Siberia (Irkutsk and Lake Baikal)

I was very excited to visit Siberia. Maybe it had to do with growing up during the cold war and the associated propoganda, reading how the weather and people of the region severely weakened the armies of both Napoleon and Hitler, or watching Rocky IV a few too many times, but Siberia seemed such a far away, unreachable and unknown area. In some ways, many of our preconcieved notions were true, while some were completely off-base. We'll start with music, fashion and alcohol:

Music:
The stereotypes are true. Upon arriving in Russia, Marie walked into a store to purchase cold Pepsi and water. Sure enough, one of the other patron's mobile phone rang to the tune of "The Final Countdown" by the 80s superband Europe. We heard a remix of song in a restaurant the next day as well. So much of the music seems to be similar to the western rock and electronica heard in the late 80s/early 90s. As this is being written, "Be My Lover" by La Bouche is playing in the restaurant. While that may be perfectly normal for westerners to hear that in a "retro" club/bar, here its the cool places that play this stuff.

Fashion:
Didn't quite know what the stereotype was, other than it was bad and people wore big hats. While there were no big hats (it is summer), we did notice that Siberians guys LOVE wearing athletic jumpsuits (preferably Adidas) with white stripes on the sides. Also, Siberian women of all ages love using really unnatural red hair color (the more unnatural the better).

Alcohol:
The stereotypes are true. We noticed numerous people drinking beer/vodka in Irkutsk at 7.30am, and the beaches of Lake Baikal were full of beer chugging consumers. One surprising thing was that beer appears to be rapidly closing in on vodka as the people's preferred poison.

Lake Baikal:
Lake Baikal is the deepest fresh water lake in the world (over 1 mile deep at some points!!!), contains approximetly 20% of the world's entire fresh water supply, and more than the 5 Great Lakes combined. Its so huge and takes so much energy to warm up that even in the height of summer (when its 30 degrees centigrade outside), the water gets no hotter than 15 degrees centigrade. Apparently it gets so cold during the winter that people can drive their cars across the lake. Some scientists believe that down the road, its going to become another ocean. Lots of hiking and fishing in the area -- quite a neat place.

We stayed in Listvyanka, a small resort town on the shores of Lake Baikal. According to the pictures on the wall, some notable Russians stayed at our hotel including Boris Yeltsin (smiling and looks drunk) and Vladimir Putin (not smiling, looks angry).

Other odds and ends:
- I expected to see a lot of Soviet-era factories, apartment buildings and war relics. And while there were some, they were surprisingly few in number; they were clearly more small, wooden (and often times abandoned) houses and sheds. And the summer time, the scenery/landscape is very similar to that found in upstate New York, or Canada: lots of pine trees, ferns, grasses, and blue skies.
- Please help stop "The Paris of....": Just as Beirut refers to itself as "The Paris of the Middle East", Irkutsk is "The Paris of Siberia". It is not. The line has to be drawn somewhere. My friend/co-worker Anthony now sarcastically refers to Newark as "The Paris of New Jersey".

Bottom Line:
At the risk of offending some readers of the blog, people nostalgic for the New Jersey Shore circa 1993 will LOVE Siberia.
- 90s dance music;
- women with REALLY unnaturally colored hair;
- muscle-bound guys shirtless/wearing jumpsuits;
- picnics on the lake shore;
- poorly "pimped" out domestic cars (here its Lada, whereas in Jersey it would be the Camaro, Mustang or Monte Carlo); and
- massive, massive amounts of alcohol.