Game of Thrones over Siberia

We left Irkutsk this morning, on the Aeroflot flight back to Moscow. It's quite a long trip, more than 6 hours. Fortunately, we were flying on business class, which is a lot more pleasant than the packed rows on economy. We got comfortable seats, with plenty of space to stretch out the legs. The food is very good too.

There is an entertainment system on-board, of course. On the flight from Moscow to Irkutsk, I mostly watched documentaries, about the Kola Peninsula, and the province of Bashkiria. I never watch TV series. My Russian colleague isn’t much of a TV watcher either. But on the flight from Moscow, he started watching Game of Thrones, and got hooked. He recommended me to check it out.

I like to look down on the places we’re flying over. In the beginning we had a nice clear sky and a good view. But then we entered into clouds. There wasn't much else to do, so I decided to watch the first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones. I can tell you,  that I didn’t get  hooked.  It was pretty boring, and I don’t like watching violence.

The scenes with naked girls were nice of course. I have heard you can find compact compilations on the Internet with only the hot scenes from the series. I think I go for this option.

I still haven’t become a TV-series watcher, and probably I never will. I rather spend my time reading books and science papers, and watching girls. Just watching >:)

(I have the habit of taking pictures from planes. This is a picture I took today, cruising over the endless frozen Siberian wilderness.)

Siberia

So, I ended up in Siberia. It wasn’t too bad. It was very nice actually, except for the beginning

The jetlag is bad when going 7 time zones eastward. It’s still bothering me a little bit.

I arrived at the airport in Irkutsk a 4:30 in the morning. I traveled together with a colleague from our Moscow office.  I have seen the city only in the dark. But it looks very nice, with all the old large log houses in the city center.

We have been working all day, and only went down to the city center to eat after work. I’ve eaten lots of good food, mostly fish from the Lake Baikal. It was species of fish I’ve never heard of before, such as sig and omul. They are species that live only in Baikal.

We have been effective at work, so today we finished at noon and went for a trip to Baikal. It’s the lake of the lakes, 1600m (5300 feet) deep, and contains 20% of the (liquid) fresh water on earth.  

I really liked Siberia. I think I would like to go here for vacation some time,

Tomorrow Aeroflot will take me back to Moscow.

(Picture taken today on our afternoon trip to Lake Baikal.)

Sent to Siberia

Someone must have been telling lies about me. I knew I had done nothing wrong, but his morning I was sent to Siberia.

You may have recognized the opening already.  I borrowed and adapted it from The Trial by Kafka.

It’s true that I’ve done nothing wrong, as far as I know, nothing serious at least. We all do things we regret, and things we should regret. That’s the case with me too, but nothing to worry about. YOLO; that's what the kids say.

It’s also true that I’ve been sent to Siberia, by the company I work for.  I’m on my way to Irkutsk, close to the Lake Baikal.

 It’s such a long flight, so I was allowed to fly business class. Now I’m sitting in the Aeroflot lounge in the Sheremetyevo airport, waiting for my next flight. I kind of have a feeling that I’m surrounded by Russian oligarchs, people with expensive clothing and jewelry, and small dogs carried in expensive bags. Actually, many people look quite ordinary too, poor guys like me.

Whatever. The lounge is quite good. I get free food and drinks, and I can relax while reading and writing, but I wish they could turn down the volume on the TV.

  

It’s gonna be interesting to visit Siberia. I wonder if it’s very cold there now. We will see tomorrow >:)

(I haven’t been to downtown Moscow today, just waiting in transit at the airport. So I picked a picture from my collection, taken a couple of years ago, from the top of Moscow State University, one of the famous Seven Sister, built for the 800 year anniversary of Moscow. The big venue in the center of the picture is the Olympic stadium from the 1980 summer Olympics. The games were boycotted by most western countries due to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan.)