Within an hour after my last post, everything turned around.
I arrived at my homestay to be warmly greeted by Galina and Alec. They're a cheery couple in their mid fifties who own a 3 bedroom house that they rent out. I would be having the whole place to myself. Galina showed me around, while Alec went out past their lovely garden to prepare their баня for me. Many Russian country houses have a
banya, or as we would call it back home, a sauna. Rashit, my travel fixer, and my hosts all assured me that a good
banya and a home cooked meal would make me feel a lot better. They were right.
After I made myself comfortable, I went down and Alec showed me how to use their
banya. He had a hot fire stoked in the oven and the room was already at 48C (115F). He showed me the cold water tank that I could use for a cold water shock and how to add eucalyptus oil to the steam rocks. He also showed me the bundle of leafy birch branches that I could flog myself with "to make me strong". Alec left me to my
banya and I alternated between oozing sweat and bracing against the cold water I would pour over myself. The house has no hot water, but that's okay, because you can shower in the
banya. A little soap and some water warmed on the oven and you're clean in no time. Of course, it's 50C throughout your shower, so you emerge a bit sweaty, but it's a good clean sweat that dries to make your skin feel soft and fresh.
Leaving the banya at peace, I entered the house at the kitchen to find Galina cooking up a storm. Before me was laid a banquet. Alec and Galina sat and chatted with me as I ate. Every time I paused from my eating for more than a moment to say something, they both chimed in with a gently urging "
kushit, kushit" indicating that I should "keep eating". When I was finally too full to continue, I had devoured two
omul cutlets (a local delicacy fish, prepared by "babushka"-- Alec's mother), half a roast chicken, a cucumber, half a tomato, two helpings of mashed potatoes, a slice of
omul filled pastry, a glass of fortified wine, a slice of cake (also a la babushka), and two lettuce leaves.
Unlike the blokes on the train, I found talking with my hosts to be easy and pleasureable. While the meal wound down, I looked at my watch to see that I'd been having a complete conversation purely in Russian for over an hour. Galina was especially great to talk with, she had great patience as I disjointedly constructed my sentences, letting me speak while occasionally adding a polite correction. When she spoke, she spoke clearly and slowly and took plenty of time to explain words that I didn't understand.
It was about 10pm and my belly and heart were near overflowing with homecooked goodness. I went upstairs and fell promptly to sleep.
The next morning, Galina was there and at the ready to stuff me again over breakfast. Under her steady
kushits I packed in 5
blini (wide, thin pancakes served with
smetana, sour cream), 2 fried eggs, several slices of salami and cheese, a big bowl of hot
kasha (grain porridge, in this case wholemeal barley), topped off with copious cups of black tea.
The extra
blini went in a tupperware container as snacks for my trip. After we finished breakfast, I had just enough time to crap out my dinner before Tollik arrived to take me down to the docks.
The boat trip was fun, of course you'll have to wait for the captioned pictures for most of the story. I decided to cut it short after one night, we woke up to steady rain that seemed like it would last for a while. We packed up camp and headed back-- I was happily greeted with yet more food and a cleansing (and core warming)
banya. The weather didn't improve until this afternoon, so I'm happy we didn't stay out in the wet for another night.
Tomorrow, I get to hang around here for one more day, waiting for the boat to take me to Irkutsk. I may go swimming, or perhaps go chat with a kindly local artist I met the other day. I'll just hang out.
Irkutsk sounds like a decent town, with lots of fellow travellers and facilities. I don't think I'll linger too long though. I'll have to see what the flight to Moscow situation is when I arrive.
