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: listvyanka, lake baikal, and irkutsk

One of the best natural wonders in the world is in Russia, though it isn't seen by most visitors because the country is so darn big.

Lake Baikal is the biggest (by volume,) lake in the world, it holds 20% of the freshwater in the world. Huge doesn't even begin to describe it. The lake freezes over in winter, which provides a whole lot of beautiful scenery.

Angela didn't get a spring break, and Claire and I had different weeks, argh. Luckily though, all three of us had the long weekend for International Women's Day. 

This weekend was at the end of Claire's holiday week, and at the beginning of mine. Angela had just the weekend, but we all wanted to see the lake so we booked the flights.

My flight from Moscow landed in Irkursk at 0710, slightly ahead of schedule. It had left the previous evening in Moscow, and Irkutsk is 5 hours ahead, so I didn't immediately feel the time difference. The girls arrived an hour later, none of us had to wait long for baggage. (When you fly the really cheap airlines you're only allowed a personal bag, not even a backpack.)

We took a taxi to a town called Listvyanka, a little over an hour away. Normally we'd all have preferred public transit, but I wasn't able to figure out how to make that happen without wasting an entire day in transit. Checking in to our accomodation was easy enough, but we discovered it wasn't all that great. No open plugs, and the double pained window was missing one of those layers. There was a heater, but it didn't heat the whole room. Oh well, we could suck it up for one night. 

We walked into 'town' to find food, since all of us needed something. We ended up having giant dumplings (called boozy,) and another thing of fried bread with meat inside. I already knew I'd need to find vegetables somehow, but didn't know how.

After relaxing for a little bit, we walked to the lake. FROZEN!! Yes, we'd known this ahead of time, but it still didn't really prepare us for seeing it ourselves. Ice as far as our eyes could see. Magic. Every now and again you see photos of clear ice online, or in the news, this is a lot of what we saw in this part of the lake. 

It freezes quickly, and since there isn't a lot of crap in the water, it is clear and amazing.

Side note: ice is slippery. Claire was ready for this, she'd brough little crampons to put over her boots. Angela and I were not, it took us a bit to walk without sliding all over. This was amusing to all of us. Team photos were fun. The temperatures were below freezing, but it was sunny, so it didn't feel cold, as long as we were in the sun. I wanted to walked more into the center of the lake for a while, but the girls weren't keen on that.

The icy area near Listvyanka is set up for tourists. There was a skating rink of sorts, and some ice sculptures. You could ride on a hydrofoil, or play in a bouncy house. We were just happy to see the ICE.

After getting a dose of the ice, we started walking toward Baikal Museum. It's not a city or history museum, it's scientific. It is technically out of city limits, the walk was a lot longer than we'd expected. Argh. The entry fee wasn't bad, and we enjoyed the exhibits. It basically talks about the flora and fauna of the area, as well as the research being done, and all the statistics of the lake.

The walk back into town was even longer, but we appreciated the views of the lake the whole way. There was also a memorial of a poet who had died in the lake on his birthday. I'm not sure why he was important enough to garner a memorial.

We got back to town not too far ahead of sunset. The sunset over the ice was stunning, though the temperature difference as soon as the sun went below the horizon was very noticeable.

Listvyanka seems to be a town created just for tourists. We didn't see any supermarkets, though there must be one for the few who live there. There are plenty of hotels, each with supporting restaurants. What I'm trying to say is that we had a hard time finding a place to get dinner. Eventually we found a place, which ended up having my favourite and desperately needed item: grilled vegetables.

Eventually we went back to our chilly room. Somehow we stayed awake until 2200, then passed out cold (literally,) until the next morning.

We checked out the next morning, and we able to leave our bags. We didn't intend to stay in Listvyanka more than half the day, intending only to visit a gem museum. Instead, we went back to the ice because we loved it so much, as well as back to the cafe. I needed/wanted more veggies, and we needed food no matter what. The gem museum ended up being closed, though we couldn't figure out why. I tried spinning on the ice, and lets just say I'm no ballerina. Or rather, the Bolshoy would put me in the beginners program ;)

While walking around I remembered something I'd seen on a list of sights: a Japanese POW cemetery. These aren't common, as I think Japan wanted to repatriate its citizens after the war, and Japanese culture is usually for cremation, not burial. The cemetery was small and tucked into the hillside, with an information sign in Japanese and Russian.

We also found a small wooden church. The church itself wasn't particularly memorable, but the gold lame on which the icons were resting was amusing. Gold lame never dies. The historical sign out front told us this wasn't the original location of the church, it had actually been moved a couple times. 

I like learning small things like that.

After all this we picked up our bags and booked a taxi for back to Irkutsk. We checked into our accomodation, a private flat. The lady in charge was quite rude, but oh well, it worked well enough, and more importantly at that moment, it was warm, with plenty of plugs.

The marshrutka we waited for never arrived, so we had to walk even further to a trolleybus stop to get us to our first sight in the city. It turned out our dilly dallying in the morning had made us arrived too late to visit the Angara, a former ice breaker. 

We missed opening hours by about 15 minutes, but did get to see a stunning sunset behind the boat. (And we took team photos with the boat anywho, because we'll never miss a chance to play on ice.)

Dinner was at a random burger joint near the icebreaker. Not great, not bad.

On the way back we again somehow waited for a marshrutka that never came, thankfully it was easy (again) to get to a nearby tram stop to get back to our accomodation. In Irkutsk you pay as you get off the bus, not as you get on. 

I don't know how you're supposed to know this as a visitor, but the drivers each way seemed dumbfounded when we tried to pay as we boarded. There is nothing wrong with this system, we just didn't know.

The next morning my breakfast was a giant bowl of oatmeal. I love the stuff, but I probably shouldn't have made three packets for a single serving. Oops.

Our first sight of the day was a Lenin statue. Imagine how amazed we were when we got close and realized a lady sitting on a nearby bench was clipping her toenails! 

After finishing that, she moved on to putting on her makeup. I guess I always assumed these are things you do at home? Definitely not while sitting near a Lenin statue.

Further down the street we walked past what I think was the city Maslenitsa celebration. Maslenitsa is a Russian cultural holiday where you're essentially saying goodbye winter, hello spring. From what we could see, one of the activities was climbing buttered poles, and the climbers were shirtless!! That didn't seem very smart to us, but I'm not always accused of common sense either, so who am I to say.

Not far from the celebration we came upon a monument of the city symbol: a babr. From what I can tell, it's a Siberian tiger of sorts.

After the tiger we got back on the tram, and went back out to the icebreaker ship. The entry fee was only 150 rubles, woo hoo! The visit started with a (very poorly voiced over for us English speakers) video explanation of the history of the ship. 

Pretty neat video, but the audio was, uh, not great. I think there was a hostage story in there, but I'm not entirely sure.

After that we were able to explore on our own. We got to go down into the engine room, which of course had HUGE engines. Great museum overall.

From there we knew where to catch public transport back to the city center. Our first stop was a church, which had music piped outside. That was a first for all of us. The 'lobby' of the church was better than the interior of the sanctuary, at least in my mind. 

The 'lobby' had stained glass windows and icons. The sanctuary 'just' had a wooden iconostasis and some colourful painting on a low ceiling.

From there we followed a designated walking tour through part of the city. It's a great idea by the city, but following the green line along the sidewalks wasn't always easy to do. We liked the informational signs outside historical buildings, even though we couldn't go in most of them. One of these buildings was originally owned by a Jew (you can still see the star of David in a couple places,) but is now a regional library.

As we walked closer to the river the wind picked up more and more. 

Since we were no longer warm from being inside the museum, and it was cloudy, the wind didn't help. The next sight on our list was on the riverbanks, which made it downright cold.

Irkutsk seems to be one of many Russian cities with a victory arch. This one was similar to the ones I've seen in Moscow and St Petersburg, if a bit more narrow, and it was yellow. We took our team photos but didn't stay long. The wind coming off the river was COLD. That being said, the embankment area is probably a great place to walk in warmer weather.

Further down the street we found a monastery that looked as if it had been painted by Disney while intoxicated. Lot of colours, stripes, etc... The inside of the church we visited wasn't nearly as impressive, nor was it as big as expected.

Across the street was another church, this one a simple white all over. The inside was just as simple, with a large space for selling religious items. Just behind this church was the requisite WW2 memorial, complete with eternal flame. You're not a real Russian city if you don't have one of these along with a Lenin statue.

On the other side of the WW2 memorial was the back of the House of Soviets. Huge and boring architecture, which I've found to be the norm for this building all over the country. The front wasn't any better.

On the front side of the House of Soviets was a small chapel. The informational sign told us this small chapel represented the cathedral of the lady of Kazan, which had been in this spot until it was torn down to build the house of Soviets. Hmmm.

It turned out we were standing in Kirov Square at that point, but didn't know it. I'm pretty sure we didn't miss anything by not knowing this.

We found the green line on the sidewalk again and kept walking, though we skipped where it would've taken us to the Russo-Japanese friendship memorial. Maybe next time.

Near another section of the river we found a huge statue of Tsar Alexander III. Sunset behind the gy was quite nice, until it was ruined by a large group of loud Chinese tourists. (Large groups are almost alwayss loud, and the person giving information through a megaphone doesn't help.)

We had dinner at a sushi place nearby, then went to a coffee shop for dinner. From there we split up: the girls took the bus to the airport, as they had to get back to Moscow, and I walked to the train station to continue my spring break.

While waiting for my train in the station (not an impressive station at all,) I was bit by a mozzie! How does that happen in the middle of a Siberian winter?? Sigh.

I'm pretty sure I'll come back to Lake Baikal, but I don't know that I'll visit it from Listvyanka. To visit Baikal I'll have to come to Irkutsk, so there is a good chance I'll be back to this city as well.

ukraine: ternopil, kremenets, pochayiv

camille enjoyed traveling to lviv enough that she was willing to travel with me again over a holiday weekend the next month...we had a three day weekend, and stupidly decided to wait until the last minute to buy train tickets...note to self, this is not a good idea, as there are few tickets left for any destination...i ended up picking some random city listed in the guidebook just because we wanted to go somewhere, and not be stuck in kyiv for a long, holiday weekend...
our night train took us to ternopil...as soon as we exited the train station in the morning, we took a taxi to the bus station...maybe we could've walked, but we had no map, and it was just barely daylight, and much colder than we'd expected...

we got to the bus station, and the ladies selling tickets were telling everyone they couldn't sell any tickets for the time being, as no buses were going anywhere due to the bad weather...since we didn't understand the reason, all we knew was that we were at a bus station in a small town, unable to go anywhere, which just annoyed us...
when we did figure out it was because of bad weather both of us wondered about that...this is ukraine, which gets more than its fair share of cold, crappy winter weather...eventually the storm hit us, and we understood...bits of hail, sleet, and general yuckiness...

eventually buses did start to leave, and we were able to get seats to a town called kremenets...its a small town in western ukraine...according to lonely planet, this town was never captured by the mongols when they came through this area in 1240-1241...
there is a fortress on top of a hill just outside town, and my original goal was for camille and i to hike up to the fortress...there isn't much left to the fortress, it's more a few ruins, a ring of walls, and a gate tower...howeva, as we got off the bus, we realized the hike was not going to happen...the wind was blowing, the snow was falling, and neither one of us was mentally prepared to deal with the messy weather while hiking...plus, we didn't know where to find the trail head...

at that point, our goal changed to finding food...we had been on the train all night, then on a bus, so we were hungry...we walked through more than half of kremenets before finding a place for food...it's a small town, there are not a lot of restaurants...my guess is that they don't get a lot of tourists, especially not foreigners...the place we ate was a bar of sorts...
we took a look at the jesuit collegium, which was built by the poles when they took control of kremenets (1731-1743)...we didn't go inside, but the outside of the buildings are pretty...plus they are slightly up a hill, so we could see over the town a bit...not stunning, but definitely nice...what breaks up the aesthetic beauty of the collegium is the war monument in front, built by the soviets to memorialize their triumph in WWII...the memorial looks decent, but couldn't they have put it in a different place?

famous violinist isaac stern was born in kremenets in 1920...there were jewish communities here for centuries, until the nazis massacred 15000 people they'd hearded into a ghetto in 1942...(these communities, like so many others around ukraine, have essentially disappeared now)...
after walking through a park, looking in a couple churches, and eating, we walked back to the bus "station" (and by station i mean parking lot) and boarded a marshrutka bound for pochayiv...
pochayiv is another small town, mentioned in the guidebook for only just one reason...pochayiv monastery is "a beacon of ukrainian orthodoxy - moscow patriarchate - on the edge of a largely ukrainian catholic region" according to lonely planet...you can see the monastery as soon as you get off the bus...

the monastery is the second largest orthodox complex in the country, after the lavra in kyiv, and was founded by monks fleeing the mongols in 1240...as it is so big, there are a lot of visitors, but they are almost all pilgrims, not tourists...somehow, you can sense the difference in atmosphere from what i've felt in kyiv...
to get into the monastery complex, visitors (women) who aren't already wearing a skirt and headscarf must go in a small room and borrow (with a deposit) these articles of clothing...at first we didn't know the money was just a deposit, we thought it was a rental fee, and were disappointed by the price...

wandering around the monastery was awesome...except for when an old lady in one of the churches started yelling at us, and we weren't able to figure out why...at first we thought she was indicating something about us not being allowed to take photos, except that we werent taking photos!! (there were very clear signs upon church entry that said no photos)...then she started pulling at our pants, maybe she was saying we shouldn't be wearing those? except that we had on the borrowed skirts over our pants, and we certainly weren't the only people with this particular fashion statement...maybe she was just crazy? camille and i never did figure this out...

after exploring the monastery and wandering the town (the town walk took about 10 minutes) we found a place to catch a bus back to ternopil...this ride was a true adventure on roads not in particularly good shape...winter weather in ukraine must make it VERY DIFFICULT for road engineers to keep anything in good shape...lots of potholes and bumps...
we got to the hotel easily enough in ternopil, they had our reservation...one of the reasons i'd chosen this hotel was their listing of having a sauna...it turned out to be part of a complex called aqua world...or something along those lines...after me arguing a bit, we were able to pay for just the turkish hamam (we weren't going to spend any time in the pool, and had no desire to pay for that)...an hour of steam room time alternating with dips in the cold pool and the dry sauna, and we both felt amazing...i'd go back to ternopil just to go to that sauna:)
our hotel had room service, we both ordered pizzas for dinner...nothing outstanding, but we didn't care...

the next morning we had breakfast in our room, packed up and checked out...we didn't have much of a map, so wandering around was a challenge...we found a big street market that covered both sides of a road...normal stuff available: fruits and veggies, tires, mops, bread, etc...
we found a park along a river, that was lovely and peaceful...there was snow on the ground, and it wasn't completely dry so we had to watch where we went...
in town i was taking a picture of a statue with flowers laid at the bottom when a congregation came to the statue and sang hymns...i was not able to figure out what was happening...but when i thought about it, it was a holiday weekend, so that probably meant something...
we found a park along a lake...there was an island in the middle of the lake, with a very picturesque bridge leading to an area looking out to the island...the lake was frozen at the time, which made everything that much more picturesque...awesome...i was not very patient in waiting for people to get out of my photos...(usually i can wait for a long time, but i was very impatient that day)
the train station ended up being quite close, we timed our arrival so we didn't have to wait long for our train...the train ride back to kyiv was nice, mostly during daylight:)