We do not know Tatjana and Lew from Irkutsk. Exceptionally is the hospitality, which these two people carried immediately from their friends in Switzerland to us. First they picked us to very early time (around 6:14) at the train station in Irkutsk, transferred to our hotel and made sure we were well accommodated. That would have really been quite a lot. But by no means all: by one o’clock Lew gets us at the hotel and proposes us make a journey to Lake Baikal and then to go by boat to a little place to stay. But first we need to meet Tatiana, restaurantslb.com who had cooked for us: a small, but luxury lunch to enjoy in a hurry in the tiny apartment of Tatjana in a suburb of Irkutsk.
The trip to Listwianka on Lake Baikal we do in Lew’s car, right-driven Japanese with a crack in the windshield. Lew is a classy driver and speeds up that we arrive to my relief quickly, almost with the speed of light, on the Baikal shore. Lew, who has received some phone calls while driving, has unfortunately to return to Irkutsk, so we continue this journey with Tatjana. The village Bolshie Koti, about 15 km from Listwianka, we reach after a half-hour ride on a hydrofoil.
Bolshie Koti is a small village of wooden houses, some new ones that look all the way like holiday houses or here perhaps better “dachas”. We stay in a newer building, which belongs to a group of houses, apparently – as far as I understand this – is used by the university as an option for students who work here. Striking is the silence, although there are some motor vehicles. More attractive is the rooster crowing. Tatjana has brought in several bags also a feast for dinner.
Leaving the village
The next day, the sky is grey, but in the morning it is still dry. Shortly after noon we leave quickly, because a ship can take us back to Listwianka. The wind had freshened and the boat is not big, so it is pretty shaken. I have earned my place on the rear deck and although it is pretty fresh and at times even a little wet, I enjoy the ride, which lasts about two hours.
If anyone here is with the question of sea-sickness: I’ve found no signs of it on me, but I do not know whether the Baikal generated waves enough so that this can happen at all. I need to wait and see the Pacific Ocean.
Approx. 30 seconds after this picture was teken, my hat was away and swimms now unique in the unique world of Baikal
George, marked of wind and water
On the way from Listwianka to Irkutsk with a minibus taxi it starts raining that never stops until the next morning.
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