Irkutsk the sinking city!

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After arriving back in Irkutsk from Olkhon (another 7 hour cross-country rally!) we headed for our hostel/guest house only to find no-one was there to let us in Errr, a number pinned to the door but since we didn’t know how to ring it from a uk phone we’d to set off back into town with our backpacks in search of a pay phone or internet café none of which exist in Irkutsk! This was turning into a long day! We eventually managed to find a Russian lady who spook some English and allowed us to use her mobile and at last managed to get into out hostel phewww!!



After eating such simple food for the last few days on the Island we headed straight for subway yuummmm!! (no mcdonalds/kfc in Irkutsk, and as we found out when we arrived from Moscow the local fast food joint serves microwaved pre cooked food!)



The next day we headed out for some sight seeing, which really didn’t take that long, some wooden buildings to see which have sunk into the ground as the ground freezes the thaws each year, a river sidewalk, and the Angara steam ship (it was pretty crap.. think they be doing it a favour if they let it sink!) .



Our last day we arranged to go on the Circumbaikal railway, an old part of the Trans-Mongolian line which goes around the southern part of lake Baikal and over a 60 km line it has over 30 tunnels and 200 bridges - it was one of main reasons for stopping at Irkutsk. After an hour bus and 30 mins on a boat to get to Port Baikal where the train goes from, we got our seats which were with two Russian families with eight kids who beat the sh*t out of each other for the next 10 hours! By the time we got to the second bridge we wanted to throw ourselves off! The train in general seems to be used as a bit of a booze cruise for the Russians... not very relaxing, swarming with flies no heat and was £45 each, maybe we were just unlucky, but the Island was far better!



Our opinion of Irkutsk was expensive, pretty depressing, not much to do.. we were glad to be getting the hell out of there (def. worth stopping for the Island though.)



30 hour train journey to Ulan Bator/Mongolia next, Russian has been such an experience but with the language barrier, lack of smiles J and expense - we’re ready to move on.



Love Phil & Alana xx

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