Travel to Russia, Siberia, Irkutsk.

Woke up this morning after a really bad night's sleep. I had been really dehydrated during the night and had to keep getting up for drinks of water. I was gutted when I had finished all the water in the jug. I think Olga had filtered the water especially for us, and I didn't fancy giving the tap water a go. I still felt ropey, and couldn't manage any breakfast. I must of been really ill to leave my grub untouched. I finished off my packing and took some photos of the izba and Olga. I bet she was glad to get rid of us, as she could move out of her shed and back into her house. When I say shed, I mean it was as small as a shed, but super pimped.

Our driver came and drove us back to Irkutsk. The journey was uneventful this time, as we weren't stopped by the traffic cops. I arrived at my homestay for the night. I was parting company from Chris and Peter, as they were staying elsewhere. Peter gave me his number so I could contact them if I was still ill.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Russia, Siberia, Krasnoyarsk.

The first task of the day is to cross the border back into Russia. We're braced for the usual hours of hanging round when suddenly its all over and we're through. 30mins to leave Kazakhstan, 90mins to get into Russia - its the smoothest & quickest crossing we've had

As soon as we enter Russia the landscape is totally different. The Western Siberian Plain is still flat, like the Kazakh steppe, but there's no grassland, its all crops - giant fields of sunflowers, wheat, potatoes. The European style houses have gone and we're back to gingerbread cottages. The roadside cemeteries have gone and we now have onion domed chapels.

We head north, through the fields, to Barnaul where we cross the River Ob whose banks are full of locals sunning themselves. Its the world's 7th longest river, from Barnaul it continues north for a couple of thousand km eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean. We leave the river and head east to rejoin the Trans-Siberian Highway.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/

Travel to Russia, Siberia, Novosibirsk.

We were in a 4-person cabin, but the other two people were travelling only overnight, so all the following day (until we got off the train mid-afternoon) was just the two of us, which gave us a bit more space (both physically and mentally) to relax. We were well prepared with food and tea bags (water is free from the samovar, which is such an evocative symbol of the train that in Kungar there is a monument of a samovar). I have found it helps to be strict with structuring the day, deciding on set meal times and what will be eaten, to prevent a collapse of discipline resulting in continuous snacking and frustration! I thought I would spend hours on end reading, and I did, but also spent a lot of time just looking out of the window. The classic Siberian landscape - hours and hours of trees passing by the window, with nothing breaking the landscape -
Through the train windowis mesmerising to look at and it is hard to comprehend the size of Russia. I looked out for bears, but I have never heard of a sighting of one from the train, so it was probably hopeless.

Read more at http://www.travelblog.org/