Climb every mountain...

Self, Sanne, Philippe, Britt, Mick, Eline, Hilde, Astrid, Dirk and Lara

After a late start today (these seem to be becoming increasingly frequent), Britt, Sanne and I went to join Lara, Eline and all their guests in Listvianka. We went down to the Decembrist museum and got into one of the marshrutkas there - it was quite a classy one, padded on the interior and with a television in the ceiling. After a load of people got in, we started off. We went past Taltsi, where the others were still standing, waiting for a marshrutka, and waved at them. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of seats left in our marshrutka, so we didn't stop until we arrived at Listvianka (the fare, as usual, was 100 roubles). The others arrived shortly afterwards, as there was a half-empty marshrutka just behind ours, which saved us any trouble of waiting around!

Britt, Sanne and Lara at the Anarchist cave

Now in Listvianka, we walked along the coast for a bit, looked at the tourist area where they sell all the souvenirs, and then went to the small market to buy omul and shashliki (the Russian version of a kebab). It was a fair bit colder than the previous two times I've been there, but it was nice, nonetheless. However, we were asked to pay to sit at the table at which we had decided to sit, which was annoying - next time I think I'll just sit on the street or on the sand, its not worth paying 100 roubles for a table! We were all fairly cold, so we all went to a small café near the store where we bought the fish, and sat down for a tea (or, in my case, a pirajky - a potato sandwich). After this, Britt, Lara, Sanne and I decided to go and climb the mountain  behind Listvianka.

Listvianka as seen from the mountain (the snowy eastern shore
can be seen in the distance!)

In true alpinist spirit, we started out by getting lost finding the way up. The only clear place to get to was a small cave half way up the mountain, so we headed there. We found one crazy child swinging himself around a tree, but we paid him little heed and soldiered on ( the child appeared at intervals running above us...) we then struggled up a scree slope until we eventually arrived at the summit. We stood there for a while, feeling stupidly proud of ourselves and, obviously, putting off the inevitable descent. However, as stated, the descent was inevitable, and we eventually started slipping our way down (literally). As we approached the half-way point, we saw, behind the houses in Listvianka, one man thrashing somebody else and beating them up quite badly. However, there were several people, so we were loathe to intervene, and seeing as the man wasn't dead and managed to walk away, we decided it was best not to get involved. Russian police do not have a good reputation here anyway, and we definitely don't want to be targetted.

The summit of our hill / mountain

We got down the mountain and walked to the marshrutka (on the way we went through the school grounds, where I managed to hold myself up straight with the hoops in the playground. The first time I've managed it - also the first time I've tried in ten years). Dirk and Hilde, Lara's parents, had already left for Irutsk, but Astrid, Eline, Mick and Philippe were all still there waiting for us, so we all crowded into a marshurutka, where I was put in charge of talking to the driver (fortunately, this only means making sure we're not overpriced and telling the man where to stop for us!), which I managed as well as could be expected..!

Once back in the residence, I was greeted with the marvel of Lara's cooking, as she had made a French meal, Boeuf Bourguignon, for all of us, which was thoroughly enjoyable, even if the three bottles of wine in it did make me feel slightly tipsy at the end. Very good, especially as it was the first time she had tried making it! After this we had a cake which Danya and Emily had bought, which was slightly less of a success, and had a bit too much meringue for my liking! After this, a woman from the dekanat came to try and convince me to talk to some schoolchildren at the university in English about the UK on Monday. Initially I tried to say I'd get back to her so that I could give her a suitable, if negative response, but she seemed adamant that I go along, which pushed me to be blunt and tell her than no, I had no wish to do such a thing. Dries, Maria and Heum were roped into it, though, so we'll see how that goes!