Listvyanka

Our sojourn on the shore of lake Baikal was in the small town of Listvyanka. The town is not at the widest part of the lake (79km), rather it is 40 km to the other side. The town occupies four valleys and is only about 4km length in total. The houses are mostly wooden and have colourful shutters around the windows. Some are more weather worn than others, but this is not surprising as the weather here can change drastically within only a few hours and storms can be ferocious. As I've mentioned before, the food here was excellent, and particularly at our guesthouse (Sasha's) where his wife 'Mama' Rita cooked us a fab breakfast every morning.

Other than exploring the lake we found a couple of other things of note here. We went to see the only working Orthodox church in Listvyanka, where were had to wait outside for a christening to finish. Fairly understated outside, but perfectly kept it was a pretty church, and as it was one of the first we saw on our trip we spent some time here admiring it.

We also went to have a look at Retro Park, a sculpture park using parts of old soviet-era cars. It was a little bit of fun and good to see the old cars parked up.

There isn't a great deal more to do or see in Listvyanka but it is definitely a worthwhile place to spend a few days. Especially if the weather is nice enough for you to swim in the lake (too cold for us wimps while we were there). I really enjoyed the time I spent there, especially since the following week and a half were pretty non-stop with travelling and sight seeing.

The first bit of cyrillic I could read (Post Office)