Irkoutsk, Siberia
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2007
1
13
46
Trip End
Ongoing
Irkoutsk,
Russia
Friday, October 19, 2007
My dream came true and i finally made it to Siberia :)
I took the train Saturday night from Chyliabinsk and i arrive tuesday morning at Irkutsk.
56 hours train...
In the wagon we were about 60 people and i'll say about 59 from Uzbekistan and Azerbaidjan...the first few minutes i was not sure about this people, but after they start putting all the food on the table and start talking to me, i can tell you i was going to have my best train journey in my life. I rarely met such people before, they really know what hospitality mean, one woman treated like her son and took care about me for all trip, bringing me some grenada, water melons, grappes, wallnuts, figues everything from her garden, and all kind of different food....one guy offer me his watch and a book, i refuse but he told me that i should take it...none of them spoke a word of english or french, and my russian didn't helped :) we didn't speak the same language but they know all about my travelling and i know a lot about their life....most of them, left their country and came for the first or second time in Russia...they went to Chita or Vladivostok to work and earn more money than in their country...they don't want to leave their country, friends, famillies, but they must to, cause the situation is very bad the place where they are borned...one of the first question this woman ask me was "what about your mother and your father, are they missing you?", she was sad for them and especially for my mother, it shows the mentality they have, for them familly is so important and they are so close from each other...
hahaha
the think i like also was that they share everything, they eat in the same plate drink in the same glass...i felt so much their love and sincerity...at the bigining i thought i have to becarefull of my passeport and money, but at the end of the trip, i had 100 % trust on them...the only moment i felt something wrong was of course with my little friends policeman in Kasakhstan. I have only 1 entry visa which mean that if i leave the country i'm not allowed to come back, but the woman who sold me the ticket told me that it was no problem...anyway they ask me for Kazakhstan visa, i say that i was in transit...they didn't speak english, i took my little book for translating, but the only thing he told me was "visa,visa, Kazaksthan, visa, visa, Kazaksthan" and he ask me to go with him, one woman was telling him something to help me but the policeman shout at her...we went near the exit door, they were expecting me to give them money AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!! they really thought they will get money from me....he shows me the signe that i will go to prison, i told them DA!!!! (yes) we go to prison....and i told them "wait", i went to get a paper that Valya gave me...very usefull, it's written that i'm a publisher, working for a new edition of traveling book, with an official stamp of the publishing ministary of Russia...they didn't understand anything on this paper cause it was in english and they understood that i will not give them anything so they give me back my passeport, and could make them a very big smile:))) nobody in the train had Kazhakstan visa and they only ask to me, because i look like big dollar note...one of the man was traveling with his two sons, one was 10 years old and love football so we played on the bed with a little ball he had, tooth brush and mashes to make the goals, we had many penalty sessions, and he kept on winning...all of this trip it was very good experience for me...I have many adresses and phone number in Kazakhstan, and sometimes i will go there:)Fromasia my friend from Kirghistan i've met in Elba festival, gave me a phone number from Nastya in Irkoutsk, i contacted her before taking the train, she was waiting for me at the train station with Irina her flatmate...they missed university to pick me up and took me to their place, beautifull flat in the center of Irkoutsk.
hahaha bis
In the afternoon she came with me to the Mongolian consulate to do my visa, i was a bit worried casue many people told me that i won't be able to make visa here, but without any difficulties she made the visa, he took 3 days and cost 1075 roubles about 30 euros, it was 50 euros when i wanted to do it in France. Today i bought a train ticket for the closest city of the border with Mongolia, and then hitchike to Ulaanbaatar(capital) ...which is about 600 km from the border.I have very good time here with my 2 beautifull hosts, they are very very pretty and also very very friendly, yesterday Nastya introduce me to her friends Igor and Remil, and we had a party in their place with some of their friends, they ae all students, about 19 years old, it reminds me the good old time :)
Russians have many many traditions, and one of them i really appreciate is that when you are a guest, they will do everything for you to make you feel at home and to receive you the best they can, i experienced that in all the places i've been hosted. In all the country i've been traveling till now, i really feel something special for Russia, I really love this country and the people.
Nastya and Irina are studying to be interpretor, they are learning english, spanish and french, so i help them to make their homework, it's along time it didn't happen to me :)
Today i went with Nastya to her spanish lesson, about 15 students in their group, and only 2 guys, 1 of them is the teacher, Humberto from Perou with his tee-shirt of Che Guevara. He is living in Irkoutsk for 20 years, he use to be a doctor but this proffession is really underpaid here in Russia so he decided to teach his native language, i didn't thought i will take a spanish lesson in Siberia.
This week end we planed with Nastya to go camping at the Baikal lake, bu tthe problem is that we don't have any tent :) and here you don't want to go camping without tent in October, it's about -10 degrees at night time in the city and much worst near the lake cause of the wind.
I think it's Orthodox church
We will probably go only for the day on Sunday.So next week i will be in Mongolia, i found some people by couchsurfing, and one of them told me that he will help to organize my horse trip, i want to go about a week, in the Gobi desert...I heard that it was very windy in Mongolia so i hope it will not be too cold.
I am a bit sad about the idea of leaving Russia, but for sure i will be back, probably next summer for the Rainbow festival and to meet all the people i know here:)))
Again i can't put any pictures cause it takes very long time to download :(
I wish you all a great time...and thanks for your messages i receive on the blog and my email inbox...:)
I writte to you later from Mongolia
Peace and Love
