Galina's House

We are staying at a homestay in the village of Listvyanka, a village spread out for about three kilometres on the edge of Lake Baikal. The house belongs to our host, Galina, who has been giving us hearty breakfasts (pancakes called ‘oladdy’ with homemade strawberry jam made from tiny alpine strawberries) and lovely dinners (tonight we had a fish called ‘ormul’ which had a thumbs up from everyone). Before dinner we all pile into the ‘baina’, a Siberian outhouse which is like a sauna, and where you mix boiling water from a heater into ice cold Baikal water. It is very refreshing and manages to clean even Harry’s toes, so it must be good.

Another thing for us to get used to is the toilet, which is very much an outhouse. It is also a long drop toilet, so there is no water and all the ‘night soil’ and wee will be used to fertilise Galina’s potato patch in the spring! It doesn’t smell (well, it doesn’t smell bad- it actually smells quite peaty and pleasant!) and Maisie thrills to the novelty of not having to flush- Harry doesn’t notice any difference, as he rarely bothers anyway.

While the children are getting to sleep we watch Russian TV with Galina. We watch the 5 o’clock news at 10p.m. as it is Moscow time and we are in Irkutsk! The TV is a wonderful parade of misery, whether it is the news (Satanists kill four women!) or their version of ‘Surprise Surprise’ where they reveal they have tracked down a long lost relative, only (sorry) they’re dead. We watch the biography of a murdered model and a ‘People’s Court’ where everyone has moustaches (including the women) and shout at a bad guy. No wonder everyone thinks Russians are miserable! Well, Galina and our guide today are not, and have been warm and welcoming hosts for our time in sunny Siberia.