November 23rd

The Wooden Architecture Museum at dusk, Irkutsk

Anton proving his greatness by saving a kitten by the shore of Baikal

Admiral Kolchak on his huge pedestal looking vaguely annoyed

This is mostly an excuse to put up more photos, but I figured I could finish off the wild tales of our journey as well. So, as soon as we left the town where our hike ended we went to Taltsi, the local wooden art museum (I think I’ve misspelled museum just about every time I’ve written it for the last three months on this blog. Like misspelled so horribly that MS spell check suggests words like ‘missile’ or mausoleum. Truly frustrating…). It was really cold and we were all really tired, but we still had a great time and Anton was incredibly knowledgeable about everything, easily cementing him as world’s coolest guy ever (did I mention he saved a kitten from a tree then fed it the last of our food? The guy’s practically a saint). We finally returned to the hostel to find an utterly ridiculous Australian there from Melbourne. He’d quit his job as the guy who calls people and tells them that despite being injured they can’t get worker’s comp (I can’t imagine why he quit…) and was travelling from London to Hong Kong by train. He ended up staying four days in Irkutsk with us and I think he made it into town once at our insistence. He was supposed to leave a day before he did, but we had something of a bender the day he was supposed to leave at 5 AM to Mongolia but I’m not sure we were even back to the hostel by 5 AM and anyways, it was best that he slept that one off… Good fun anyways. He was one of several people we met on their way through Irkutsk on the Trans-Siberian railway. Oddly, most of them had quit terrible jobs and were just kind of on a train to anywhere until their money ran out. Two British girls we met actually ran out of money in Irkutsk and used the last of their money to buy their way to Japan where they were going to soy farm until they had enough money to go home. I can imagine worse things in life! It was funny because we were essentially co-owners of the place by the time we left. The owners would leave and put us in charge for whole nights because we’d been there for so long and they trusted us for some reason… Anyways, we spent the rest of our time there going to the local art museum (yep, spelled it wrong again…) which was quite nice for a city of that size and seeing the houses of the Decembrists, the exiles of the failed coup against the Tsar in the 1800s who made Irkutsk the Mecca of learning and art that it became. There was also a super intimidating statue of Admiral Kolchak, the White leader during the 1917-1921 Civil War who was executed in Irkutsk then dumped unceremoniously into a hole in the ice on the Angara River. It was erected in 2006 amid great controversy (the guy was a brute and Russia may not be communist but it certainly isn’t hankering for a return to the heartwarming Tsarist times) and the statue is on a huge pedestal to guard against vandalism. Interesting… Tomorrow: Brendan’s Hospital experience (hint: it’s not like the Orange Park Hospital emergency room).

November 22nd

Hard to have a bad morning when you wake up to this view

About the safest part of the Dog Trail

Drinking the pure water from Lake Baikal. A little cold, but delicious!

My face and hair covered in frozen sweat; happy to be done (so I thought) after the Dog Trail Part I...

Our third day, with the insistence of Anton, we decided to actually make some solid plans. We finally settled on a two day camping trip to Lake Baikal (which was part of the original plan, only that included us sleeping on the shore without even the barest necessities for sub-zero weather and snow {which, ironically probably would have been safer than what we actually did}). So, the morning of the fourth day, we packed up the YAZ truck and headed out to Baikal. It was a beautiful, almost warm (0° F about) and we were well supplied with camping equipment and adequate footwear. We were short one camping backpack so I got to find out that not only is my suitcase great for arduous journeys from Jacksonville to New York City, but also for rucking around the mountains of Siberia stuffed with food, vodka, a tent, and a sleeping bag. Not bad! Anyways, we made the three hour trek to our campsite over the mountain which was difficult, but not so terrible. We set up the tents, made the fire, chopped wood, took a terrifying and incredibly dangerous death hike and had some incredibly delicious chicken and soup that Anton cooked over the fire. So, death hike: we hiked along this tiny trail about a foot wide at the best bits and covered in snow and ice. It was about ten steep and grass covered meters from a 20 meter cliff, the bottom of which was alternately rocky or Lake Baikal. A year ago a hiker slipped and fell into the lake. Miraculously she survived the fall, but nothing kills you quicker then icy water with nowhere to get out. So, one misstep and you were literally dead. I had never faced death before, and now in a very real sense I was one slip away. On the plus side, this focuses the senses wonderfully. We finally made it, my heart beating wildly and swearing that I’d never do something that stupid or dangerous again. Peer pressure works wonders though… anyways, after that, food tasted better and you really appreciate life, so I guess it works out in the end. It got dark around 5 as usual so we sat around the campfire and we told Anton stories of all the interesting things we’ve done with our lives (it’s amazing how hard it is to make your life of leisure in a provincial Russian backwater sound interesting compared to some of the incredible people Anton has met. Us: “Yeah, then we drank a lot of vodka and played drinking Jenga and vodka checkers! Six nights in a row!” Anton: “Hmmm. Interesting. I rode a dogsled from Kamchatka to Moscow, hunting and fishing and getting food from the local tribes.” Touché, Anton, touché…). We had the most delicious chicken I’ve ever had for dinner and then we hit the hay. We woke up the next morning, broke down the gear and packed up. I was ready for a difficult but safe hike back home, but boy was I in for a rude shock. If I thought that the previous day’s trail was terrifying, I was rudely disappointed. The trail back was three miles of treacherous goat trails that sometimes disappeared into sheer cliffs that we had to scoot along with only toe holds keeping us from certain death (again, this is not creative license. If any of us fell, we would be dead). This path was called the Dog Trail because it was fit only for dogs and goats and it had been closed for a year after the local government was tired of the number of people dying on it. Hardly the words to inspire confidence in a young Floridian who regularly slips and falls on the sidewalk on the way to class in the comparatively mild New York winter. On one of the cliff bits, I was inching along behind Matt Faust who lost his footing when one of his toe holds broke off and fell into the lake 30 feet below. He miraculously held on with one hand while Anton somehow pulled him on to a wider bit. He was white as a sheet and I was hardly thrilled to follow in his footsteps. Brendan actually has a photo of this but I don’t have it right now unfortunately… Well, we finally made it and I thanked God and my lucky stars with all my might. In an unfortunate aside, I think this trip brought my tally up to about 30 Russians making fun of us for Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize for simply winning an election. I’m having trouble doing any defending and frankly it’s downright embarrassing… More later!

Tired, but truly glad to be alive! Myself, Brendan Fox, Matt Faust, Stuart Coffee, Anton Kuzmin, and Taylor Castelli at the end of the road

Some of the native wildlife we came across on Baikal's shore!

November 21st

Myself, Bredan Fox, Stuart Coffee, and Taylor Castelli on the bank of the Angara River at dusk

Kazanskii Cathedral, Irkutsk

Winter sunset over the Angara River, Irkutsk

Well, I’m on an airplane somewhere over Russia right now. It’s 5:05 PM, which isn’t really all that important except that we were supposed to land at 3:15 PM. We were an hour late leaving Irkutsk, which was nerve racking because the departure time came and went with no one making any announcement or even saying what gate we needed to go to. Everyone was just quiet and accepted this as status quo in stark contrast to an American airport. We would have asked someone who worked there, but there was literally no one there. Russia… Well, we finally left and then landed and taxied to a gate. Everyone got up, got their luggage and coats and then the pilot decided that he ought to tell us that we weren’t actually in Moscow. Details, details! Then, without further explanation we sat for an hour, refueled, got de-iced then took off again. No one seems to care, and the good Lord knows I don’t have anywhere I need to be, so no worries there… Always an experience! Who knows, if I’m really lucky, my checked bag might make it too! I’m not going to be greedy though… Apropos nothing, I’m really looking forward to that bus ride back home (attention reader: sarcasm) (also, this is kind of ridiculous that I’m writing this now and I’m going to post it after my arrival in V-town, but bear with me). So, the trip: official word is: Wow. Seems kind of understated, I know, but imagine that that ‘wow’ was uttered with a kind of awe and appreciation, maybe real quiet like with a lot of emphasis on that last ‘w’ there. Got it. I suppose if I really cared enough I could post up a sound clip of that ‘wow’ but I’ve already gone and described it, so what’s the use? Anyways, enough about me rambling, more about the trip… So, basically the way this whole thing went down was this: we bought plane tickets, bought a hostel, read the guidebook, made some plans that looked vaguely like this (and by vaguely I mean this is actually the only plan that we had):

13- Bus overnight Voronezh-Moskva

14- arrive early morn.

15 arrive 0745 meet up at airport, get into hostel, explore IRK

Trans Sib Hostel

16- See the city?

17- Listvyanka (museum/dog sledding?)

18- Circum-baikal rail +camping?

19- Circum-baikal rail?

20-

21- Depart 1400

Bus to vtown

22 arrive in vtown

You may have noticed the liberal sprinkling of question marks, and perhaps even the lack of anything on the 20^th, so I feel like you get the picture. We were essentially banking on our ability to entertain ourselves and have a good time doing anything rather than having any sort of solid plan. Well, it ended up being for the best because within an hour of us arriving, Brendan got bit by a stray dog while running. I feel like that’s the subject of another post, but for now, let’s suffice to say that he needed rabies shots every two days that would have ruined any well laid plans. We essentially went from being really lazy tourists without plans to “flexible.” Handy how a different description changes things. When we first showed up, the girl in charge of the hostel actually asked us if we were staying in a hostel six nights in a row to make a film. Apparently everyone stays for a night then goes out and… “does things.” Like… see Lake Baikal. Whatever that means. Either way, we quickly saw our way around the city (truly beautiful). Quick aside from the pilot: apparently we’re getting into Moscow at 9 PM. Where the heck did we go, Vladivostok?? That’s lame… Where was I? Oh yes, so Irkutsk: good town, better churches, best Mexican food. I’ve got my ducks in a row. I’ll probably throw up a few pictures, because these are by far the best I’ve ever taken (with a liberal assist from Irkutsk) (Christmas list: new camera? I’ve glued mine back together, but I’m pretty sure it’s on its last legs. There are some dents on it that would embarrass a used car salesman. Same one would be great… sorry everyone else who isn’t Mom and couldn’t care less). So, spent three days tooling around the city, which we managed to make interesting by not actually seeing anything until the third day when we finally got a map (again, being able to entertain ourselves was critical when you spend a whole day going to the central market, shopping, and checking the bus schedule {to be fair, it did get dark at 5 PM. When you wake up at 10 AM it doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to be productive}). So, we spent the first three days in such a manner, meanwhile making friends with the hostel owner, Anton, a grade “A” bro who really made our trip what it was. But more on that later. My computer is almost out of battery and I’m now free to contemplate how our six hour flight just turned into a 12 hour ordeal. My oh my. Toodles.

Brief Update

Getting ready to head into the wilderness. Anton is the mountain man in the green.

Hey, I'm here in Irkutsk where it is FREEZING but still wonderful. It's been in the negatives pretty much the entire time we've been here, but that hasn't kept us from trekking all over the city over the last three days. It's truly a beautiful city and we got to see easily the most beautiful church I've ever seen. I'm something of a church connoisseur (not really, let me have my delusions!) and so when I say beautiful, I mean it. No pictures now, but when I get back to Voronezh, I'll put 'em up. Anyways, we're sitting in the hostel (which is amazing) playing cards and talking to some of the other folks here (it's only 8 PM but it's been dark here since 5:30 so no point in going out into the Siberian winter). Tomorrow, we're going on a hike at Lake Baikal and spending the night camping. We may not make it, so I figured I'd say a quick goodbye and I'll write when I get back. Hope your Tuesdays will be as pleasant as mine was!

Uuuuggggghhhhh...

We managed to do some sightseeing (Kremlin, St. Basil's and Red Square in background)...

...and have some fun at the pigeons expense in Red Square

So, I made it to Moscow in one piece, but let me tell you that bus ride was BRUTAL. I may have actually gotten some sleep, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Apparently the highway from Moscow to Voronezh is some of the best road Russia (I'd agree with that) because it's part of the highway connecting Moscow and Sochi for the 2014 Olympics. Anyways, sleeping on a bus is always hard, but we made it at least. We're in Moscow now waiting for our flights out. We just ate at the Хард Рок Кафе, Москва (Hard Rock Cafe, Moscow) and paid an arm and a leg for a good American burger and being able to order food in English from an English menu. Well, I'm off.

November 13th

My lovely city (the blue building is a Women's Monestary near my house- this is a photo from across the Voronezh River).

So, I know it seems like it’s been no time since I returned from the Kafkaz (it’s been what? Eight days? My life is one tragedy after another…) but I’m off again in a couple hours. It’s my first self planned trip so it will probably be fraught with poor planning and disasters, but then again, that’s what life’s about right? So anyways, I’m heading to Irkutsk; described a long time ago as the “Paris of Siberia” (I suppose that’s like describing Boise as the “New York City of Idaho.” Some things just can’t be improved by words…). But who knows, I may be pleasantly surprised. Leg one of this trip is a bus trip from here to Moscow (from 11 PM to 7AM…). We are spending the day in Moscow and then we’ve got a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk. It’s a 5 hour flight plus a 5 hour time difference, so I’ll be 13 hours (11?) from the East coast and I’ll be closer to California then New York. Also my first official foray into Asia… It’s just five of us West Point guys going, so it should be a pretty good time as we’re all down for a good adventure. Hopefully I’ll be full of stories when I return (and still alive…)!

In other news, Dmitry Medvedev gave his State of the Union address the other day and my hozyaika and I were listening in on the radio. It was all rather too much for me so I had to ask her what was being said. The first thing she mentioned is that all he ever did was talk and talk and talk. She mentioned that he was totally missing one of the biggest issues facing Russia (as a retired State employee, she might be slightly biased): pensions. Currently, government employees receive a 40% pension, but it is widely understood that 40% of the already tiny wages received by civil servants (padded by bribes while in the service) is not enough to live off of (hard to take bribes once you’ve retired. I’ve always said that). As the speech went on, Medvedev touched on the fact that Russia’s economy is totally based on raw materials right now and there really isn’t a whole lot of production going on here. Take one look around and this becomes readily apparent. Everything here, from medicine to food to furniture is produced in Finland, Germany, China, etc. The only native products I see her are the tragically sad Lada cars. You can judge a city’s wealth based solely on the percentage of Ladas in the streets (maybe 10% in Moscow, around 70% in Voronezh). But it is hurting the economy and making everything more expensive in the process. Medvedev moved on to the brain drain that happened in this country and is haunting it still. He said that 50,000 highly educated Russians are now working in America alone and that he has a plan to lure them back to the Motherland. We’ll see about that. Olga Arkeedevna didn’t seem so impressed (bear in mind that she was translating all of this from complicated Russian to my Russian and she was liberal in adding her own opinions). Medvedev also talked about the rapidly shrinking population in Russia, something that will leave this country wrecked in 20 years if not checked. In fact, in the Voronezhskoe Oblast, with a population of 2.5 million, the population is shrinking at 25,000 people a year because the death rate has far outstripped the birth rate. So, the government is begging people to have 3-4 kids (I’m sure you’ve heard the gimmicks. You know, give the family who has their kid closest to midday on Victory Day a free tractor and stuff like that…). Well, Olga Arkeedevna was explaining to me that Russian’s will never have both parents work while there are kids in the house to be raised. Thus, there is no way to have 3-4 kids and still support them with only one parent working (or drinking full time as many men do here). It’s something of a Catch-22 and thus, again, she was not impressed. Well, I’ve gotten a bit carried away and I really need to go pack (I leave in an hour now…)! So long!