Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is a must see in a life time. We arrived there at around 10:30 on December 25th. We all were a bit hangover but once we saw this beautiful lake, we just forgot how short the night had been. The sky wasn’t very clear but there was still an amazing view. We could see the steam rising over the lake with the sun going through the clouds. We stayed at least half an hour, staring in silence to this unreal view, before going for a walk. The weather got better after we arrived but the temperature was still -30°C. Since we were in Russia, and the temperature was at a level my body never experienced before, I decided to buy a bottle of vodka to get warmer (which was very effective). We then started our morning walk around the lake. The shore was covered with ice and snow. There were some people fishing, others were working on a pipe line, we were just enjoying this amazing experience. The lake was surrounded by mountains all covered by a pure white snow. When walking next to the lake we realized how clear the water was, so we just decided to have a drink and feel up our bottle. We left the shore to go higher in the mountain. We found ourselves in an empty village where, only the dog and the smoke from the chimney could remind us this village was inhabited. At last, we met a woman in her 50’s, wearing a fur hat, a yellow and orange coat, who took us next to her house. When we got next to the house, we saw a big 4 while drives, then we figured out she wanted to take us to the top of the mountain. The price was 500 rubles each. We didn’t really feel like using a car in this untouched landscape, we kept on going. From higher, the view of the lake took a different dimension. We couldn’t realize, the lake in front of us, was actually a lake and not the sea. I had this feeling, only once, on a cloudy day in the Lake Leman in Switzerland. After this morning walk, which lasted until 14:00, we took a break in the little village next to the lake to have lunch. We ate some grilled pork and chicken. We stayed in this restaurant for a little while checking around what was going on. We could see people getting busy the way they could. There was a group of young people playing some kind of football, some others were having a talk outside in the cold, and the boss of the restaurant was serving the rare clients in the restaurant. We paid our bill and left. On the way to the bus station we stopped at a little market to have a look at the souvenirs.
Not many vendors were showing their articles. The cold, the calm season didn’t really motivate them to show their products. We still had a look at some matryoshki (Nesting dolls) and we left. We took the last bus at 16:30 for Irkutsk.