Very Very Cold

Day 477
Bridget, Jack and I were up early. Unlike the day before I only had to tell Jack once to get out of bed. Soon we were all on our way to the bus station.

Now, if your clearly a tourist in Asia and come within a ten yard range of a bus station you have 15 different people trying to get you on their bus. I think that we had expected that to happen here and it didn't. After some asking around we found the bus for Listvyanka, a small town on Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is huge and is the worlds deepest lake and will eventually become the 5th ocean. The water is drinkably pure and crystal clear. The flora and fauna round the lake is found nowhere else in the world and the surrounding mountains are stunning. The last bit is that the water is near freezing year round.

Upon arriving to Listvyanka we tried to find a boat tour, but you needed ten people and there wasn't enough interest. Instead we went for lunch. We ordered 3 random things off of the menu and ended up with a really yummy pasta soup, some random pork thing and a fish, yuck. The pasta soup was the best and we ended up each ordering our own bowl of it.

When we left the restaurant we ran into the guys from Liechtenstein that I had met on the train. The five of us decided to head to a nearby observatory. When we got about half way up we asked for directions and were told that the observatory was actually the viewpoint we were currently at. After some pictures we headed back down to the lake. We then bought some beers to enjoy the view with. Crazy Jack changed into his swim trunks and jumped in the water three times. He said that it was so cold that he couldn't breathe. The Lichtensteiners had to leave and the three of us sat on the beach a while longer. A friendly man who was picnicking with his family nearby brought us over a couple skewers of really yummy meat to split. After thanking him we moved to a different viewpoint. Here Jack and Bridget split the smoked fish that the lake is known for while we all checked out a nearby wedding party.

At this point we were at a bit of a loss of what to do and decided to just head back to the hostel. Once there Bridget got her remaining things together for her night train to Moscow before we headed out for dinner. Jack and I had planned on going with Bridget to the station because she didn't feel comfortable going so late at night on her own. The thing is that it stays light here until about 11 pm. We ended up running into some other people from the hostel who were on the same train and she went with them. Jack and I wandered around looking for a bar but never found anything worth going to. We ended up with beers at the hostel again.