The City of White Nights

Saint Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen.

It's Paris with canals, Budapest with flair and Venice without Italians. It has Baroque-gilded palaces like the Winter Palace, Soviet-style block buildings and the invariable Neva River running through.

As you can see, I'm in love. In love with a city where the sun doesn't set for a few long days in June called White Nights. The city is alive with special theatre events, boat trips and strolling the ever-present canals that criss cross the city.

Highlights so far have been:

The Hermitage Museum - despite the hour and a half wait and elbowing your way through some of the more popular exhibits - there is a spectacular array of artwork from Egyptian mummies, Matisse's "La Dance", Catherine the Great's Throne Room and my favorite of the day: Rodin's "Eternal Spring".
Boat trip on the Neva at midnight. Every night the main bridges on the Neva River rise to allow the passage of ships, but, at the perpetual dusk of White Nights the whole city comes alive. I took a boat trip that left the dock at 12.30am to cruise the canals and see the raising of the bridges with the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background. It was truly spectacular.

Finally, I saw "Anna Karenina" the ballet in the wonderful Mariinsky Theatre. It was incredibly well done and a special celebration night where the muse of the composer was in attendance. And, I didn't cry at the end...a very good night indeed.

Except today, it is pissing rain. No, not pissing, sleeting rain. So, I get a day off from pounding the pavement in search of another Lenin statue and get to blog to my heart's content.

There are moments

There are moments when you travel where everything is right. Where you feel at peace, calm, happiness, breathless, whatever you want to call it.

Like when I watched the sunset on Lake Baikal on a boat overlooking Shaman rocks - one of the most sacred places in Buryat culture. The sky turned pink all across the lake and the stillness was infectious.

Or when I saw the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg for the first time and just stood there, mouth agape and staring at the splendor of it all.


There are 'moments' where I catch myself smiling like an idiot bumping across a pot-holed road in Siberia in a chocked full marshtruky bus for 8 hours and being more uncomfortable than you could imagine and yet being happy.

It's not that there are none of these breath-stopping moments at home - nights at the cabin, drinks with the girls. But 'moments' when you travel are particularly special because they can be so unexpected, so untimed and often after a long day's travel or a few days without a shower.

The Toilet

(actual picture of a toilet at the hostel)

One of the greatest traveling adventures is how exactly to do the personal business we do in the bathroom.

When I leave my hostel dorm, instead of doing the 'cell phone-wallet-keys' check, I do the 'toilet paper-hand wash' check. It's quite a talent to learn how to squat across a 'toilet' in some of these countries. Often the 'toilet' involves a hole in the floor with, essentially, a missing floor board that you balance across and (try to) aim.

In the Mongolian ger country, when you ask where the toilet is, you get a blank stare and then a arm sweeping across the landscape. Because the earth is the toilet - if only you can find a small bush in the endless steppe to squat behind. I thought I had a great spot, in a bit of a depression, hidden by a scrub of grass - until a visiting local buzzed by me on a motorbike - the best I could do was smile and wave.

Then on the train you are forced to do your business while perched over a toilet that usually is missing any semblance of seat while the constant rocking of the train tracks. If you are wondering, the toilets 'flush' directly onto the tracks.

But the best part about the traveling ablutions is that you can talk about ANY of your bodily functions in a serious conversation with every other backpacker. Diarrhea in Ulan-Ude? Hmmm...interesting. Constipation in Ulaanbaatar? Must have been the pizza. None of these observations are ever taken offensively, in fact, they are often welcomed. Because all of our bodies are subjected to the constant changes in diet, water and stress that any normal human that doesn't try to do 5 countries a year isn't subject to.

So, in conclusion, I've had a bit of diarrhea today but the toilets are comfy so I don't really mind. Too much info for those at home? Maybe.

And here is a gratuitous shot of Lake Baikal to cleanse your palate after that post.

Baikal

Lake Baikal is a study in superlatives - biggest lake, deepest, oldest, most biodiversity, cleanest...but that doesn't describe the singlemost important thing about this Siberian water reserve.

It's beautiful.

Stunningly beautiful in a way that supersedes all superlatives. It changes color, it dances in the sun, it's crystal clear and you can see across the expanse for miles. I find it absolutely fascinating and peaceful.

It would be much more peaceful if I didn't have the most annoying roommate on the planet. We met on the train from Ulaanbaatar and found out it was just two of us in a compartment designed for 4. A bit of luck at the beginning of a 36 hour train trip. The train itself was fantastic, I love train travel and I love the slow rhythm of the cars going over the tracks. After that journey, I got onto an 8 hour bus ride across the bumpiest road ever to Olkhon island - an island in the middle of Lake Baikal.

And she followed me. I'm not being a bitch, well okay, I am. But do you REALLY need to hum and talk to yourself for more than 8 hours a day? It seems a bit excessive to me.

Now, I'll spend 4 days relaxing here and hiking around the island then it is off to Irkutsk to catch a flight to St. Petersburg.

Realizations

Spending a week in ger country was amazing and peaceful and fascinating but I'm a city girl, right? I've tried to balance my country-time with city-time and have spent 5ish days in Ulaanbaatar.

This has been a bit of a week of realizations: 1) I realize I know nothing about Buddhism. 2) I realize I'm a closet country girl and 3) I'm really am a wanderer.

1) I went to a big Buddhist ceremony in the main temple in Ulaanbaatar and as far as I could tell - it consisted of people-watching, milling about, watching the head monk sit at the front and the distribution of Chocolate Wagon Wheels. Yes, I'm not kidding - wagon wheels - is it too late to tell them marshmallows aren't vegetarian and not even food. The ceremony was very cool, but it was all in Mongolian so I ducked out early.

2) You'd think that I'm a city-girl, raised in the big bad E-ville...but I'm not really. Back in the city I've been craving the country side. I've been dying for an endless view and watching the storms roll in for miles. So, I took off for a day to a National Park called Terelj a couple of days ago and hiked through pine and cedar forests to overlook more steppes and mountains. It was a picture perfect day and the weather finally cooperated.


3) I originally planned my trip to do the Trans-Siberian in both directions. Then I switched it to the Trans-Mongolian to the Trans-Manchurian. Then it became the Trans-Mongolian to the Silk Road. And now, I'm flying one leg.

I've decided to cheat and fly from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg to catch the White Nights Festival in the cultural capital of Russia, this will allow me to spend 4 days appreciating the depth and vastness of Lake Baikal instead of the depth of body odor of my train mates for 4 days. It's a large deviation but I think it will be worth it. I'll have plenty of time on the train and still will likely go through Kazakhstan but that's still a month away. I could end up in India knowing me.

Tomorrow I set off on my first epic train ride - Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk for 36 hours. I'm excited to get moving and see something new. I'm also really nervous about whether I'll like Russia, I guess it's the reason why I travel - to walk into the unknown with a backpack.

Random activity last night - went to the opera (in Mongolian).

Yurts, Gers and Mongolian Nomads

The Mongolian sky is endless, I always thought Alberta was "Big Sky" country, and then I spent a week galloping across the Mongolian steppes.

The past 6 days were spent walking, horseback riding and camel riding around Bulgan aimag (province) in Western Mongolia. I signed up for a eco-tourism getup with an Irish couple to spend a week carousing with the locals.

The first day we traveled to our first ger (yurt) and settled into the landscape. It was vast and empty with almost no greenery to support any substantial life. Even though the pictures show swaths of green - it is deceiving - the grass grows only inches and sprouts in small tufts that are separated by the lack of nutrient content. We mounted our camels and set off for a few hour ride, then a massive sandstorm rolled in. Somehow our guide found his way in the storm to a spectacular sacred site covered in blue cloth celebrating the sky.


The second day was a bit of an adventure, our guide from the day before was too hung over to actually do the scheduled program so we made our own program hiking all the rocky crags and hills in our site. Vodka is a burden everywhere in the world.

Our next site we stayed in the ger with the family, watching solar-panel powered black and white TV crowded around a 14" set. A Night in the Museum isn't as good when its dubbed in Mongolian. That night we were greeted with one of the most spectacular sights of my life - with a sunset that gave a panoramic vista of mountains, sand dunes and pastures filled with goats and sheep.


Our last site was nestled into the mountains and we rode more horses, hung out with the nomads and ate traditional Mongolian food with the families. This traditional food consisted of dried mutton, noodles, more dried mutton, more noodles and the occasional milk tea. Now back in Ulaanbaatar - I went for pizza.

Few people can say they have galloped across the steppes and in the same trip visited mountains, monasteries, sand dunes and rolling hills. It was spectacular.

Sainbanuu

Ulaanbataar is known for very little, it's a hodge-podge of a city that seems to have no rhyme or reason.

And it's notorious for pickpockets.
Except my ninja skills are way too good for these amateurs. I caught one today trying to unzip a pocket on my day bag. I yelled at him out in English pretty good but I've only been here a day, so my Mongolian curses aren't quite up to snuff.
Other than that, it's been somewhat uneventful arrival in Mongolia. My first impressions are that Mongolians are incredibly peaceful people, they leave you alone but are willing to help and friendly. Tourists don't get lots of unwanted attention (except from hordes of pickpockets) and there are tons of tourism resources to choose from. It's a fantastic introduction to the Trans-Siberian adventure.



I have booked to leave Thursday on a 6 day horse/camel/foot trek through a set of gers to stay in yurts and hang out with some nomads. Sounds cool - I learnt how to play a game with sheep ankle bones today (FYI - I kicked ass) and learned some useful phrases in Mongolian. Except I didn't learn - "Help, my ass hurts". Apparently the saddles used here are made of wood and I can only assume what I'll feel like after 12kms of horse riding.

I'll be staying in the traditional housing and doing stuff...I'm a little clear about what the days will consist of but I hope it will be peaceful and photogenic.

So, I'll be off the grid for a bit while I experience the true Mongol style and pretend I'm Chinggis Khan taking over the world.