Stepping into Irkutsk, a small and wooden city

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As my flight from Moscow approaching Irkutsk after 5 hours, the largest city in the Russian Far East, and the city next to the world's deepest lake - Lake Baikal, I woke up just before the the sun rises and I slightly open the window shade, the view out of the plane was impressive, and as the plane got closer to the airport in Irkutsk, I started to see more signs of city, but even being the largest city in Russian Far East, then the city is compact, and still looks green, tidy and neat from above.

The airport is very basic and small, generally it's just two rooms shack, I entered one room after walking from the plane, and when walk 10 meters further, I am outside already, exiting the terminal building and into the city. As I walked out from the terminal, I had my first shock of cold in the Siberia, it was -2c in that early Autumn morning, when Moscow was 20c few hours ago, my first impression of Siberia is cold but really fresh.

I was quite surprised not to see any foreigners except a German at the arrival halls who I believed came out from the same flight, while he was looking out the way to the city, I approached to the him and asked if he willing to share a ride to the city and later we found out that he was actually staying quite far from the town, so I decided to take the Maskrutka, or local minibus in Russian, which was a bit hard to find outside the terminal, to the city where my hostel located in, which turned out to be my first fantastic excitement in Siberia.

The room I've booked is very cozy but small, but it's comfortable enough and has everything that I need, wifi, kettle, kitchen, washing machine, of course they have linen for my bed, and first time seeing hostel bed has individual curtain, impressive! The location was perfect and I couldn't ask for any better than this. My friendly host, Alexander, who is native Siberian born young guy, he explained everything about this little city, transportation, cultures, where to change my US Dollars, and good restaurants and cafes, and he even offered me a ride to the city but I gently declinded his request because I pretty much prefer to stay alone and explore it myself. Even autumn is the best season to visit SIberia, perhaps it is off peak season now and there were very few people staying in the dorm, and I met few cool people, two Dutch, one Kiwi, two German, one Swiss and, that's all. And basically, they were doing more or less the same thing : Travelling from Europe by train thru Poland, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirks, Omsk, Irkutsk and Ulan Ude, Ulaanbaatar, Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and ends in Australia, by train for few monhths, and this gonna be my dream travel.

When Beirut is Paris in The Middle East, while Irkutsk is known as Paris in Siberia, somewhat the city looks very much like Moscow, not Kremlin not Red Square, but I am talking about those Arbat Street like, in terms of building achitectures, and pedestrains, although of course these buildings are generally smaller and shorter than Moscow, and the planning of the city is run-down, and it's quite similar to Vladivostok, so I had a mixed feeling between the two places. But there are many nice Siberian wooden buildings in the city though. There are Cyrillic alphabet everywhere (of course, this is still Russia), and no English signs at all : 70s made Lada Cars, Furs, Vodka, Beers, Drunk people, Fishes, Trolley Buses, Dumplings, Sashimi, these things reminded myself that I am finally in Irkutsk.

The main square of the city is just 5 minutes walking from my hostel, and has the site of War Memorial behind the ugly KGB style or ex-Communist headquater, and that is guarded by local schoolchildren. I watched their change of guard and the eternal flames in the centre of the square.

My second time to Russia after my first trip to Vladivostok in 2009, and it has still been an amazing experience though difficult to communicate especially when I am travelling alone, as no one speaks English, but I'm now ready to see the deepest lake of the world - Baikal Lake.

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Comments

[Justin Ling]

Tee....i always enjoy your travel to the beaten path! You never fail to inspire me to travel more....