Lake, liver and Lenin...

The stretch of the trans-Siberian railway between Irkutsk and Ulan Ude is said to be the most scenic and we have to agree. A substantial part of  the 7hr journey, in which we had the cabin to ourselves, runs alongside the clear blue waters of Lake Baikal and, with the snow along its shores and the occasional fir tree capped with snow, it was hard to take your eyes off it. 

So why did we chose to stop in Ulan Ude? Well originally we  thought it was in Mongolia and so it would be our first taste of Mongolia, when in fact it will be our last taste of Siberian Russia.  We also  thought it would give us another opportunity to explore Lake Baikal. The reality is visiting Lakes is a summer pursuit and our visit/adventure with Jack was enough to satisfy us for this journey at least. 

We arrived in Ulan Ude to bright sunshine, little snow but plenty of ice and below zero temperatures. Our accommodation – the prestigiously named ‘Clean Hostel’ -  a stones throw from the train station and a 10 min walk from the centre. These are probably its best assets.  After we checked in we took a stroll around town to visit the Lenin memorial. As this will be our last Lenin it was great to go out on a high. This town didn't waste valuable stone on legs, arms or even a body. This statue is just a giant Lenin head. It's the sort of thing you can probably see from space.

So, then we did something I have been trying to do since we arrived in Russia – we went to the theatre. We actually tried to buy tickets for a one hour ballet production the following day but ended up with  tickets for a two and a half hour opera & ballet ‘extravaganza’ event that evening. I really enjoyed it & Mr L only nodded off twice which is quite impressive. 

The following day we visited a few churches and museums – the staff got very excited to have tourists from London and wanted to show us everything which was sweet but exhausting – once you have seen one rock/stuffed animal/bone etc they start to look a bit samey. We also made two food faux-pas. We stopped for a cuppa and ordered what we thought was a cake. It turned out to be a liver and onion pie/ cake in white sauce. I can't tell you what that did to my taste buds. The second was we bought what we thought were seeded bread rolls to have with cheese and they turned out to be jam filled sweet bread. We should have used  Mr L’s latest discovery – a Google translate app that works off line. You hold the phone to the words and press the camera on the app and it reads  and translates them into English. It's brilliant and is highly recommended.

Today we ventured out of town to a Buddhist Temple on a local mini  bus (no.130) which seats 14 but there were at least 22 on our outward journey. The temple was interesting as was the canteen we took  shelter in from the cold and had tea, stew & mash which was delicious.

When we returned to Ulan Ude we found a bar on the 12th floor of a hotel with 270 degree views of the city and decided it was a more civilised way to explore the rest of the city  on a cold day. 

We have enjoyed Ulan Ude. It's where East meets Far East. The buildings, food and people are influenced by so many different cultures but they integrate well and make it a richer more diverse city than we have experienced so far on our trip.

Tomorrow we get back on the train and head for Mongolia.