Baikalsk and other Russian antics

So, this is undoubtedly going to be the last post of the month, as tomorrow I'm heading off to Mongolia!!! This has obviously been a very sudden decision which has only come up in the last few days, leading to me having to go to the Mongolian consulate first thing tomorrow morning to pick up my Mongolian visa and then catch the train or the bus to Mongolia the same evening. Basically, this is taking my experience in going to Krasnoyarsk to another level. Mostly, therefore, this week has involved me running around trying to get together all the final bits and pieces so as to be able to leave tomorrow with no other problems!

Maria Lia, Alessandra and Ricardo

On Monday, I was surprised to find out that there were a selection of Shakespeare's plays being performed in different languages by the different language departments. Most amusing was the realisation that Maria Lia and Ricardo were performing Romeo and Juliet in Italian. However, I was unable to stay and watch, as I had arranged to meet up with a load of other people for a meal at Papa Johns' and then to go bowling afterwards on Karl Marx street. On getting back to the residence after this, however, Guillaume, Lara and I decided it would be a great idea to create a table-tennis table in our kitchen, which was a small success!

On Thursday evening, we all met up again to go on an organised tram party around Irkutsk, which was to last for about three hours. The music was rather loud, and it wasn't long until I found that the majority of the tram was tending to the wrong side of drunkenness, but it was, on the most part quite fun, despite there being a very drunk and hormonal Buryat girl who seemed to decide that she was going to get a European or American man. This obviously put the nine of those of us who were present at considerable risk, but I at least decided I wasn't having any of it! Either way, in the end, on coming back to the residence, we managed to smuggle in a load of people and then spread them around all the spare beds.

Danya, Dries, Emily, Ingrid and Nick at Baikalsk

Yesterday, as a kind of birthday celebration / goodbye party for Ingrid, a few of us decided to go to Baikalsk together. This was another one of the places I had wanted to visit, as it is one of the skiing centres here and also has a huge factory which stands accused of contaminating Baikal. Hence, after leaving early in the morning to get my multi-entry visa back off the University, we met up in the parking lot next to the Commercial centre in Irkutsk. Although there were initially meant to be more of us coming, in the end there were just the six of us; Danya, Dries, Emily, Ingrid, Nick and myself, but as Emily had been there before, she very succesfully handled the marshrutkas and the accommodation - a hostel-like place located in the back of the youth gym. The hostel itself was very comfortable, with adjoining banya as well.

Dries and Nick with the two Russians we met in the banya

As soon as we arrived we went on a walk through the town to get to the supermarket to buy some food for the evening, and, after this, we wandered back up, played cards for a while, and then went on into the banya which had been prepared for us, which we stayed in for two hours, whilst also having quite a few plunges into a small, but very very cold pool which was right outside the sauna room. After the sauna we retired back to our rooms, until we finally decided to go back and fool around in the gym room, where it was only a matter of time before the Russians in the banya decided to come out and make friends with us. Eventually, though, they managed to convince Nick to stay with them in the banya, even after the other five of us, all being slightly more tired all headed off to bed.

The Baikalsk pulp and paper mill

Today got up relatively early after a rather sleepless night (the ants which were actually crawling around in our beds probably didn't do very much to help this!). After this, much of the morning was spent searching in vain for Nick's hoodie, which he was certain he had with himlast night, but which was nowhere to be found. Eventually, we decided it was a lost cause and headed off, catching a taxi up to the mountain - from there we managed to convince them to let us up in the ski lift to have a look around and see the lake and the factory which Baikalsk is famous for, from the mountain... Obviously, being in Russia, we found a lady at the top of the mountain posing in skiing gear and a binkini, which we all found fairly amusing. However, we only had a few minutes up at the top, as we had arranged for the marshrutka to pick us up again from the the base of the mountain. Sadly, on the marshrutka I managed to get the worst possible seat - I was sat next to a Russian man, who clearly to prove his manliness had decided to spread himself out as much as possible not only on his chair, but also on mine, which meant that I was riding side-saddle in my seat for about three hours, which was fairly uncomfortable...