Baikal

Work threw me all the way out to Irkutsk. I'd long dreamed of getting out into Far Eastern nature and seeing the deepest freshwater lake, Baikal. I woke up to the poet's words about "frost and sun", but the day turned out to leave a lot to be desired. The village of Listvyanka on the shore of Baikal (about 1 hour by minibus from Irkutsk) is a place tourists come to (mostly narrow-eyed ones) to show off their long lenses. Minibus drivers are hired through an interview testing for maximum nastiness, so there's no point asking them anything (especially if you're not a Zaitsev). The ride there was awful, because two guys drunk since morning puked on each other right in the minibus, and the windows don't open (-11 outside)....Tip: always take a taxi in Russia.....As soon as I got out by the lake I automatically ended up on a boat in the company of 12 Ravshans and Dzhamshuds (by the way, Galustyan deserves a bullet for that). During a 45-minute boat ride on Baikal I became convinced of how unique the nature there is. You can see the bottom at a depth of 12 meters (Lomonosov yerin məlum) and the air is so clean that you even hold back from accidentally spoiling it)). A super spot for fishing, especially for those who can cast far from the shore. You can catch fish like omul, grayling, carp, crucian carp, pike, etc., but there's also Baikal sturgeon. As the locals said: "Diving is only just starting to develop", and the proof of that is the presence of commercial clubs (see attached). I also visited the seal aquarium on the shore, where a couple of Baikal seals in a pool were dancing up a storm to the Lambada, and also singing and drawing (a super show for kids), but they didn't make friends with me, because they recognized that the fur of the hat I'd just bought right there belonged to their Norwegian relatives. I had lunch there too, at the "Mayak" restaurant — various local fish (our kutum is tastier) and mushrooms (those were super), but very expensive. I got back to the hotel tired and thinking that nothing can replace home sweet home.