russia: severobaikalsk

When I planned this trip I knew I wanted to see as much of Lake Baikal as possible, from different viewpoints. It made sense to visit Severobaikalsk, which is at the northern end of the lake, but is not listed on tourist web pages.

Severobaikalsk has around 25,000 people, it's not big. I didn't see any Lenin statues, which says something as well. (It's entirely possible I missed the man, if he was somewhere in the city park, but he was not marked on a map, not even by Yandex.)

Severobaikalsk is not close to anywhere. If you want to, it's a 76 hour drive, covering 5500 kilometers from Moscow. Or if you start out at Irkutsk, it is still 800 kilometers, with 12 hours of driving time. I assume these times are assuming good driving conditions, so it would probably take longer in reality.

Severobaikalsk was founded in 1974, so it's a really new city, which explains the monotonous look of everything. The location was picked so it could be a support base for the building of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) train line.

I doubt I'll ever ride the 'traditional' Trans Siberian railway, since I've seen cities all along the route and I'm not keen to ride the train just to say I did. That being said, I'd consider riding the rest of the length of the BAM, because it goes through a different part of the country, with different landscapes to see.

My train from Irkutsk was 38 hours. It arrived at 0950 or so in Severobaikalsk, a couple minutes late. Though it was just a couple minutes, that's not the norm for the Russian train system, no matter how long the train had been going.

The train station is unique, to say the least. Apparently it is supposed to look like a boat, but I don't see that at all. To me it just looks 'modern.' The guidebook only lists three sights in the city, the train station is one of them, and it didn't have a good ceiling!

The walk to my accomodation didn't take long, only 10 minutes or so. During that ten minutes I realized Severobaikalsk is boring. Really really boring. Given what I know of the history and founding of the city, that makes sense. It was purpose built, and still serves the same general capacity.

Checking into my hostel was challenging as the lady behind the desk didn't want to look at her computer to check me in. Maybe the computer wasn't linked to any sort of system, but it was frustrating to try to say yes, I have a reservation, I made it three weeks ago.

Eventually I got into my bed, which was in a female dorm. I ended up having the whole room to myself, which was nice. I discovered the floors were heated, so guess who laid on the floor for a while, just because it felt good.

Eventually I got back out the door to start exploring what little there is to see in Severobaikalsk. 

I wanted to find a memorial to 35 years of the BAM railroad, but I couldn't find it. Oh well. When I tried to find it on the map I ended up finding a Buddhist temple instead.

The outside of the temple wasn't very interesting, but there were prayer flags and wheels all over. The inside was as colourful and faith filled as I've come to expect from a Buddhist temple. There was a small Buddha on the front wall of the temple, as well as benches and cushions to use in prayer.

Almost directly across the street from the Buddhist temple was a small Orthodox church.

Well, I can't say the size for sure, as it was behind locked wooden walls. The domes looked nice though, from what I could see.

My next stop was a church I could actually enter. The church of Kazan, or something along those lines. The outside of the church was white, with gold crosses on top. The inside was white as well, except for the chandeliers and iconostasis.

From there it was a 30 minute walk or so to my last official sight of the day: the BAM history museum. There was also an art gallery to look through. Both of them were only one room, and both had an entrance fee and a photo fee. REALLY? Argh. 

Neither was all that impressive, though I was able to buy postcards, which was awesome.

From there I walked across the pedestrian bridge over the train station and tracks, and followed the path down to the lakeshore. I'm pretty sure there is a beach there in summer, but this was most definitely NOT summer. There were a couple picnic table like things, with 'umbrellas' over them, but they didn't very inviting while covered in snow and icicles.

I walked a bit, then turned around and came back. Like my first day around Olkhon Island, the sky was white, so there wasn't much of a different between the sky and frozen lake. 

I wanted to go further, but knowing my sense of direction, I wouldn't have made it back to town as intended.

I walked back toward my hostel, stopping at a supermarket along the way. Traveling by myself makes dinner a lot cheaper :)

The original plan for the next day was to go to a small town called Nizhneangarsk for a day trip, but I couldn't figure out the transportation for that to happen. Oh well. Instead I took my sweet time getting out of bed, playing around online, organizing photos a little, and eating breakfast before packing up and checking out.

Since there was nothing left in town for me to see, I walked toward the lake front again, following a path through trees up on the hill. It was a quiet walk, a nice one. There were clear paths, so I know I wasn't the only one who had wandered around over the past days. The walk wasn't that long though, partly because it was snowing the entire time.

At that point I went back to the city center, found a cafe, and spent the next few hours there. Then I picked up my pack from the hostel, went to another cafe, and spent a couple more hours there. Finally I spent the last two hours before train departure at the train station.

I doubt I'll be back to Severobaikalsk, though I wouldn't mind seeing some of the hot springs in the area. 

russia: olkhon island

Last year at in March, at the beginning of my spring break, the girls and I went to Listvyanka so we could see a frozen Lake Baikal. It turned out to be one of my most favourite places I've ever been. Even though we didn't spend more than a few hours on the ice, it stuck with me, and I wanted to go back.

We did go back, about two months later. We visited the other side of the lake, from a small town called Babushkin. Though it was nearly mid May, we expected the lake to be ice free, it most certainly was not. Just walking along the beach on the lake was awesome, and again, I knew I wanted to come back.

When I planned my spring break this year, going back to the lake seemed obvious (to me.) Lake Baikal is so big that there are a number of places people go to see it, and experience its natural beauty. One of those places is Olkhon Island.

Wikipedia doesn't tell me when the island was first settled, but it does say there is a long history of habitation, and the first people there were the Kurykans, who were forefathers of two current ethnic groups, the Buryats and the Yakuts. Ethnic Russians didn't arrive until the 17^th century. From what I could see, the island is currently a mix of Buryats and Russians.

Olkhon Island is currently much more reliant on tourism than it ever was in the past. People come in droves, though the numbers have come down somewhat since the start of the COVID 19 epidemic. With the rise in tourism, transportation has also increased, which made it feasible for me as a single tourist.

My flight from Moscow landed at Irkutsk International Airport 45 minutes early, woo hoo! Since I was flying one of the super budget airlines (which only allow a small personal bag as carry on,) I had had to check a bag, which I had to wait another 20 minutes to get. 

From there it was easy to find the bus stop out front and get into the city.

Since the girls and I had only spent a day in Irkutsk last year it didn't seem very familiar, I was glad I had my phone to use for directions. It was easy enough to find the spot for Olkhon Express, a shuttle service to the island. I bought my ticket, then had to wait about 45 minutes for departure. I used that time to stock up on baked goods and drinks from a nearby bakery and supermarket.

The drive to Olkhon Island seemed like it took foreva, partly because there was a lunch stop, and I always hate those.

The last hour, after we were actually on the island, felt even longer. It's just short of 300 kilometers from Irkutsk to Khuzhir, but the roads once you're on the island aren't exactly full on roads. Since this was winter, the sand is pretty stable and solid, I imagine it's not much fun in summer. Even so, the bus wobbles all over the place, it's not a smooth ride. Surprisingly, I didn't get sick, but two kids on my bus did.

One of the nice things about the bus service is that it drops you at your accomodation. It was 1545 when I arrived, and my landlady checked me in straightaway. I could see that wifi wasn't very good, but the heater was, and the duvet on my bed was nice. (The heater in our room last year was insufficient, so this was pretty important to me this time around.)

I chatted with the landlady about my plans for my visit, and learned that while there is one sight closeby, pretty much everything else is visited by tour. 

Normally I hate tours, but I wanted to see places that weren't going to happen by walking. I'm guessing nearly everyone on the island provides these same tours, but I'm glad she dealt with the logistics of signing me up.

After relaxing for a few minutes, I went out walking. The big sight of Khuzhir was only a 10-15 minute walk from my room: called Shaman Rock.

As you're approaching Shaman Rock you're treated to views of the lake, which are amazing.

It was mostly snowcovered, so I didn't get to see the 'clean' ice I really wanted, but it wasn't as if I was in control of the weather. Along the way I saw a tree wrapped in prayer flags and ribbons, as well as a row of totem poles wrapped in flags and ribbons. I don't know how often someone adds a ribbon or flag, or how often prayers are specifically made in this spot.

Continuing on I figured out how to get down to the lake. Even though I knew it was solid ice, there was still a moment of combined trepidation and glee as I took my first step out on the 'water.' Nature is amazing.

I walked all the way around Shaman Rock, taking photos the whole time. The weather as winter comes is different each year (duh,) so the ice formations on the rocks are different too. I loved seeing how it was all built up in different places. I didn't see any caves there, but it was still gorgeous.

I did see the start of sunset, which is amazing. I can see where the iconic photos come from, they happen when there is clean ice around Shaman Rock, during sunset. 

I didn't see the clean ice, but sunset still made the rock look fantastic.

From there I hiked my way back up to my room. Even though I hadn't actually done that much exploring, the full day of travel combined with a serious lack of sleep had me zonked out. Fortunately, that made getting on the right time zone pretty easy.

The next morning my tour picked me up right on time, at 10. There were seven other people, three groups I think. I think nearly every tour on the island is the same, and the guides know that people are there to take photos more than learn. (Sad, but true.) 

Our driver took us down to the ice and whizzed along, I think we were going 90km/hr most of the time.

He knew the ice though, quite well. A number of times he slowed down way before I could see anything coming, and soon enough we'd go over a bump or around something. Sometimes we continued slowly for a while, driving over ridges and such. As the lake freezes it is smooth in some places, but definitely not over the whole thing.

This is what we did for the rest of the tour: arrive at a spot, get a quick bit of info, then a time as to when we needed to be back on the bus. I call it a bus, but it isn't in the American sense of the word. Think of a Soviet style high riding van. Pretty much every tour has this same van, so you have to check the license plate of the one you're in to keep track.

We stopped at a number of different spots where ice had formed around the western side of the island, all the way to the northern tip. Some places were bigger, some were not. In some places the icicles almost pointed out. In some places I found small ice caves, those were what I loved most.

I was sad to see that some people hadn't respected nature, inside some of those caves I found poop and toilet paper. From dogs or humans, I don't know.

As expected, some people seemed more concerned with taking photos than with appreciating what they were seeing. Why is it so hard for people to behave nicely? 

There are even signs in a few places, reminding you to behave, and as they say, keep the ice nice for other visitors.

My favourite spot was a small cave where you could see the blue colour of the ice the best.

As the day went on, clouds and snow came in, making for a different experience. The clouds were slightly dark, and made for flat white light, which is awful in terms of being able to see anything. Meaning, at times it was hard to distinguish the horizon and divide the lake from the sky. 

At times we almost couldn't see the ice sculptures that had been made from big slabs of ice carved out of the lake. Too bad, but that's nature, you can't control her.

The tour included lunch, which was fish soup. Despite it being a common food in Russia, I don't think I'd ever had it. The guide cooks the soup while tourists are taking photos, then you come back to a hot meal. Simple and good.

At some point we turned around and stopped at a couple more places, one of which looked like frozen waves. 

I imagine a boat had come through just as the water was freezing, throwing up some pretty big slabs of ice. Fun to climb around, and since it was in the middle of the lake, it gave a better idea of how small humans are in the grand scheme of things.

I got back to my room around 1600, and warmed up for a bit. The van had been warm, but obviously the ice, snow, and wind were not.

My landlady had told me about a set of ice sculptures not too far away, so I went to check those out. I've found that ice sculptures are best seen after dark if they are lit up, and these were. 

Getting to the spot wasn't as easy as I'd hoped, since I hadn't brought a head torch with me, whoops.

The sculptures were far more intricate than anything else I'd seen around Russia. A human heart, a mermaid in waves, etc... There weren't too many, but I loved them. I don't know how late the lights stay on, but I was the only one there at the time, and it was only 2030.

The next morning I was picked up by another tour. I wasn't exactly sure where it would take me, but I figured it would be much like the day before, and it was.

We started by visiting one of the smaller islands in the lake. Even though the island was smaller than Olkhon, there were still plenty of ice caves and sculptures to see. It was a perfectly sunny day, which was amazing compared to the day before. It also made it really clear how much direct sun factors in to the temperature you feel.

When I stood in the direct sun, I could strip down to my t-shirt and pants and be okay. Cold, yes, but ok. When I was in the shade my fingers started to freeze up rather quickly. During this tour and the day before my fingers got cold a lot, then warmed up in the van, got cold again while taking photos and climbing on ice, then warmed up again.

We drove again and at the next stop could see a stupa on top of the island. The driver gave us a time, and we all started hiking up. The hike wasn't long, but I kept stopping to take in the views all around, which were lovely. I know my photos didn't capture how I felt about what I could see.

On the side of this island were a lot of memorials, I don't know from who, and for who. Rocks piled on each other, like cairns. Some were smaller, some a little bigger, nothing massive.

At the top of the island I was happy to see people circling the stupa in the correct direction (clockwise.) and not climbing on it.

I'm pretty sure that I went past the time limit the guide had given us for this bit, but no one seemed to mind, at least not that I could tell. The driver took us to our next stop, and again gave us a time, and said we'd have lunch after this. He drove the van a little bit away and started making the soup.

He cut up the tomatoes, fish, and potatoes, then started a fire, boiled the water, and cooked the whole thing.

Meanwhile we took more photos of ice and rocks. I'm pretty sure that anyone looking at this post will be tired of ice, snow, and rocks.

Lunch was good, I ended up having two bowls of soup. After lunch we had a couple more sights, just like the day before. One of them was an area with a lot more ice. Beautiful. Then we dropped off all the other people in the tour group. They had booked the tour but said they needed to get back to Irkutsk for the evening, so they missed the end.

I got the last sight all to myself for a good thirty minutes. I mean all to myself, there were no other groups there yet. We drove on the island, up to a 'mountain' top, from which the view of the lake was amazing. I loved the silence more than anything, and the chance to climb around and look at everything.

I was sad to go back to my room, but the tour was quite good and I was glad I had done both of them. I would gladly do both of them again.

The next morning the shuttle picked me up a little before ten, and I arrived back in Irkutsk at 1530.

russia: kaliningrad again

I used most of the three day weekend to see places in Kaliningrad Oblast, but I also realized there was still plenty to be seen in the city of Kaliningrad itself. Even though I only spent one of my three days in the city, it was the perfect base for the entire weekend, as there is plenty of public transport to get around the entire oblast.

On day three I got up, packed up, and checked out, leaving my bag at my hostel. The day before, when I'd walked to the train station in the morning I noticed a pretty view over one side of the bridge and vowed to take the photo the next morning, day 3. 

So that's what I did. The view of several museums from the bridge was pretty. Then again, I'm almost always a fan of photos that have water in them.

The first sight I wanted to see was a Lenin statue marked on Yandex maps, but after hunting around for it, I realized it was in a walled in courtyard behind a building that was most definitely not open to random visitors. Darnit.

Next up was a museum. The walk to the museum was supposed to be around thirty minutes, but of course it was longer with me, since I stopped to take random photos and follow random side streets a few times.

The Friedland Gate Museum is located just where its name says it is: in the former Friedland Gate of the city. (Remember that Konigsberg was a walled city when it was part of East Prussia.) I was thrilled because the employees made it clear that I could take as many photos as I wanted, and I didn't have to pay an extra fee to do so. At one point I was even able to set up my tripod and take a photo with me inside the museum! That's not normal, but I loved it. I wish more museums were like this. 

One of the rooms in the museum had regularly scheduled showings of slideshows with pictures of life when the city was still called Konigsberg. I showed up for one of the showings, and realized that nearly every other person in the room was an army soldier. A couple of them fell asleep during the slideshow, hee hee.

After leaving the museum I followed streets that allowed me to see the remains of some of the old city walls. They're falling apart in most areas, but are really photogenic at the same time. (As long as you don't fall into any of the bodies of water nearby.)

I found a war memorial, an obelisk with carvings of Lenin on a couple sides. I always find this fascinating, since Stalin was in charge during WW2, and he most definitely did not like Lenin. Not too far from this obelisk was the Soviet-Polish Friendship monument. Nothing terribly exciting, I was the only person looking at it while I was there.

On the side of living city photography I found a sports court that was vibrantly coloured. I imagine it gets quite busy with kids playing football (soccer,) and/or basketball. 

The juxtaposition of the brightly coloured court next to a gray apartment building was pretty cool.

Next I stumbled upon what I thought was a church. I was wrong, it was actually a concert hall. I was able to wander around a little, and see the area where concerts take place, which was quite nice. The stained glass windows from when it was a church were still there, including in the toilet!!! I don't think I've ever seen such a fancy feeling loo. 

I walked a bit more to get to my next sight: the Brandenburg Gate. Traffic still enters and leaves the city center through this gate. One side of the gate was home to a free, small Marzipan Museum. There were a few marzipan molds, as well as instruments used to carve the stuff. There were some books too, though I don't know if those were about specific people, or the history of marzipan, or something else. My favourites were models of a few important sights in town. I don't like the taste of marzipan at all, but I appreciate the artistry that can be done with it.

Next up was another long-ish walk. I followed one road nearly the entire way, it was a main road on one side of the city, there wasn't much to see. I finally got to the street I really wanted, which is where the former Fort Friedrichsburg is located. The former fort is now a museum; it was a Monday, and a holiday, so it was closed. Darnit.

The fort was really close to the river that flows through the middle of the city, it was easy to cross the river and get to the museum area I mentioned earlier. As the weather was fabulous, and it was a holiday, there were plenty of other people out for a walk along with me.

There are several ships docked on the river, they are now museums. I chose not to go in any of them, partly because I didn't want to pay entrance fees, but also because the weather was nice and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. The next time I go back to Kaliningrad I'll go in at least one of these museums.

From there it was an easy walk back to the hostel. Along the way I passed a giant mosaic on the side of a building, showing the sports culture of the Soviet days. I also stopped in the supermarket to pick up noodles to eat before heading to the airport.

I ate 'dinner' at the hostel, then walked back to the train station. This was the third or fourth time I'd walked to the train station, I didn't have to pull my phone out to check directions at all. The bus station is next to the train station, it was easy to find the bus stop to catch the next bus to the airport. The price was less than $2USD, woo hoo!

Checking in at the airport was easy, the flight was on time, and I got back to my flat in Moscow a little after midnight :)

I'm pretty sure I'll go back to Kaliningrad at least one more time.

russia: chernyakhovsk

Chernyakhovsk ended up on my list of places to go because I saw a picture of it on social media. Since I'd been to Kaliningrad (city) previously, I was happy to have a day trip to another city in the oblast.

Chernyakhovsk used to be called Insterburg, when it was part of Prussia. Like the rest of the oblast, the city name changed in 1946, when it became part of the Soviet Union. As of 2017 the city had a population of a little over 35,000. Chernyakhovsk is named after Ivan Chernyakhovsky, a WW2 army general who led the group that first entered East Prussia in 1944.

Insterburg (the city,) was founded in 1336, on the sight of a former Prussian fort. Like everyplace else in what is now western Russia, this area has had a lot of fighting throughout history, and has been part of a number of different empires; these include Prussia, Germany, and the Soviet Union. Though I don't think Poland was ever in control, there were Polish troops there a few times, as well as a secret Polish arms trafficking group at one point. Wikipedia makes this group sound pretty intense, even if Poland itself wasn't controlling the area. 

After the Soviet Union took over in 1946 they deported pretty much everyone, and brought in Russians instead. Traveling around the area makes it obvious that culture and history don't really go that far back, since only two or three generations of Russians have lived here.

When I booked train tickets to and from Chernyakhovsk, I knew I'd only be there a day. I wanted to go as cheaply as possible, which usually means an elektrichka train, unfortunately there was only one each day going each way, and they were at the wrong time of day. I did not want to be going to Chernyakhovsk in the evening, and returning in the morning. 

I ended up booking spaces on a regular train, I ended up with an entire train car to myself on the way there. Fun. The lady working my particular car was fascinated by me setting up my tripod and taking photos, since I was all by myself. 

Arriving in Chernyakhovsk was almost creepy, as the train station was completely empty. I've been through a few stations without many people, but I didn't see anyone at all! Off to one side of the train station a couple old locomotives on display. They're listed as two separate sights, as they're different types, but they're next to each other, and both painted black, so it was just one sight to me.

100 meters after leaving the station I saw my first statue, naturally it was the guy after whom the town is named, General Ivan Chernyakhovsky.

Next up was a Catholic church. As this used to be part of East Prussia, which was Catholic, those churches still stand. Since Russians were moved in during the years the Soviet Union wasn't big on religion, I don't think many Orthodox churches have been built in the oblast in general. The church of St Bruno was built at the very beginning of the 20^th century, from 1902-1904.

I was walking on Lenin street, so I wasn't surprised when I came upon a bust of the main man himself. He was tucked into a small platz, kindof hidden from the street by a couple trees. Until far later in the day I thought this was the only Lenin in the city. Yandex maps doesn't show this Lenin, it only shows one other.

The main sight in Chernyakhovsk is Insterburg Castle. It is falling into ruin, meaning it is really photogenic. When I walked through the gate there were a couple informational signs, and ropes blocking off the most ruined areas. I'm not sure if there is a plan of any kind to renovate or rebuild any of the castle.

Lonely Planet says an eccentric artist watches over the place, which seems to be true. He seems to have taken over a couple rooms, somehow keeping them heated enough to sleep there and create various pieces of art.

After looking around the entire property I kept going, finding my way to what used to be Villa Brandes. It was originally built for the guy in charge of the city back in Prussian days. After the Soviets took over it was an orphanage. Now it's a kindergarten. The tower on one side is really photogenic.

Next to the kindergarten I noticed a street sign pointing to a tower of some kind. I found the tower, but I have no idea what kind of tower it is supposed to be. Not a water tower, it kinda looks like a guard tower, but I don't think that's right either.

From there I came back toward the city center, this is when I found the main Lenin statue in town. A full size statue, not just a bust. He stood close to a monument to soldiers, a tired out soldier is resting while sitting on what looks kindof like a stump? It looked rather awkward to me, but I'm sure there was a point to whoeva made it.

I only visited one museum in Chernyakhovsk, the city history museum. Entry was only 100 rubles, with a very small photo fee. The museum was two big rooms, on two floors. It was more set up as a display of small collections of different items, rather than a description of the history of the city. There were a bunch of telephones, a bunch of different uniforms, a bunch of dolls. There were radios, military medals, helmets, and documents, etc... In the middle of the first floor was a 'soldier' next to a jeep.

It seemed to be fair game to touch things, which was pretty neat. I loved seeing so many items not hidden behind a glass display case. There was also a city art museum, I did not visit that one. 

Following the museum I visited another church. The front of the church looked very similar to the first one I'd seen, with a very tall bell tower, and a red brick exterior. The inside was much more interesting though, as there were frescoes everywhere, and stained glass windows too.

After this church I felt as though I'd seen everything I wanted to see. Chernyakhovsk isn't that big. (With only 35,000 people it was never going to be big, or take all that long to see most sights.)

There was one more fortress/castle on the list of sights, but it was a bit further out, and I wasn't in the mood to go that far. 

Next time maybe? 

I stopped in a cafe, as I hadn't eaten real food yet, whoops. After the cafe it was an easy walk back to the train station, where I didn't have to wait long for my train back to Kaliningrad.