The land of bread and cheese....

In my first year of uni I did a European Politics class in which we spent hours of our tutorial debating whether Russia was really a part of Europe, and, if it's western flank is, whether the whole country is? Or is the eastern half more Asian because of it's geographic location?

I can safely give three arguments as to why the Eastern part of Russia, where we are currently located, can safely be classified as European and not a part of Asia:

1. Ready access to quality bread
2. Ready access to quality yoghurt
3. Ready access to quality bread

There has been much consumption of the above staples over the last couple of days, which may also account for the improvement in health.

We spent the last couple of days living on the lake - and not just any lake. We've been at a lovely guest house on lake Baikal, the largest fresh water lake in the world. It's over 600km ong at over 60km wide at most points, so it was more like being at the sea than a lake - albeit a sea with no tides, no waves and fresh water.

Two nights of sleeping on the train cured me of whatever variety of stomach bug I had, and the fresh air has done the rest. The place is rather beautiful - a deep still pool of water with mountains that come tumbling down from all sides, all lush with green pines. The lake is actually a tectonic rift that will one day split the continents of Asia and Europe in half.

We went for a couple of long walks, had a boat ride and a traditional Russian sauna, which was much like any other sauna I've had except at the end you hit each other with bouqets of birch branches. This is actually a bit less kinky than it sounds - it's a massage technique where you feel like your being hit with wet plastic bags. Very relaxing, much like the last few days.

This afternoon we start the 3 night train ride to Moscow. Next time I write I'll either be very relaxed or completely destroyed by it.