Where In The World Is Evan?

I just thought I’d take this opportunity to give you guys a quick update as to what I’m up to before I drop out of contact again for a while.

Presently I am in Irkutsk, Siberia, where I’ve just returned from two days in the tiny lake side town of Listvyanka. The weather here is extremely cold, as anticipated. It’s -13 degrees outside now, but it was around -20 in Listvyanka, and when coupled with both heavy snow and strong wind it makes it a little uncomfortable to get around on foot (Listvyanka has a population of about 2,500 so there is no public transport).

I met a couple of New Zealanders at my homestay in Listvyanka, as well as two Americans in a cafe, which are the only other English speaking foreigners I have met so far in Russia. The five of us ended up having a great time drinking copious amounts of Russian vodka to stave off the cold (which unfortunately did nothing for our balance nor coordination on the icy ground).

Tomorrow night I catch a train out of Russia and into Mongolia, something I’m quite looking forward to after hearing lots of nice stories from the Kiwis, who had come to Irkutsk directly from Ulaan Baatar. Whilst I’m there I probably wont have access to the internet, so I will be incommunicado for about a week (factoring in transit time to Beijing).

Check out the Siberia photo gallery.

It’s been a while since I made a detailed post and a lot has happened. As I mentioned in my last post Amsterdam was fantastic - I can’t remember ever having such intense fun for such a prolonged period as I did there.

My first 6 days where spent in a quiet hostel near the museum district, which allowed me to see 7 museums and countless monuments and buildings. Christmas day was rather quiet and a bit lonely as there was very little to do, but I went out drinking with a group of travelers from the hostel at night which was a lot of fun.

After that I moved to a larger, and much more party oriented, hostel in the center of town. Most of my second week was spent partying, with very late nights and very little sleep. My average daily schedule was bed around 5:00 am and up for breakfast at 10:00 am (as it finished at 10:30). Needless to say I consumed very large quantities of coffee to maintain this sort of lifestyle.
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