After checking emails , I went down to breakfast in one of the restaurants of the hotel, such a surprise I had expected just toast and coffee, but there was a table loaded with food. Many salads but other goodies like dried fruit, pancakes, egg a superb choice indeed. While I cannot face salad for breakfast, I did enjoy the dried fruit and pancakes followed by a decent coffee. Since traveling I had the packets, the problem with them is they have sugar in them as well as milk, I don’t like sugar but put up with it just for the coffee.
I had planned to go out to see Listvyanka by bus, but after a very tiring day yesterday, I decided on a taxi, certainly vastly more expensive than the bus, but it was very pleasant driving through some very different roads and scenery. The snow was still on the ground through the trees. The Angara River looked very pretty as it appeared through several inlets. The still frozen inlets of water came inland between the snow-covered trees. The Angara feeds into Lake Baikal, so we saw it several times on the way to Listvyanka.
The roads are in very poor condition with a surface that needs redoing urgently! There are many huge advertisements along the road adding a splash of colour to the deciduous trees, and brightening up the evergreens. Just not used to seeing those it is something NZ does not have or permit along our motorways.
The ride out to Listvyanka took just on an hour, the temperature dropping from 13 degrees to 7. It was obviously much higher than Irkutsk although I did not notice it. I was very disappointed with Listvyanka; I found it dirty and unattractive which surprised me, as I believed it was where the summer holidays were taken. The lake was wonderful to see, still mostly frozen, with big chunks of pristine ice close to the shore. How ever dirty it was could not detract from the view in the distance of the snow-capped mountains of Siberia across the frozen Lake Baikal. Lovely sights, somewhat limited by the cloud cover, unfortunately. Lake Baikal holds twenty per cent of the worlds fresh water .
We stopped in the fish market, and small souvenir shops, but being early in the season there was little to see, and what was there could have been had from other places. I had no real wish to stay and wander, as I like to do. Therefore, I chose to return to Irkutsk while the taxi was there.
After a lunch of noodles, of course I thought of taking a bus ride to get some postcards from a place I had seen on the map. Taking the same numbered bus as Elena and I had done yesterday, unfortunately, there are two bus companies with the same run numbers. I of course, took the wrong one and ended up far out of the city.
Many high-rise apartments for people who I suspect have very little in the way of material possessions. There was a vagrant going through the rubbish bins, whether he was looking for food or recyclable items I have no way of knowing , but it wasn’t a pretty picture. The general tone of the area was of poverty, with poor roads and services. There were taps on the roadsides with people collecting water in containers. I wondered if things were that bad or whether there was a reason for the taps being there.
The driver got to the end of the run, and there is just me left in the bus, he did not speak English, and my Russian consisted of about three words!
In the end after much smiling and trying to find a common ground we did, and yes, the bus did go back to the city it just went to other dirty places first. I heaved a sigh of relief when I started seeing familiar sights again. He was kind enough to drop me off and point in the general direction of the hotel. Just a short walk along the river, I was back at the Russian orthodox churches that had thrilled me when I first arrived.
This time the bells were ringing, all being rung by hand ringers practising, I found it delightful. At three thirty in the afternoon, I had no idea of the reason for doing so. I wandered through them again without the presence of the congregation and Easter celebrations; they were indeed lovely inside with the wall decorations. On to the hotel to organize myself for tomorrows departure to Novosibirsk. Stopping off for some food at the supermarket for tea and the train.Time sure flies when you are having fun!