Baikal Dreams

During the month of March, I was in Russia, biking across frozen lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world, containing nearly 1/5 of all the fresh water on the planet. It is nearly 2km deep for more than half it's length of 600km. We biked from Irkutsk to Olhon Island, which ended up being around 340km. I went with two friends from my lab in Amsterdam, and one Russian friend from Germany (also the guide/leader). In the end, there was a party of 10 on the ice for a bit over a week. Certain a trip to remember.

What I found most fascinating about visiting Russia was how far away it felt. The fashion on the streets of Moscow already tells you are not in Kansas. There is fur and leather everywhere, on everyone and in every window. Nearly everyone is in a hurry, and certainly they can see you are foreign just from your lack of beast-based clothing. Not being able to decipher a single sign or spoken word also can be a real wake up call. In Germany or France, your mind at least feels like it's seen similar text before. In Russia, your language center will malfunction for a time, until you realize that many words are nearly identical to their English counter part, with the exception of using the Russian alphabet. Then for a short time, you will fell a bit more confident and optimistic. On the flight to the East from Moscow for example, I noticed that I could read "stewardess" in Russian on the Aeroflot flight. After announcing this revelation to Rogier, I felt like a kid who just taught himself to "read" a stop sign.

The people of Russia were all very curious upon seeing us, but I never experienced anything other than longer than average glances, or second looks. Again, there wasn't anywhere that we could blend into the crowd. Still, I had imagined more people trying to sell us stuff, or asking us if we needed a ride, or other general harassment. There was none of this. It could also be that because we were always with Andre, they could clearly see we didn't represent that sort of opportunity. I don't know for sure. I do know that it was an amazing experience which gets more amazing everytime I look at the photos.