It really was an awesome time in and around this city! It began with some difficulties with my couchsurfing host because on the day I arrived he was out of town but the problem was solved pretty quickly. When I asked people to host me three different persons accepted my request so I just send some messages around and spent the night at Natalie’s place. The guys who gave me the last 400km lift dropped me out directly at the meeting point (the Lenin memorial) with Natalie ten minutes before the appointment. Beside Natalie there were Ghislain, Magda and Toff already waiting for me. Ghislain is from France, Magda and Michael were from Poland and we all should be hosted by Natalie for this night. So I didn’t really had to look out for entertainment, the company was very nice and funny! One of the first things I did at Natalies apartment was taking a shower which felt like the biggest pleasure on earth, especially in this shower (which was HUGE!). Natalie left us after some time because she volunteered in some kind of a city rally this night but anyway, as I said before, it was a nice and interesting evening. In the morning of the next day it was still raining, like the day before but that didn’t stop Natalie and a friend of Natalie, Ghislain and me from exploring the city inclusive funny photoshootings in a kind of a “Power Rangers” style. In the afternoon I had an appointment with a somehow strange guy but I didn’t know that he’s strange at that time. I was pretty much in a hurry and anyway already much too late so it was not a big surprise that the guy was already gone when I arrived at the Lenin monument. Additional to that I forgot my mobile phone in Natalies apartment when I left there and the way back to the apartment (it was extremely hidden and really not easy to find) was just like a big labyrinth of houses which all looked like the same for me. To shorten it: I didn’t find the apartment again. But I had an idea, how to get my mobile back so I looked for an Internet Cafe and send a SMS to Natalie via Skype (I had her number in my e-Mails) and asked her to meet at the front of the Lenin monument at 19.30. Yeah, so I waited for her and waited for her and waited for her… but she didn’t show up. She didn’t get my message, that was the problem as we found out later. But another girl came to rescue me.She (let’s call her Lena) was waiting at the memorial for someone, too. After some time she came to me and just asked what’s up, we started to talk a little and found out, what a great luck, that she has the telephone number of Natalie and was able to call her (I had almost no money left and my credit card was in my bag at the train station where I brought it in the morning). Unbelievable good luck. Imagine: You’re sitting in a city in Eastern Sibiria, you forget your mobile at a place you don’t find anymore, you send a text message to the person who lives at that place but the person doesn’t receive it and when you’re waiting for the person (probably forever) someone comes to you, starts to talk to you and has the mobile number of the person you’re waiting for! And that all in a city with more than 500000 inhabitants! Really unbelievable for me, the life’s on my side. Lena was actually a very nice person to meet and it came that we hung out almost the whole time together for the next week. So, I went with Lena to Natalies place and got my mobile back, than we met up with the strange guy I usually wanted to meet in the afternoon for some minutes (and to be honest, I was happy when the meeting was done) and later, after I got my bag back from the railway station we met up with Dima, my host for tonight, which also was a friend of Lena. The world is damn small. The evening continued with some alcoholic drinks in a good company at first at a Kafe and later at the riverbanks of nice Angara river before I went home with Dima in a taxi, quite squiff. Strange day, but cool!
The next day was more quiet, I had a small hangover, like everyone else around me and an appointment with Lena and roundabout 20 other people for a dinner party in the evening. I was planning to prepare a vegan Pasta but unfortunately there was no space in the kitchen because some other people already were very busy there. But it was no problem at all, we just went to another hostel (were Lena works) and cooked and ate there. Alongside us a french couple named Claire and Julien, we were hanging out the whole day with already (but the day started quite late), joined us for the food. When we finished we went back to the dinner party and brought the rests of our food with us. The party was big fun, with probably persons from six different nationalities and a big diversity of selfmade music on very strange instruments. A very nice evening, I really enjoyed it! But I had to get up early the next day to organise my mongolian visa (finally!) so we went home (which was Dimas apartment), more or less early, again with a taxi.
Organising this mongolian visa really is a pain in the ass even if it was quite easy this time. The biggest annoyance this time was that I had US Dollars with me to pay the visa as they say on the homepage of their embassy. But somehow they don’t want US Dollars anymore and just accept Roubles now. Before I had something like 75 US Dollars with me and changed almost all me Roubles I had left to Dollars to have 100$, the amount the visa should cost. So I arrived there with my 100$, get an advice to change it back to Roubles and to come back. Ok, I did so but when changing money you always loose something to the original exchange rate so after changing this 100$ back to Roubles I had 200Roubles (less than 4€) too little to pay the visa. My credit card once again was at a safe place at Dimas home so I just went to the hostel were Lena works, borrowed 250Roubles from her, went back to the embassy and paid for my visa application. I was told to pick up my passport inclusive the visa the next day at noon… the endless story seemed to have an end.

I came to Omsk at roundabout 5pm and my situation was the following: I had about 40 roubles left in my pocket, my mobile credit was just 8roubles, it was raining (now since more than 26 hours and over a distance of 450km without a stop – Omsk was almost near to drowning, I never saw something like that (and I was in the Chernivzi area in Ukraine at the days of the century highwater 2008 where 22 people died). With my last money I went by marschrutka to the trainstation where I was supposed to meet another Yuri from the Siberian Association of Work, an anarchosyndicalist union in Siberia. That all worked out very well even with a credit for just two SMS on my mobile and no money in my pocket. I can say that having a good place to stay for that night really saved me. I got soaked through anyway (all things in my backpack where wet as well, including all books etc.) but was able to dry the stuff again at the dacha in the outskirts of the city where we went to. Here Vasili and Magda lived, to older anarchists from the same union than Yuri. I was expected with a good potato-based meal and new clothes and a nice conversation afterwards but I was somehow to tired to stay up a long time. Some stuff about the dacha where I stayed. That was pretty old school, what I really liked. There was no running water in house, the toilet was about 50m from the house away and just a small hut with a heart in the door (like you imagine it in “Heidi”-movies) and with a big garden where they grew almost everything they need for living. Very very nice, I relly could imagine to live in a way like that too when I’m a little bit older.
The next day the weather calmed down a little bit and it was not raining all the time anymore, just 4-5 times during the day for half an hour. I got up not before noon and took some time for myself for breakfast and going back to the city center with Yuri and some short time to check e-mails and post the first “sign of life” post for this blog. I finally got out of the city at 5pm and once again I have to say a big THANK YOU to Yuri, Vassili and Magda. The hospitality in Russia really is unbelievable great.
Hitchhing the 650km was not a big deal and I made it still on the same day (with starting at 5pm really not bad). On the way I met my first hitchhike colleagues, who were standing at the road a couple of kilometers behind me and my driver stopped for them as well. Nice couple, they were on the way to the Altai mountains which must be a very impressive area in Russia, too. But my destination was another one… Lake Baikal and Irkutsk. The next and finally the fourth lift this day then took me directly the last 400km to Novosibirsk where I found me at another big truck stop. I decided to use my tent the first time during the trip, a remote place to pitch it was easily found.
So, you’re waiting for the first big down on the way from Moscow to Irkutsk, right? So, here we are: The whole next day was a single down.
It started when I woke up in my tent and recognised, that the outer layer of my tent was opened and in the inner tent there was a 15cm long cut. That means that during the night someone must have been at my tent and wanted something from me. I didn’t wake up and after a check of all my belongings I was certain that nothing was stolen but it still leaves a very dodgy feeling. In the night when I placed the tent I usually was sure that nobody would be even able to see my tent but it was obviously not the case and now I know that I have to be a little bit more carefully when it comes to the choice of my camping site. Anyway, I had to go on with hitchhiking what was more than difficult around Novosibirsk. It took more than 5 hours just to pass the ring and to get east of the city. Really not nice. I finally got a truck to Kemerovo a little bit later but I shouldn’t reach this ugly city with that truck because suddenly the drivers cabin was filled with smoke and my driver stopped immediately. At the beginning he said something like “niema problem”, a little bit later the “no problem” got to a “malinka problem”, a small problem and finally it became a “bolshe problem” what meant that he was not able to continue. Truck breakdown number 2. I hitchhiked on and three guys stopped for me and wanted to bring me to Kemerovo, and they really did. Even more into Kemerovo than I ever wanted to be. When we passed the city on the ring they drove out into the direction of the city center, what made me immediately protesting and telling them that I would like to get out because I prefer to stay on the ring. But the told me that they will bring me to a Kafe where I can ask people if they go on to Krasnoyarsk what will be better for me. I agreed to that and that was the biggest mistake of the whole day. I thought that they maybe bring me to a Kafe one or two kilometers from the ring but they drove directly into the city center. I was close to a heart attack when one of the guys called a friend there and asked where a good Kafe to bring me would be. So they had no idea about a Kafe where to bring me at all. They drove out of the city center again and instead of bringing me back to the ringroad the went to the other direction and finally dropped my out at a Kafe close to the airport 11km out of the city. They said that the street where the Kafe was situated would lead to Mariinsk and Krasnoyarsk but I had a reasonable doubt to believe that. I asked a truck driver and yes, he confirmed me that I’m totally wrong and should go back. Damn shit, so I started to walk back in the direction of the Ring (which actually was just a half ring and not completely around the city) where I had to pass the city center again. Then it started to rain… I really can’t describe how angry I was with the guys in this moment. After two hours walking through the rain I decided to give up and to take a bus to the the central train station. But not to take a train to Krasnoyarsk, no, to sleep In the russian train station they really often have the so called “rest rooms” which come along with beds in dorms. These are very often the cheapest possibilities to stay over night in a bigger city and they usually are clean and well kept. I paid 350Roubles for 12 hours and was just lucky to take a shower (the first one after 6 days) and to put myself into a horizontal position. This day holds some negative records, so I spent most the money of the whole trip on this day (almost 16Euro!) and made the least kilometers in one day (just 350km). Shit happens…
The next day was more successfully again. In the morning I checked out of the restrooms and took a bus to a town named Berezinsky for 28roubles. On the way to there the bus must take the M53 road whichleads to Mariinsk and Krasnoyarsk as I assumed after a watch in my map. It really was like that and I got out before the town of Berezinski and was back on the track again. Unfortunately it was still raining pretty much during so morning so I had to hitch through the rain what was not really comfortable but I had no other choice. To protect my stuff in my backpack from the rain I put my bag into a bus stop and myself in front of the bus stop at the street. It was not really easy to get lifts (wet people are not very welcome in the most cars) but after 8-9 hours (with 5 short lifts in between) I was was finally picked up by a driver who went to Krasnoyarsk. The man, in a very fancy Chevrolet, was driving together with his son and even spoke some good english (except the persons in Omsk the first person since Moscow!!!) and drove fast, what I really appreciated after too much too slow truck rides. In Krasnoyarsk I arrived at 9pm so continuing hitching made no much sense and I decided to put up my tent again to get some sleep, this time in place where I was absolutely sure that nobody can see it.
Krasnoyarsk is the last big city before Irkutsk but still 1070km away from it. Distances really are unbelievable big here. It’s not really possible to tell you about that, I think nobody can really imagine that who was not going that way by himself. You maybe can take a look at a map and see that it’s really far away but get the real size and get the real feeling how wide everything is away from everything else you definitely have to go by yourself. Btw: The landscape was a little bit disappointing for me, nothing really spectacular. The Ural mountains weren’t that impressive, too and after the mountains for maybe 2500 kilometers thick birch tree forests alternate with just a vast steppe. Every 20-50 kilometer you have a small village and and every 600-1000km a big town you usually don’t see a lot of because of the ringroad around the town. But at all it’s still a very special area on planet earth I think. It’s not really the landscape which makes it so impressive it really is the feeling that here everything is just extreme. Beginning with the weather (ranges between -50degrees celsius and +40degrees celsius a year) and the distances and going on to the people and animals who live there (I saw at least 15 Golden Eagles!). The street quality is ranging probably as much as the temperature. From a new, perfect highway to the most muddiest, bumpiest and dustiest dirt road you find everything. Especially the next couple of hundred kilometers after Krasnoyarsk the roads are very bad and your average speed is very often not more than 10km/h. So, that was area I had to pass this day and except the bad roads I had no real problems to get through. It took it’s time but until the evening I just had 600km left to Irkutsk and camped with good hope that I will be in Irkutsk the next day in a forest close to street.
Yes, it was the last day of my 5500km way between Moscow and Irkutsk. And this day should turn out to be something special again. So all three rides I got this day were somehow extreme. It started with a russian truck driver who brought me to his working place (a building site on the M53 road were he had to load sand) where I spent a breakfast brake with my driver and two colleagues in my drivers cabin. For breakfast they had beside bread and coffee something else, too. Marijuana. Yeah, I’m sure their day will be better after a morning joint at 9.00h but anyway I thankfully declined. The 2nd lift was in truck which was concipated for 2 two people and we were three. The usual co-driver went to bed and I got his seat. It took more than 3 hours in this truck for less than 100km what was the default of the streets and the first foothills of the south-siberian mountains. Then the truck breakdown number 3 followed. I was kind of glad (of course not for them, but for me) when the truck broke down in a very small but nice and interesting small village (something was up with the steering) and I got the next, and my final lift to Irkutsk after one hour waiting (in this one hour 4 cars passed me, the fifth stopped). This ride was fast. Very fast. Probably the fastest of the whole trip and they offered me 14% beer which tasted unexpected good (I think I earned that). That the guys went 150 kilometer in the wrong direction (what I recognized and told them) didn’t really mattered then…

At 8.20pm, after 9 days and 20 hours of hitchhiking I finally arrived Irkutsk!

It really was an unforgettable and unique experience!

From Moscow I left pretty late and I had to wake up at 7 am. But I left not before 2 pm. At that time my laundry was just almost dry. So there was no sense to wake up at 7 am anyway . It took some time to get out of Moscow, because I was a little bit confused with the buses, and stayed at the bus too long. I got dropped out at the place where was nothing around except Russian style apartment buildings. So I had to walk back a couple kilometers, which was actually not funny, but Russia wouldn’t be Russia if there is no solution near by. On the street I asked a guy if that is the right direction to Vladimir, and he said: “Yes”. His English was pretty good and after we talked for some minutes, he offered me a lift to the real outskirts of the city in his fancy jeep. It was a nice trip, he brought me around one hour and after that I didn’t have to wait a long time to get my first lift to Vladimir.

When I arrived to Vladimir it was already night, but I decided to hitchhike through the night. I got a couple of lifts around the ring, and after waiting for more than one hour at a petrol station I decided to put up my tent. On the way to put up my tent, a truck driver shouted something to me. He was a very funny guy, he was from Ukraine and he didn’t believe that I was German before he saw my documents and finally he invited me to his truck for a breakfast. For a breakfast there was coffee and hard bread and a lift to Nizhniy Novgorod. Great! The guy was a little bit exhausting for me, because he tried to teach me russian for every single word he said, for example now I know the words for stiring, spoon and morning (the last one was actually useful). He dropped me out a couple of kilometers from Nizhny at the time the sun was just rising. Spasibo!!!
The next lifts were not really spectacular. Sometimes it was pretty hard to hitchhike and I had to wait for hours for the next ride (the areas of the “Republic of Tatarstan”, the “Republic of Baschkortostan“ and the Oblast Cheljabinsk were pretty hard… they are probably the Bavaria of Russia… not for nothing they’ve got a russian TV comedy show here about the first gay steel worker in Russia from Cheljabinsk ) . Kazan’ was the next big city on my map. And there I met Igor, a russian-kazakh truck driver who told me that he will bring me to Ufa. He was pretty alright and a very good guy. Especially after he offered me to go to the backspace of his truck to sleep a while. I accepted his offer with a big pleasure, but unfortunately the russian country roads turned my well earned sleep more into a roller-coaster journey. But sometime later the trucked stopped and I fell asleep. When I woke up the next time, it was close to 8 pm. I didn’t recognized that we stayed for 1,5 hours, because the truck had a breakdown. Some important thing to get wheels moving was broken. Truck breakdown number 1. When I heard that, I tried to hitchhike further on, but there was no possibility ’cause it was already too late. So I decided to accept Igor’s offer to sleep in his trucks cabin and to go on with him the next day.
The next day I traveled with Igor for another couple of hundred kilometers and the problem with his truck occurred again. Now Igor was more ore less hopeless and I decided to hitchhike on. Igor promised me that he would pick me up later if his problem would have been fixed early enough, but he hadn’t to… It were only 20 minutes until I was picked up from two younger guys who drove me to Zlatoust. They didn’t talk a lot, but it was a fast ride and nice company. Almost at the end of my lift the thing happened that I was really afraid of. They stopped at a cafe at the side of the street and asked me if I want to eat or drink. After declining the first request I pointed to some vegetarian ‘pirozhki’ which was fine with them. We sat down at the table and I was a little bit frightened when the waitress brought us three soups. It was just probably (but usually I don’t think so because of the bouillon) a vegetarian soup. The step after that was the main dish. I don’t know what you would have done, but I wasn’t in the situation that I told them before that I’m vegan/vegetarian and the already prepared dish was served already. It was a dish of pork and porridge and somehow it seemed too rude for me to decline it. So it was the first time I ate meat since years. But believe me I swallowed it down without almost no chewing and all the meatarians can keep their food for themselves. An hour later the guys dropped me out at a petrol station and Kafe near the town Zlatoust, where I should stay overnight. To find a place to sleep was not so easy, camping was not very cool in this area due to too high grass and plants. But in the forest beside the station I found a big wooden panel which was just perfect to place my camping mat. I got out my sleeping bag, earplugs in my ear and said goodbye to the world… for a couple of hours. What I didn’t expect after a very sunny and nice day was the rain which started in the middle of the night. I had no protection against that so I had no other choice then just packing my stuff together (fast!) and leave to the covered petrol station. I waited there sometime until the rain stopped again and found a very cool and nice driver to my direction. His name was Yuri and he was somehow different then the other truck drivers I went with before. That means, that he was not swearing all the time and was pretty quiet all the way. But he really was kind, for example it was not possible to pay anything for me the whole time I went with him, even if I wanted to buy something he insists to pay. He went with his truck all the way to Krasnojarsk (from Kaliningrad, the russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania!) so I stayed in his truck all day even if he was painfully slow (and we still were in the Ural mountains). I was very happy to find a long single ride that day because it started to rain every hour for half an hour and hitching in the rain is not big fun. In the evening I we reached the small town Chastozere where he went to sleep. In his truck there was just one bed so I had to find another place to sleep which was once again no big problem. A bus stop had the honour to protect me from the rain this night I know, usually it’s not the best idea to sleep very visible in a bus stop in Russia but it really was a very small town and it was raining all the time, so nobody really was on the streets and I had a quiet and restful night.
The next day it shouldn’t stop raining for the whole day. Not even for one minute. It was absolutely bucketing down all the time which pissed me off not just a little bit. But good luck again, Yuri was still at his parking spot and was happy to bring me to Omsk, the city with more than one million inhabitants number four (out of seven on the way to Irkutsk) I had to pass. Just to make you understand how it looked like when Yuri and me stopped for breakfast, lunch or whatever, here’s what he ordered for breakfast for me: one soup, one garlic-red cabbage salat, 3 pancakes, a coffee, a tee, porridge and finally a fish. He know that I’m a vegan (or at this time already just vegetarian – I decided to stop my diet at least on the street when I found nothing to eat (not even a banana or apple) for 26 hours two days before!) and usually cared for it very good but fish doesn’t count like meat in Russia (but in Germany this legend that vegetarians eat fish is widely spread, too). I finished everything before the fish and pretended to be totally full when I came to it, so Yuri made a doggy bag for me. In the evening I found a thankful acceptor for the fish in Omsk

I’m in Omsk now, that’s more than 5000km from Hamburg, already asia and 5 hours ahead

Everythings fine with me even if I’m a little bit out of my time schedule (drenching rain for 26 hours without a break stopped me a little bit). I’ve to hurry up now but until the weekend I’ll be in Irkutsk.

The report will follow then I’ve got a lot to tell you!