Lost in webSpace: Baikal museums

It was a dreary day. I was ready before the OH was up and about and went out, as usual, to look at the lake.

The lake was an unrelieved gray.

And I went straight down for breakfast.

Cold plus rain? Nyet.. not for me.

Our travel partner got in touch at the last possible minute and asked us to carry waterproof boots.

The weather changed again and we didn't need it. The OH was going on and on about how I made him lug boots around unnecessarily.

As soon as our guide saw us this morning, she said Nyet and asked us to wear boots.

Finally!!

We started at the Taltsy Museum. Or the open air Ethnography Museum.

This museum is a collection of buildings moved from their original locations around Eastern Siberia, especially the Irkutsk area, when the Irkutsk Hydroelectric Sam was built and some settlements had to be moved.

There was a Cossack fort, a few homes, administrative/municipal offices from around the region from over the years, churches, schools, a glass factory, a village school...

Some old documents stored in one of the administrative buildings. I took this picture for the handwriting alone.

I just loved the detailing and scroll work in this bookshelf.

This administrative office from the late 1800s had this beautiful window shutters.

An old church.

I saw the Gandaberunda motif in some ceramic tiles. Apparently also serves as the emblem of Russian royals.

The granary and milling equipments.

The star, sable and spear. The old standard of Siberia.

Implements inside a tyipcal Russian home.

Here's a full flefdged administrative unit.

Here's a typical yurt used by the Buryati people. The door was quite ornate.

And this one a sample of a store of those days.

The Cossacks who colonized Siberia, took sable pelts as taxes from the indigenous people. Touched a sable pelt and it was so incredibly soft!

I would love a sable. Not a fur, but an actual live sable and I said this to our guide, Natalia. She gave me a funny look and said that sables are predators.

And of course we had to pull off a balancing act on the Russian style swing.

A bit precarious but we stayed put.

Our next stop was the local fish market.

The Omul. A delicacy of this area.

The vendors were trying to get us to buy fresh smoked fish for our lunch. We politely declined.

Browsed around the shop of the lovely Yekaterina. She had a lovely collection of the typical Siberian minerals like Charoite, Seraphinite, Agates and other names that I couldn't catch.

She wanted to see what a saree looked like, so I showed her the pics taken there just a couple of days ago.

Used the translate app to explain the saree.

We did some mutual bonding over my terracotta jewellery. She was raving about the workmanship and couldn't believe it was all clay.

And I saw this handsome fella near the car. But wasn't that friendly.

Our next halt was the Museum of Natural history of Lake Baikal.

There were interactive exhibits about the formation of the lake. Comparisons to the other famous rift lake in the world, Lake Tanganyika. Displays of the different species of flora and fauna endemic to Lake Baikal, an aquarium showsacing a small portion of the rich biodiversity of the area etc.

There was a submersible that was famous for having taken the President for a deep dive of the lake. And many of the minerals unique to the area were on display.

Our last stop was the church of St Nicholas, the patron of the sailors.