We arrived in Irkutsk and went into a Café, because our Couchsurfing host Damir promised to pick us up from the city, as soon as he gets to leave his office. We used the time to apply for internships. A few hours later we sat in Damir's car, which decided to not work after we've stopped at a little food place in order to get lunch. We saw it as a great opportunity to get to know each other, while Damir was a tiny bit worried about coming back late to work. He asked about our plans and even though he invited us to join him and his friends to go to Listwjanka (which is a quite typical place to visit whilst being near Beikam, but therefore also very touristy), once we told him our idea was to go to the island Olchon, he made it obvious that we should definitely go to that place. It was quite far away and we would need to book tickets with "Olchon Express", which Damir did for us in the evening, when he came back from work. As well as that, he told us many places that we needed to visit and also recommended a really cool Couchsurfing place.
So the very next day we headed off to get the real Baikal experience. After 5 hours of driving (on one of the most beautiful roads through mountains, forests and being able to witness wild horses running around the nature) we arrived in Olchon.
The place we were staying at was called "Philoxenia" and can be seen as a project. Sergej, who initiated the whole thing, has created a community space (as we would learn later on) since practically everybody could come in and leave whenever they wanted. We spent a lot of time with Daniil, who was already living there for quite some time. He knew the island very well and also gave us some advice.
We lived with those sweet goats, we actually had to go through their stable in order to be able to go to the toilet (yes, it was located outside and yes, it was freezing every time you had to go out).
We made friends with two South Korean guys who would join us to explore the area. We walked around and next to the unbelievably beautiful view of mountains and the frozen lake, we also found the ship wracks that Damir had told us about. See for yourself.
As if this wasn't already incredible enough, Daniil joined us with his two cute Huskies. He took them for a walk and took us to one of the most beautiful places of the trip - we walked to the Shaman Rock. This is of course one of THE spots whilst visiting the Baikal Lake. Its shape is unique and since it has such a deep meaning for Shaman people, we felt blessed to be able to be at this "holy" place. What made it even more special for us was the fact that we witnessed the sunset whilst all of that was happening. Therefore the light was incredible and we enjoyed the company of our friends.
So whilst walking, we were surrounded by this. (Slideshow!) I don't think I can describe what it looked like, but I can try to explain what it felt like. Apart from us there was pretty much no one on this massive lake and it felt like we were the only people on the Baikal. Whilst we were walking, the snow on the ice made such a high pitch sound, we felt like the ice could crack any moment. Of course it wouldn't, but it sounded like that. Surrounded by good company, two huskies and this environment - we were filled with pure gratefulness and happiness. Grateful that we are privileged enough to be here, enjoying something we had never witnessed before. Even though every moment in life is unique, this one felt very special. It was just one of a kind. Here are some more pictures - this time as well with us.
Walking on the oldest, deepest and biggest sweet water lake in the world whilst cuddling huskies and enjoying the sunset will definitely something I will tell my grandchildren about (if I'm lucky enough to have some one day).
As the sun disappeared, it became even colder and we decided to return to our home. We cooked some food and had a huge music jam session - we were around 10 people and just sang, rapped and some of us played guitar or ukulele (Franzy for example!).
The next day would be just as exciting. Daniil surprised us with vegan pancakes in the morning and I'm sure there's no way to start your day any better. So after that we were happy and hyped for what would lay ahead of us - today we wanted to rent bikes and ice skates. Daniil walked us to a place where we could do that and even got us a great deal. After that we jumped on our bikes, ice skates stored in a backpack and off we went. Without a certain goal we just started riding the bike (with spikes!) on the Baikal Lake. Yet again - it felt so unreal! Was this really happening? Were we really riding a bike on a frozen lake whilst being able to see 100% clear ice with some crazy cracks in it?
Well I suppose yes! We spotted a huge rock that we felt like we could drive to. It didn't seem so far away. Puh, we gotta say after about 2 hours of driving and still not being there, we were getting a little tired. Besides that it was also freezing cold. Like really super freezing cold. It was that cold, every 20-30 minutes we had to get off our bikes to jump and run around, so that our body would heat itself up again. To show you what I mean, I'll drop a picture of how frozen my hair was. If I would have tried to bend it, it would have just broken off.
We pushed through though and as we reached our goal, we knew that it was 100% worth it. We were looking at a huge rock that - at its bottom - was covered in amazing formed ice layers. So much ice everywhere - it was unbelievable. (Slideshow!)
There we were again caught by a wave of luck. We couldn't believe that we were actually there right now. And we had the whole place again for just ourselves. That was something really special for us. All that time we were traveling through cities, places like Moscow and St. Petersburg where you're never really on your own. Especially at places of interest. But here we were just surrounded by the purest of nature and ourselves. It was a feeling that we won't have again so fast. And one of the coolest parts was yet to come - Ice Skating.
Since lakes in our parts of Germany don't really freeze anymore, it had been Franzy's dream to repeat one of her childhood memories - ice skating on a frozen lake. As you can see, we definitely succeeded accomplishing that dream.
Imagine the scenery. Two German girls who happen to go to the Baikal Lake, ending up on an island, hiring bikes and ice skates, being there completely on their own and having the time of their life. INCREDIBLE!
But after being outside all day in the freezing cold and actually being quite sportive, we were not only frozen from the inside but also getting hungry. The ride back was rough and we were really exhausted as we were getting closer to our home again. Since we lived up a hill, getting up there was a true fight. As soon as we arrived home, I started cuddling the heater and we both couldn't wait for a hot cup of tea. We had dinner with our friends again and another music session would follow. This time a Russian guy was giving us a little concert with his Trompete and Guitar. He sang his own songs but also a Russian lullaby as we headed to bed, extremely tired from the day.
The next day was our last day on the Olchon Island and Daniil organized that a friend of his would open their Art Galerie / gift shop only for us. We got some postcards and after that we headed to this view point, from where we - once again - were amazed by the Shaman Stone.
As hard as it was we said goodbye to this beautiful island and drove back to Irkutsk. We had a long talk with Damir that night about everything that happened and what we did. He also asked us to write down three films and three books that had changed our lives. Very interesting to reflect about that.
Tomorrow we would take a bus to the station and take the train to go to Mongolia. Well, at least that was the plan we had. As the time came, we waited at the bus station the next morning and no bus came. Our train was supposed to leave at 08.16 am and Damir's home was about half an hour away from the station. We were supposed to take a bus at 07.05 am. So we actually had planned to have a lot of spare time. After waiting 20 minutes for the bus without success we decided to call a taxi. Luckily they are quite cheap compared to German prices. Yet another problem arose - we got stuck in a HUGE traffic jam. Many minutes passed without the car moving more than 2 meters. The more time passed, the more we started to panic. It was 07.55 and we were still stuck in early rush hour traffic. Google Maps told us it would still take at least 15 minutes to get there and then we still had to go through the luggage check at the station, find our platform and get on the train. To be fair, it seemed hopeless and Franzy had already lost hope and looked for different options.
The problem was that this train was one of the most expensive and also Franzy's Visa for Russia would expire the next day. We really couldn't afford missing this damn train. I tried to explain this urgency to our taxi driver in Russian and as soon as we got out of this blocked road, he literally flew down the street for us. As fast as we could we gabbed our backpacks out of the boot and ran into the station. As lucky as we were, they didn't do the luggage check in Irkutsk. On the display panel it told us that we needed to go to Platform 1. For some stupid reason signs only explained the way to platforms 2-4. We panicked again because literally every second counted. The Security officer must've noticed that we were in a rush and helped us by explaining that Platform 1 was just outside the station. We ran as fast as we could and luckily our train was still there. The train master of our wagon let us jump on without looking at our documents. Only seconds after he checked them on the train, we were moving. Hell yeah, we made it. Ahead of us was now one of the most beautiful train rides ever - along the Baikal.
Stay tuned to read about the train ride and our last destination - Mongolia.
Chanti & Franzy
Take your Chanzy
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