Irkutsk, Russian Federation Travel Blogs

Mocka and off to The Distant Land of Valuble Furs
Jan 30, 2009 (14 photos)

... half an hour to a little orthodox church instead. Was very small but pretty full of gold and icons everywhere. There were some Russian women doing some kind of a service with chanting, all v spiritual. Then to the Huskies! Emma, Declan and I had ...

Now we know cold!
Feb 4, 2006 (9 photos)

... arrival in Irkutsk were transferred to a small village on the side of Lake Baikal called Bolshoe Golostnoe (about 110 km from Irkutsk). The train trip was actually quite enjoyable - we had our own carriage (2 berth) and bought enough supplies to feed a ...

Train Happy in Siberia
Mar 14, 2005 (5 photos)

... only phone in the village which worked intermittantly. We walked down to the edge of the lake to a tiny wooden orthodox russian church decorated with golden fittings on the roof and built / rebuilt entirely from local donations (although the service we ...

Trans-Sib Part One
May 31, 2006

... . Eventually, after a total of twelve hours, we were allowed back on the train and made our way into the Russian countryside. The weather immediately became much colder and the grasslands gave way to forests and mountains. We had entered Siberia. ...

Lake Baikal
Aug 7, 2005

... the hostel type culture hasn't really hit main stream here yet. In Listvyanka I stayed with a family, a young Russian couple (early 20's) from Irkutsk were also staying with the family for the weekend. The couple were really lovely and inbetween drinking ...

the Paris of Siberia
Dec 31, 2005 (20 photos)

... ' in the 1930s, such as the huge and probably beautiful cathedral which once stood adjacent to the pretty central park. However Irkutsk now has major social problems that lurk behind the attractive exterior. Still, it was relatively safe in the lead up to ...

Trans Mongolian Express: Day 4
Jul 28, 2006 (14 photos)

... the safe side though we'd best set the alarms for 5 AM.... make it four. Either way, we were just glad to be through Russian border control. As the day wore on, the JWs asked us if we'd teach them the rules for shithead. They had seen us playing it ...

Slow train to Siberia
Jun 12, 2008 (17 photos)

... are also considered to have zero sense of humour and I read somewhere that during a psychological assessment conducted on a group of Russian boarder guards after a shootout, it was found that 70% of the guards were not stable enough to do the jobs and ...

Surprising Irkutsk
Jun 16, 2008 (31 photos)

... night it will be a moving bed.   During our home stays and also during the two days in Irkutsk we sampled a few local Russian dishes and generally enjoyed the food. We especially liked the Russian beetroot soup, borsch and the local fish from Lake ...

Womb with a View
Mar 11, 2004 (3 photos)

... she had 2 grand daughters and 1 grand son. She gave me a free breakfast. The Russians fucking love sour cream. Irkutsk seems good so far. Heading up to Lake Baikal tomorrow. Weather is great. Everything covered in snow but still fairly warm. I' ...

First taste of Russia
Jul 1, 2005 (4 photos)

... like rolls with fillings, book diving and accommodation for Lake Baikal and use local transport. Our recognition of the Russian cryllic alphabet gradually improved and we had fun reading different signs and being pleased with ourselves when we could ...

10 hours early for a 56 hour train trip
Feb 20, 2006

The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before. - G.K. Chesterton · Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia · Prague time +7hrs · Days to get to Prague - 17 Eating a chunk of them time zones After getting back from Lake Baikal ...

'The Train Across Half of Russia'
Jun 7, 2005 (2 photos)

... Our favourite past time was playing cards. Mostly the same game, altough I met a Canadian Guy and Swedish Girl that taught me a Russian game called 'Roma' which we then played with the Ruskies in their cabin. For two hours straight I kept on loosing, it ...

Damn this place is Cold!
Jan 14, 2006 (6 photos)

... train tickets and assisted us in finding the left luggage storage in the station. With our bags in storage we got a taxi into town. Irkutsk was very quiet at 8am in the morning with not many people on the streets. It was extremely cold as we made our ...

TRANS-SIBERIAN TRAIN #10
Aug 15, 2001 (1 photos)

... on his way to Vladivostok. We ambled around Irutsk feeling uninspired. It was a real shame that Russian Experience didn't arrange a "Buddy" to show us around. Irkutsk was the capital of Eastern Siberia and has a lot of interesting history - but without ...

Mother Russia...
Sep 3, 2007 (8 photos)

... and helpful fellow. When we arrived we were greeted by Vitali, Jack was away on tour. Vitali confirmed many Russian stereotypes of unhelpfulness bordering on hostility but we did eventually convince him to please speak to the Russian person on the ...

Irkutsk, the final stop in Russia
Jul 30, 2006 (11 photos)

... , some Russians who were also staying in the same place were eating and drinking vodka, and they invited me to join them! Again, Russian hospitality. They spoke a little English so we got by, and drank a fair bit of vodka, good stuff too! The next day ...

1st stop in Russia. Only 5185km to Moscow
Feb 18, 2006 (9 photos)

... is one of the largest cities in Siberia (population over 600,000), is an archbishopric of the Russian Orthodox Church and is the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast (an Oblast being an administrative region, much like a state). According to my 'sources ...

The trans-mongolian route. 48hrs.
Jun 9, 2005 (7 photos)

... for. Its got a great walkway by the river and the prices aren't bad especially if you are coming from Moscow. I met a wonderful Russian lady, Yulya, who introduced me to her friends and showed me around, which made the whole experiance that much better. I ...

Irkutsk to Ulaan Baatar
Jan 11, 2009

On the train to Mongolia

Riding the Russian Rails
Sep 5, 2009 (6 photos)

... sufficient supplies to aid Moscow through a major emergency, and my joints were not happy!  My limited Russian vocabulary ('hello', 'potato', 'thankyou') was not much help and neither was my feeble grasp of the Cyrillic script.& ...

Russia - Mongolia
May 27, 2006 (5 photos)

... extra 127 Rubels (4 Euro), but believe me, after 4 days without a shower you would pay a fortune for a shower. On the Russian-Mongolian border you have to leave the train for approximately 30 minutes. take all valuables with you, a mobile phone and a ...

Fucking Irkutsk
Jul 14, 2009 (3 photos)

... we were able to speak to their reception staff, and at last, use the internet. We noted the location of a number of Irkutsk hostels, and presenting a cabbie with an address, neatly written in his native Cyrillic, took our 3rd and final taxi of the day to ...

Trans - Mongolian
Dec 6, 2008

... in a lonely and sombre beauty.  I spent the day buried in a book before early afternoon when we arrived at the Russian border.  Now the Russian/Mongolian border crossing is not something I would call an efficient process. Arriving at the border ...

Siberia is very big
Sep 22, 2006 (3 photos)

A rare building amongst the wilderness. I never got bored of staring out of the window, it was actually quite hypnotic.

Irkutsk and a nice shower!!
Jun 12, 2006

Arrived in Irkuskt (finally) at about 3.30am this morning, local time. stayed in the station for a couple hours then got a taxi to our hostel which is pretty nice, its actually more of a homestay apartment. weve got a private room which is pretty big, and ...

Sunburnt in Siberia!
Jul 11, 2009 (19 photos)

... on the tran siberian to head to Irkutsk which would take just over 2 days to complete. It started well and was sharing with a Russian guy heading to Vladivostock. He didnt speak much which suited me fine as I could just chill out and not have to struggle ...

Lake Baikal
Jul 1, 2007 (11 photos)

It was another day and night on the train before we reached Irkutsk. The scenery was really something, especially with the train running right along the shores of Lake Baikal. It was Saturday evening when we arrived so we decided to go for a few ...

In Siberia.
Sep 21, 2006 (1 photos)

Here you can see it was starting to get colder. This is somewhere in between Novosbirsk and Irkutsk

Irkutsk
Aug 28, 2008 (3 photos)

Nach einer abendteuerlichen Minibusfahrt und einer anschliessend rassanten Taxifahrt von Listvyanka nach Irkutsk kamen wir, zu unserer Ueberraschung, heil in unserem Hotel an. Irkutsk gefaellt uns ausserordentlich gut. Die Stadt hat viel Gruenanlagen ...