12/7/2013

Today our American friends, Luke & Maria, grandma Kathleen and the kids Levi and Gabriele, left to go back to Irkutsk and then catch a train to another place in Russia starting with K. After there they are catching trains to Ekaterinbrug and Moscow and then flying home back to America.

Yesterday we went on a cruise around the islands on a boat with Luke, Maria, Levi and Gabriele but Kathleen was resting.

We saw some heads of seals sticking up from the water though they were a bit far. First stop we went to a fresh water spring on the mainland. We collected some water – it’s supposed to have some really good minerals in it. Someone had placed a hollow log where it comes out from and the water ran down the log like a tunnel. There were two logs, one was meant to be for boys and the other side for girls.

We walked back to the ship for lunch and had a picnic on the rocks. Nikita’s homestead – where we are staying had made us sandwiches with cheese, cucumber and tomatoes and also some little sweet donut biscuits but I didn’t like them – too sweet and weird dough. It was very cold and windy as soon as we got back on the ship. They gave us blankets to cuddle into but then the captain invited the kids to come to the little room under where they drive the ship. It was toasty in there.
In the little room, Luke told us lots of stories about his life – once when he lived in Moscow when he was mugged sounded very scary. He lived in Moscow for a year when he was younger so he knew lots of Russian.
Then we stopped at another island that had like a mini Temple kind of thing. If you wanted to walk around the temple you had to take 108 steps and walk around three times, the first time silently, the the next times you need to pray for want you want and then what you are thankful for.

Our boat was very slow so it took so long to get back to this little village. Dinner time had already even started.

In Irkutsk, we walked around the city and saw markets, and lots of buildings and it was a nice city.

By Yasi