Listvyanka is something of a Russian Gold Coast, perhaps a little more classy (perhaps not?!). Located between the mountains and Lake Baikal, it stretches along the shore for about 7km of scenic townscape.
On the weekend, Listvyanka is overrun by tourists, mostly Russian tourists (spivs and spivettes) and wedding parties, but there were other internationals as well. We met Belgians on their way to Ulaan Bator and a group from the UK watching their laddish friend take a skinny dip in the icy waters of the lake.
Travelling through Siberia (in which Lake Baikal is situated) involved a lot of fried-y snacks. Dough, filled with cabbage, onion, potato or met was generally the order of the day, whether we were sitting down in a nice restaurant, or hastily purchasing vittles from Babushkas on train stations. But on the shores of the glittering blue Baikal, it was all about Ormul.
Ormul is a fish only found in Lake Baikal, the world's largest body of freshwater. The fish individually are about 20cm each, but they're big here. A weekend market in Listvyanka was about 50% ormul sellers, and 50% stalls carrying other local trinkets and souveniers.
The fish are sold fresh, dried, smoked and, I think, salted. And they taste pretty good, even to a non-piscatorian like me!
Other delights on offer mostly included tchuckas (sp?) made out of local Siberian/Baikal stones and crystal - purple charyosite, green or black jade, black&white jasper and the green-black 'snake' stone.
As the weekend drew to an end, the weather also closed in, delivering a wonderful snow storm on Monday, where we couldn't leave the hotel - forced to drink vodka and spend a steamy hour in the sauna (no, not in a dodgy way, sheesh!).
All in all, highly reccomend Lake Baikal!
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1 comment:
You crazy Kids!
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