Ticked off

Sorry it has been a while since my last post but i have been rather busy with trains and... well really just trains... and really just one train. Since i last wrote i have been to Moscow, Suzdal and Listvyanka (on lake baikal). Not much else exciting happened in St Petersburg other than an angry thug man coming up to me and shouting russian in my face whilst making a blade across the throat sign. At this point i was a tad scared and reverted to my britishness by replying loudly and slowly, "Im sorry, i dont speak russian and dont understand you". I turned and walked away as casually as i could and hoped he wouldnt follow. He didnt and my throat is still in tact so... the lesson is, treat all would be muggers with good manners and a polite smile.

Suzdal does not deserve a paragraph. Its not that it was bad, just unremarkable. I would sum it up by saying it was overcast and had more churches in it than you could shake a stick at. (i do realise that by explaining why Suzdal doesnt deserve a paragraph i have given it one but hopefully you will overlook this slight mishap)

Moscow (or to give it its full title to travellers - 'Moscow, the most expensive city in the world') is actually rather nice but niceness only takes you so far when you have to pay six pounds for a starbucks coffee! Red square was nice lit up at night and there were lots of soldiers about. From Moscow i got the train to Irkustk which sounds like a fun old ride. It was four days and nights on a train populated by lots of jolly travellers and no shower. It was not the fun old ride you might imagine. I shared with 3 australians who i am travelling with which was pretty good as i wouldnt fancy sharing with a russian chowing down on borsht and sausage. I read 2 books, wrote in my diary, slept a lot and avoided going to the toilet at all costs. We cracked out the vodka at night which was good but not so great when it came to sleeping on the top bunk of a train which seemed to be going and down hills at an alarming rate. The food was noodles, chocolate and occasionally whatever an old lady was selling by the platform. Often this was mystery pastry. The mystery was usually potato or onions which arent the best in a warm greasy pastry. Needless to say i think i lost weight on the train. The view outside gradually changed between trees, small town, snow, power stations and different types of trees. The Taiga forest of Siberia is twice the size of continental USA (apparently. i didnt measure). The train was a good experience despite possibly leaving me with chronic back pain.

Anyway after arriving in Irkustk we got on a bus (a mere 2 hours as opposed to the 96 of the train) to Listvyanka. Its a small fishing town on the lake baikal which is bigger than all of americas great lakes put together. I stayed in a russian guest house owned by an enthusiatic man called Nicolay. After a good days hike which i went on my own and forgetting a map. I ended up in the forest and climbed a 500m hill (i later checked on the map). This was a good walk although i did get slightly concerned about bears and whittled (if that is indeed the correct verb) a spear - just in case. When i got down the mountain (which didnt have a path... or maybe it did but without a map...) i went into a cafe and kept finding what i thought were little insects in my hair. After quickly finishing my meal to escape the bugs i went back to Nicolays for a banya (which is like a sauna but with an over enthusiastic russian hitting you with birch twigs). It was at this point i noticed one of the insects attached to my hip. Nicolay calmly picked it off (it put up a fair fight) and put it aside, i thought 'if its not big deal to him, its probably fine'. Today i arrived in irkutsk again and the local guide told me that good old nicolay had passed on the tick, in a jar, and she was taking it to a local lab for testing. The test results are still to come back so i have no happy ending for you, or more importantly me, just yet. Although i have had the bill for this service (440 roubles if you wondered - about 8 pounds).

Anyway, im on the train again tonight for about 40 hours to Mongolia. Fingers crossed i dont get struck down with tick bourne encephalitis or any other hard to pronounce, and spell, diseases during the journey.