Stunning Altay mountains, amazing people and a good old roadtrip
We've been travelling for 3 weeks now through Russia. It's funny how fast you get used to life on a constant move. The kind of life where you spend countless hours on a train, don't always know where you're going to sleep the next night and where the normal everyday things like showering, doing laundry and having internet are not necessary so certain. When so many aspects of your life are changing and moving all them time, your perspective of what is staple will change. You find yourself relaxing and feeling home almost everywhere.
When you're on a longer trip like this, it's also important to take some breaks now and then. I guess it's all about balancing, finding harmony between the movement and staying still.
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| Morning coffee and porridge on a train |
Right now I'm on one of my homes; the train. 15 hours has went on it now and there's two more to go. I've definitely noticed myself really enjoying these train rides, sure sometimes it's bit uncomfortable with the heat on the train and the tiny space you can not move too much, but it is a time, when you're just staying still. Reading, writing, watching a movie or just simply being.
After Moscow we had few days in Kazan. Kazan is the capital city of Tatarstan. In Kazan we rented a bikes and drove around the city.
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| Qolsärif Mosque |
Next destination was Yekaterinburg. Where we had a great couchsurfing host Mariya. We had a great time exploring the city with her!
Yesterday we left the beautiful Altay mountains behind us and headed to the next destination, Krasnoyarsk. After visiting so many cities, 3 days on the countryside was definitely needed. The Altay mountains are on the border of Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. We rented a car from Barnaul (which was a bit of a struggle) and headed to the mountains. We got the car on Wednesday at 14.00 and first day's agenda was just to get to a little village called Chemal on the start of the Altay region.
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| Map of Altay |
We had booked a hostel/ cottage in Chemal and arrived there around 23.00. To our surprise they had a sauna still warm and ready for us.
The owner of the place was very sweet lady and trying to have a conversation with her, made me wish again I spoke some Russian. But it's awesome how much you can do with few words and a help of a google translate.
The next day we had nice little walk in Chemal and continued our way to south. In Altai there's one main road (called the Chusky trakt) and along the way you can see amazing mountain scenery's. If you have four wheel drive you could go to the smaller roads as well, but since our rental car was not and we didin't have longer than 3 days to spend there we just ended up driving in the main road (mostly at least). Good that the views were breathtaking from the main road as well!
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| On a way from Chagan Uzun (place called Mars) which was not exactly on the main road |
On the second day of our roadtrip we met two really nice Siberian girls and ended up spending the whole day and night with them.
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| Geyser lake |
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| Martian landscapes |
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| After seeing countless cows, horses and dogs, we also found a camel |
After this trip I remembered again how much I love the countryside! Travelling in a cities can be really nice as well, but it's never quite the same as the feeling you get when looking at the gorgeous mountain range, never ending fields or beautiful green forests.
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| Never getting tired of all the sunsets ❤ |
Now few days in Krasnoyarsk and then we're off to Lake Baikal!
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| This is where we have reached now. |
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