal, worlds largest fresh water lake. Every year a lot of tourists come to Irkutsk to see the lake, when I was there, there were a lot of Chinese people (because of some Chinese holiday) and some Thai, Korean and people from Switzerland. When I arrived at the train station and wanted to go to my hostel, I saw on the description of booking.com that I had to take a tram. because the train station was not located at the town. Outside the station there was only a electricity cabel visible and the tracks, where the tram should ride. Luckily when i just walked outside tram started riding again from a spot in front of the station, so I could see where it had stopped. But no actual tram stop, bench or sign or whatever. Just very little sign hanging at the cables with the numbers 2 and 4. SO I just stood there under the little sign and waited. Then a lot of taxi's came to me and asked if I needed a ride. There were so many that I began to doubt if the tram was actually working or stopping at that place. They laughed a lot about me standing under that cable sign and just sad nothing and looked a bit enjoyed or bothered when I said I waited for the tram. There came one man at me asking where I wanted to go, I said with the tram, he asked where and I showed him my hostel, 4 stops he said and he left. So one nice and friendly Rus in between all those taxi drivers. After half an hour the tram finally came and I got in, together with about ten other people, no idea where they had waited. I chose to stay at a very well known, lonely planet recommended backpackers hostel, and this was the right choice. The host was very helpful and friendly and I got a nice bad, a map the next morning, and a good shower. I went the next day to Listvjanka, the first village from Irkutsk which lays at the lake, and where actually all the tourists go to. The village is just a street, apparently, and I walked to the east where a view point laid, ate two very good Omul, salted and smoked fish from the lake, and walked up the view point. Which was a long walk on a little dirt road, and when I arrived at the top, I met a group of Thai people which I had seen before in my hostel, and they where very surprised I went there alone without a guide. I took there some pictures, and I could see very clearly form there all the cracks in the Ice, because yes it was completely frozen. Until sunset I walked around and drunk a shit coffee and went back to Irkutsk where I ate at a very nice (but more classy then I thought) restaurant, recommended by Lonely planet. That night at the hostel I met a guy from Denmark who was 19 too, in my room. We decided to go together to Olkhon Island, which was a big island in the lake with a beautiful famous scenery. Then we talked until very late about some very interesting and philosophical things. It happened to be that he was the type of guy that thinks a lot and then writes a lot down to get his thoughts clear. He was at the end of his stay in Russia and would go back home after olkhon island. he had been 2,5 weeks in Russia, just because he wanted to know more about the country accept its bad image, and he had amazing stories to tell about all the different families and persons he had been to via couch surfing. He really reminded me a bit of the main figure of Into the Wild, but when I told hi about the movie he said he had just watched it a couple of days ago, but was annoyed about the character, because of his unsocial behavior.
The next morning we went to the Olkhon with a mini van and drove for about 7 hours on a very bumpy road, and the last part to the island on a hovercraft (!). On the island we walked to a big and beautiful rock, on the shore of the lake, which was there too completely frozen. near that rock where some spacial poles with colored canvas which meant to fur-full some praying stuff for the special religion the islanders had. The next day, after we arrived, we cycled almost all the day on the ice with two mountain bikes. First we had a little competition about who would fall first, because he told me Denmark was huge cycling country too, and we both represented our country. sadly I fell first, nut that was actually because I worse tires, which he approved to be true. We made a record (actually he made it) by going 18 km/h on the Ice and filled our time with picking up big chunks of ice and throwing them away. Of course I made a (whole) lot of pictures of the landscapes and the ice. Later that night we had a funny meal with some Thai people, hearing stories about their rough times with the trans Mongolian express. The next day I went back too Irkutsk and Ruben (the danish guy) stayed at the island because he still had a lot of time left and Irkutsk was his final destination. In the van back I met a women from Brussels, and it was funny and weird to be ably to speak dutch with somebody after so long time. during that ride i discovered that i only ha two days left before my visa ended so I had to get out of the country very quickly, fortunately i succeeded.
That ride was with a trans Mongolian train. so with Mongolian staff, and In my second class coupe, there only were two Norwegian guys, and a couple from new Zealand. The Norwegian man where grandpas actually, who had traveled a lot for there work with an oil company but never hd done this trans Siberian railway, and the couple (of around 50) had traveled a lot too, but just for the fun. We drank some scotch whiskey in the coupe of the New Zealanders and I heard a lot about the life of one of the grandpas. The next day I was bored as hell, because I had forgot my notebooks in Irkutsk (which was a problem too) and I had not a lot to read with the lonely planet. The grandpa's were nice but not really my type, a bit too much busy with money and the time schedule of the train. The didn't seek a lot of contact too. I learned myself "somewhere over the rainbow" on the ukulele, but then it was just waiting for the train to arrive in Ulan Bator..