Back to the USSR

привет !

Friends, it’s been ages since I last wrote and the only excuse I have is that I’ve been lazy. I had an email ready in Spanish and never took the time to do the translation, so here it goes. Note that I am sending this very late, I am not even in Russia anymore. 

After Mongolia I went to the Baikal lake in Russia. When I arrived it was 30 degrees (which is like 80 Fahrenheit? I don’t know but HOT), and the next day it snowed ! Irkutsk has a very Siberian feeling, with wooden houses and orthodox churches. 

From there I did a part of the Great Baikal Trail, a trek that goes around the lake. I only did a part of it, 25 km (which is a bit more than a half marathon) from Lystvianka to Bolshie Koty. It started in the snowy forest with a very steep hill, but I was rewarded by a beautiful view of the lake at the top. After that the path went back down to a beach, where part of the water was still frozen. It was magical. The whole path is very clean and there are signs reminding hikers to take care of the environment. The lake contains 20% of the world’s drinking water, sounds crazy ! 

Back to Irkutsk the day after the trek I jumped straight into a train to go to Novosibirsk, 31 hours ! I only saw the city for about one hour in the very early morning before heading to a small village called Zavyalovo, where I stayed for a few days to volunteer with a family. 

That was the ultimate Russian experience ! I slept in a yurt in the garden with the other volunteer, Theresa from Switzerland and her son Mattis. There was a different schedule for men and women, women being expected to get up at 6 am and finish work at 9 pm, with gardening, taking care of the children, cleaning and cooking. Men being expected to sit at the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner, leave their dirty plates in the sink and do whatever they want the rest of the time. 

I had told Alya, the mother (who also works as an English teacher), in advance that I am not really the babysitter type, so I mainly worked in the garden which was perfect for me. I prepared the beds to plant new veggies and took care of the carrots, onions and flowers, under the eye of the babushka, the very authoritarian grandmother. 

I also spent 9th of may there. It is Russia’s national day, also called victory day. It celebrates the end of World War II, a day after western Europe because the peace treaty was signed at 11 pm on May 8th, which means it was already the day after in Moscow due to time difference. I went with Alya to her school, where the kids had prepared a parade. They were all dressed in military outfits and we’re holding portraits of their ancestors that died in the war, as well as Soviet Union flags. They walked in the village at the sound of war songs, then there was a minute of silence with orthodox priests and then some little girls still dressed as military sang songs to a veteran, while a PowerPoint showed more pictures of dead people in the back. The school director told me that I could not understand because the Second World War lasted very little in France. I only reminded him some facts but didn’t feel like arguing too much over it. 

I also helped Alya organize an excursion with her pupils. We went to the local bakery and taught them how to make pizza. Theresa and I were translating everything in English and German. Then we went to the beach by the lake and had conversations with the kids so that they could practice their English. They were really cute and we had a lot of fun. And we ate homemade pizza, which is always a good thing. 

After these very Siberian days I took the train again to reach Kazan (36 hours). I have to say that the trains in Russia are usually very, very hot. It is a thousand degrees in there. After sleeping on the floor of the yurt for 5 days in Siberia I started getting sick, and the very hot train ride did not make it easier. I arrived in Kazan exhausted and my hostel did not let me in because apparently something was wrong with my visa and I had not done all the necessary paperwork when arriving in the country. They “called the authorities”. It was a very stressful moment, but in the end everything got in order and I could get some rest. 

I stayed a little longer than I had planned in Kazan, because I felt really sick and also because I liked the city. It is the capital of Tatarstan, a region that had many influences from Turkey and Mongolia, is in majority Muslim, has very different food and was separatist for a long time. The mosques stand next to the churches. The weather there was very warm and sunny and it was nice to be back in a city for some days. 

I then left to another farm and I’ll tell you the story about the naked man in the sauna in my next email. 

I am currently in Estonia ! Please let me know if you have plans to visit the Baltic countries, Poland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia or Italy in the next month and a half so that we can meet !  

Love to you all, 
Lucile