Out of the City

Brief day trip to Listvyanka today - the small town on the shores of Baikal, the most direct route (60 km) from Irkutsk.  It was another soggy day, and I had to keep wiping at the condensation on the inside of the crowded minibus to see the wet forest and overcast colors of the wide Angara River.  Listvyanka in general has caught on to the tourist gig and is not the best place to experience Baikal, but I ended up having a great afternoon.

At first I just walked the shoreline promenade, where the storm seemed to still be going full force - the kind of weather that makes me think of cliches like "scudding clouds" and "windswept seas" - there were whitecaps and wild, dark skies to the north. I got thoroughly whipped walking around and had to stop in for a cup of tea, but then I started up the main street of the village that runs up a beautiful little valley, and things seemed to calm down.  It was so peaceful after the chatter of the train and the 2 days of Irkutsk (there is just something about these cities, so much easier to overwhelm with sounds and smells - usually the acrid diesel fumes and something like river mud mixed with faint sewer).

I was taking deep breaths and enjoying the climb and the steep hillsides of pine and birch.  I stopped outside a village house that had a sign for rooms to rent - I had seen a note about it at the hostel, and the owners showed me around: classic banya in a low woodshed, separate little Siberian outbuilding for guests, with an old style hearth/wood-fire-cooking stove.  There was incredible detail inside, different kinds of wood carved for decoration - all of this explained to me in rapid Russian, not all of which I understood.  The main house was also low and intricately carved, with a colorful flower and vegetable garden all around.  I noticed a woodshed stocked with firewood, which was common all along this street - made me think of the long process of wood gathering in Kodiak...

I walked a little further and came upon an art gallery co-op in a building with vaulted ceilings and skylights and lost track of how much time I spent looking at paintings.  The owner was at work in his shed when I stopped by, and seemed such an unlikely person to have this place- more like a Roma gypsy than anything else.  I walked up to the end of the valley road and couldn't get enough of the early evening fall chill, woodsmoke in the air, little patches of snow still on the ground, birches in full flame.  I need more of this fresh air and quiet!  If I had more time and the weather had been better, I would have hiked the 15 km along the lake to Bolshie Koty, a traditional fishing village only accessible by foot or water (sound familiar?)  The short time in Listvyanka emphasized the unfortunate side of this kind of travel - I was ready to settle in for a week in a cabin the back of someone's garden, banya at hand, and just be as much a part of the village as possible.  But sadly, this month is much more about constant motion than digging in anywhere specific.

I've decided to skip the day I had planned Ulan Ude, and just go straight from Irkutsk to Ulan Baatar (Mongolia) on Thursday night.  I'll arrive in Mongolia on Saturday morning and will be there for a week.  In the next three days, I'll take advantage of the extra time to go up to Olxhon Island, which is a 6 hour ride by minibus north.  I'm really excited to see this place, it is wild steppe and forest, sacred to the indigenous Evenkii people, and really iconic as part of the Lake Baikal landscape.  Can't wait!