Blogs from Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 3

Irkutsk is one of Russia's more attractive cities and felt more European than I had expected. It was pleasant just to walk around and appreciate the architecture and green spaces in the sunshine. They also have a fountain similar to the one in Piccadilly Gardens, that spurts out of the ground at intervals and with varying intensity, and with the same consequence as the one in Manchester: lots of children running through it and getting drenched. Irkutsk also has a famous example of the wooden house, the House of Europe, which is particularly elegant. Like most Russian cities it also has a promenade along the river (complete with a fairground), but Irkutsk's is again especially pleasant with lots of interesting churches, theatres and so on. I passed a very nice day just wandering around.... read more

Today I visited the preserved home of Prince Sergei Volkonsky, one of the Decemberist exiles. These were men and their families who were sent to Siberia as punishment for their involvement in the Decemberist plot to overthrow the Tsar in the late 1800s. The home very much focused on the experience of Volkonsky's wife Maria, who followed him into exile along with their children, and in fact petitioned the Russian royal family tirelessly to be allowed to live there privately with her husband and family. Maria was used to being a society lady in Moscow, but was banned from attending any society events elsewhere (even in Siberia), so consequently held many parties at her own home. As she was an accomplished and wealthy woman, the result was that her home became one of the centres of ... read more

The train journey I took from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk was 32 hours long: a night, then a full day on the train, then another night and arrive in Irkutsk early morning. This was the longest train journey I plan to make, at least as far as I have planned ahead! Apart from sleeping, I occupied the day with reading, staring out of the window, eating and listening to music. I enjoyed it for the first few hours but then started getting a bit stir crazy around 4pm in the afternoon. There was only one other person in my kupe carriage, an older Russian lady who spoke no English, so we traveled along in comfortable silence, or so I thought, until she started playing "Troublemaker" by Taio Cruz on repeat on her phone. After 15 or so ... read more

We got a marshrutka* from Lake Baikal to Irkutsk which dropped us near the bus station.*this is a common form of transport in Russia,they are minibuses that use fixed routes and are relatively cheap.We knew our hotel wasn't far but, not sure of the actual location and with two heavy rucksacks, we negotiated a price with a taxi driver who drove us the short 5 minutes to the hotel Viktoria.We were checked in by a lovely English speaking receptionist and chilled out in our large room.It had an en-suite complete with bath which is unusual in Russia.We had some laundry to catch up on and attempted to log in on the pc but there was a network problem so we headed out to eat.The hotel was just off Karl Marx Street,one of the main streets.This street ... read more

From Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk its just over 1000km. This is supposed to take us two days with a night camping in the forest. On 500km ride days the group usually sets off at 6:30. Now 6:30am and Edwin are not natural partners so he usually announces that we will set off at 7:30 and catch them up. So far we have always been able to catch them up - in fact, somehow or other, we usually set off after the group, do 2 or 3 hrs worth of detours for sightseeing and still get to the hotel before the group!!! I think its due to the fact they they like to re-group at petrol stations and all fill up together (it takes much longer to fill 12 bikes than 1 bike!!) and regroup to have lunch ... read more