Digenis.org

Well, I’m back in the US for about a month and a half before it’s back to Moscow for a year.

My last week in Russia was spent travelling around the eastern parts of the country, including Irkutsk, Ulan-Udei, and the island of Ol’xhon on Lake Baikal. It felt great to shove my wallet to the bottom of my Kelty, knowing that I wouldn’t be needing currency or identification for a few days.

I found eastern Russia to be quite different than the western cities I have visited. The people and the language were both very distinct. I must admit that after hearing the sweet Irkutsk dialect of Russian for a week the Muscovite variant seemed a tad harsh on my ears upoun return to Moscow.

Ol’xhon was quite possibly one of the most peaceful and serene places I have ever travelled around, and I have been to many places. . .

We stayed at an awesome yurt camp that had a Russian banya. Needless to say, we made use of it on several occassions and found it especially useful after Justin and I braved the freezing cold waters of Lake Baikal at 2am (Wes has video footage of this). . .

Ulan-Udei felt much like its neighboring country, Mongolia, which lies less than 100 km away. While there, we visited a Buddhist temple and ate at a few Buryat resturants.

Returning to Moscow was bittersweet.

I loved being there, but in the back of my mind the fact loomed that I would be leaving again in just a few days. Not only that, but that those few days would be jam packed with the hopes of fulfilling plans which had not been accomplished in the seven weeks prior, saying ‘farewell’ to friends I had come to love, and packing.

Despite the crappy weather, I spent a good deal of time walking around the city in the 24 hours before I left the country, soaking in as much as I could in order to make up for the month and a half I would be away. The music in my earphones as I walked the wet streets of Moscow did not take my mind off of the forementioned ideas. Instead, it acted as a soundtrack for all the memories that had been created this summer.

Damn, I’m going to miss that city.