The weather at the day of my arrival in the saddle between the two biggest volcanoes was very bad: strong wind and a lot of rain. Because of the elevation of 900 m it was very cold too. It made no sense to climb to the volcano by these conditions. And I didn't even want to pitch my tent there. So I was glad to find the two nice wooden houses and stay there till the weather will be better.
The inclement weather lasted two days. Fortunately there was an birthday party going on in the wooden houses. The nice people invited me to celebrate the birthday with them. I was confirmed in my opinion, that the Russian are feast-loving people: plenty of good food, vodka, beautiful women, singing and dancing.
I was positive surprised of the quality the Russian cuisine. I didn't expect it to be so varied and international influenced. The directly neighborhood to many different cultures caused, that many traditional dishes from other nations got part of the Russian cuisine. Some of them even since so long, that they are now regarded as typical Russian. For example the well-known sashlick (meat skewers) is actually of Caucasian heritage. When I had enough of salmon and caviar I especially enjoyed the Uzbek cuisine.
