Lake Baikal...my nemesis for many years...(posting from the road)

I was expecting Siberia to be much different...we had a midnight stop in Novosibersk, Siberia's largest city, that afforded us a late night walk around the station but not much time to explore the city proper. Our first real "city" exposure was in Irkutsk - the largest city near Lake Baikal. I always pictured Siberia to be barren and covered with snow and blowing winds...I didn't envision a sort of Rodeo Drive feel. But there it was...high end stores and women in fashionable dress and heels prancing down it...very odd.

We, after already experiencing this city culture in Moscow and St. Petersburg, headed out to the country surrounding Lake Baikal. Disclaimer upfront - I have always HATED Lake Baikal. It seems odd to hold a grudge against a lake but I do. You see, I grew up on the shores of Lake Superior - the LARGEST fresh water lake in the world. When I was a kid, I remember learning in school that there was a lake in Siberia that also claimed to be the largest in the world...my competitve nature came out and I have always denounced the lake. (For clarification sake, Lake Baikal holds the most fresh water of any lake in the world and is certainly the deepest but by surface area...Lake Superior beats it by a long shot).

I will give them this...they have seals. Fresh water seals that I am very jealous of...unfortunately they live at the other end of the lake. One afternoon I split from our group and took a tour of the natural museum (aquarium) that sits on the shores. Somehow I ended up with a private tour of the place with a guide named Tatiana who took pity on my inability to read the Russian signage. This was fantastic...I learnt all about the endemic species of the area...and how to dispose of a body in a hurry...ahh the Russians. Tatiana explained that, if I needed to, any body dumped in the lake would be down to just bones in under three days thanks to these hungry little crustations that make the lake home...and the bones...they would get washed down deep...no one would find them. Bit of an unnerving converstaion in hindsight, but I did get to spend some extra time with the seals so who am I to complain.

No visit to the area would be complete with out a traditional Russian Banya (sauna). I have sauna'd my whole life, and this was an extreme version of it. The first part is three stages of sitting in the sauna as they increase the temperature each time (Costa, our guide says that he commonly has it at 120C - we maxed around a 100C, which is actually the boiling point of water...your body is mainly water...you do the math). Mittens and hats are provided to wear in the sauna to protect your appendages from steam burns and you need them. In between each stage of the sauna, a local tea is served. After the third stage comes the beating with sticks.

Using an evergreen branch and some branches from a birch tree, the participant recieves a sort of massage where hot water is splattered over your before you are repeatedly smacked hard with branches. I am just trying to figure out how on earth this practice ever started...seriously...who thought beating their buddy with twigs would be a good thing? Either way, for a stick beating - it's much more relaxing then you would think.

The food here is a welcome change after 4.5 days of train noodles. The only element that we have not been able to escape by coming East is dill. Russians put dill on absolutely everything, similar as to North America's usage of salt and pepper. It's not a bad taste, but an odd taste with your omlette, spagetti, rice, yourgurt, salad etc. Generally the pastries are spared, which are small thin pancakes served as either breakfast or dessert with jam or some sort of sweet syrup drizzled over.

So after a few days at the picturesque Lake Baikal I am willing to concede that it's not that bad. It is crystal clear with a glass-like appearance and there are picturesque mountains in the background. All really quite attractive - so it's a fine lake...as long as it remembers it's place as the DEEPEST freshwater lake in the world.

(apologies for the poor sauna photos...hard to shoot in steam). Dasvedanya for reading!