Around the World in 80 Girls: The Epic 3 Year Trip of a Backpacking Casanova by Neil Skywalker Page B
Authors: Neil Skywalker
Ads: Link
eighty hours and lots of trouble I finally arrived in Irkutsk. I still have Elen on my Facebook.
Russia – Irkutsk and Ulan Ude
On arriving in Irkutsk I took a taxi to the nearest hostel, where luckily they still had a bed available. I found four guys in the kitchen, three English and one American. We had a lot of drinking fun that night; after my trip I was definitely in need of a shot, or two or three. The guys invited me to come with them to Lake Baikal and to Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia, and the next day the five of us went to the train station to buy tickets. I had some doubts about doing this because I thought I might want to stay longer in Irkutsk and go out a bit, but I bought the ticket anyway and we went to Listyanka, a small tourist town next to the famous Baikal by minivan. Lake Baikal is the deepest and biggest freshwater lake in the world; it’s the size of a small country and it’s legendary – there’s a great Russian folk song about it.
We walked and climbed a bit along the shoreline and took some great pictures of this endless, clear blue lake. After that we bought some beers and rested a bit on the small beach.
Although the Russian summer is hot, the water was freezing cold and we only swam for a few minutes.
There were two local girls hanging around us and they giggled a lot when they saw me mooning passing boats. Who can resist such a work of performance art? They came closer and I splashed some water on them, and we got talking. One girl didn’t speak any English but the other one, who was a stunning blonde, spoke a little. We chatted for a while until the guys wanted to go back to the hostel.
We walked back to the bus stop and ate some delicious smoked fish along the way. Close to the bus stop we were eating and drinking some more and I ran into the two girls again. They said wanted to go to a club with me. “With us?” I asked them. “No, with you” they replied. It was pretty clear they were not attracted by the shy behavior of the others. I still had to say no to them, unfortunately, because I’d already checked out of the hostel and had a train ticket. They were very disappointed. I tried to convince the guys to change the tickets and stay just one day longer but they wanted to go.
We went back to the hostel, took our bags and got on the train to Ulan Ude. There’s never a guarantee about anything, but I was pretty sure I could have at least kissed that cute one on a night out. Oh well.
That night we drank lots of beer on the train. In Russian trains, drinking beer is quite normal, there’s a guy walking around with a little shopping cart selling it. We arrived quite early and we walked around the city a bit. One of the guys, the baby of the bunch, was named Chris, and when I found out he was nineteen I told him I was old enough to be his father. After all, I was thirty-two and I first had sex when I was thirteen with an English girl named Rachel. At that he shouted out: “O my god, my mom’s name is Rachel”. I burst out laughing and made quite a few jokes about that, telling him we’d hadn’t been very safe and so it was entirely possible that I’d knocked her up. Actually, I checked, and his mother was older than the Rachel I was with. Still, we all laughed about it, and from that moment I called him son and occasionally had a portentous father/son conversation with him, dispensing sage advice. Because you really want your fatherly advice to come from a guy who sold his house to bum around the world for three years and pick up girls.
We bought some more beers at a supermarket and started drinking again. It was eleven in the morning and we were already downing beers like idiots. We all took a minibus ride to a Buddhist monastery (yes, Russia has those too) and were surprised to see just how poor everything was, while the monks were walking around with mobile phones and gameboys.
At night our group went to a Mongolian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet.
Russia – Irkutsk and Ulan Ude
On arriving in Irkutsk I took a taxi to the nearest hostel, where luckily they still had a bed available. I found four guys in the kitchen, three English and one American. We had a lot of drinking fun that night; after my trip I was definitely in need of a shot, or two or three. The guys invited me to come with them to Lake Baikal and to Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia, and the next day the five of us went to the train station to buy tickets. I had some doubts about doing this because I thought I might want to stay longer in Irkutsk and go out a bit, but I bought the ticket anyway and we went to Listyanka, a small tourist town next to the famous Baikal by minivan. Lake Baikal is the deepest and biggest freshwater lake in the world; it’s the size of a small country and it’s legendary – there’s a great Russian folk song about it.
We walked and climbed a bit along the shoreline and took some great pictures of this endless, clear blue lake. After that we bought some beers and rested a bit on the small beach.
Although the Russian summer is hot, the water was freezing cold and we only swam for a few minutes.
There were two local girls hanging around us and they giggled a lot when they saw me mooning passing boats. Who can resist such a work of performance art? They came closer and I splashed some water on them, and we got talking. One girl didn’t speak any English but the other one, who was a stunning blonde, spoke a little. We chatted for a while until the guys wanted to go back to the hostel.
We walked back to the bus stop and ate some delicious smoked fish along the way. Close to the bus stop we were eating and drinking some more and I ran into the two girls again. They said wanted to go to a club with me. “With us?” I asked them. “No, with you” they replied. It was pretty clear they were not attracted by the shy behavior of the others. I still had to say no to them, unfortunately, because I’d already checked out of the hostel and had a train ticket. They were very disappointed. I tried to convince the guys to change the tickets and stay just one day longer but they wanted to go.
We went back to the hostel, took our bags and got on the train to Ulan Ude. There’s never a guarantee about anything, but I was pretty sure I could have at least kissed that cute one on a night out. Oh well.
That night we drank lots of beer on the train. In Russian trains, drinking beer is quite normal, there’s a guy walking around with a little shopping cart selling it. We arrived quite early and we walked around the city a bit. One of the guys, the baby of the bunch, was named Chris, and when I found out he was nineteen I told him I was old enough to be his father. After all, I was thirty-two and I first had sex when I was thirteen with an English girl named Rachel. At that he shouted out: “O my god, my mom’s name is Rachel”. I burst out laughing and made quite a few jokes about that, telling him we’d hadn’t been very safe and so it was entirely possible that I’d knocked her up. Actually, I checked, and his mother was older than the Rachel I was with. Still, we all laughed about it, and from that moment I called him son and occasionally had a portentous father/son conversation with him, dispensing sage advice. Because you really want your fatherly advice to come from a guy who sold his house to bum around the world for three years and pick up girls.
We bought some more beers at a supermarket and started drinking again. It was eleven in the morning and we were already downing beers like idiots. We all took a minibus ride to a Buddhist monastery (yes, Russia has those too) and were surprised to see just how poor everything was, while the monks were walking around with mobile phones and gameboys.
At night our group went to a Mongolian restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet.
Similar Books
