Best Eastern Delta Hotel Irkutsk

... mix of Western and Asian faces amongst the traders and the shoppers. We get lots of “Hellos” from the smiley children. There are also many old wooden houses to admire with their lovely “lacy” edges to the roofs and windows



Our cities could learn from the transport system.
The public buses are buses as we know them which operate to a timetable
and then ...

... would swarm around you and bite you if you stood still long enough.

Since nearly everyone who stops on the train here's a tourist I thought there'd be a more ammenities but there was close to nothing to do or see in the border town.

Our only option was to hang out in the cafe in the basement of the station, drink beers and play cards. Not a bad way to kill 6hours.

Depart Russian Border 7pm
We finally get ...

... sky was bright and clear and, as we chugged through cleared, drained, cultivated areas the sun intensified the gold of the crops and gave the occasional groups of ramshackle wooden houses a quaint, homely air. We stopped at more frequent small stations, where traders appeared, selling snacks and drinks and fur hats from their carts and baskets. I would like to travel this route in February, the coldest month, and see the same ...

4 nights on train Moscow to Irkutsk

"Result" The two birth cabin we booked was good. About 6' x 7'
AS usual the beds were hard but this is not a problem for us.
But result on top of result. The attendant in charge of our carriage was in her 20's not over built and on the second day smiled at us.

Loo's and washing facilities are about the same size as on an aircarft.

The highlights of the day were when the train stops and it's possible to get off for 20 ...

... get some sleep as I had to be up and ready to get off the train at 0600. But as usual they carried on talking right up until about 3am when I finally managed to get a couple of hours sleep. So many words I could use right now but my mom reads this so better not ...

... we avoided the rush of people. we then walked along the river to the chapel of christ the saviour, but weren't allowed in as we were wearing shorts!! so we sat outside for an hour watching people go in, and guessing as to who would or would not be allowed in due to knobbly knees showing! We have met a lot of people in the hostel from the Uk who are doing the trans siberian ...

... I'm saving Lenin for us at the weekend. Romantic, don't you think? I need to find more theatre as well, although nothing anyone's seen has so far blown them away, apart from the student production which apparently ended in mass slaughter of the cast (not literally) and was a cracking watch, sadly I missed that when I was consumptive. Macbeth still makes me chuckle as it involved a giant hamster wheel as the one piece of set ...

... at the Congress as a 'Helper' lived up to her title. Taking pity on an Aussie and his apparently useless Aussie dollars, she took me to first one bank, who wanted nothing to do with my crazy money, and then to a branch of the Russian National Bank. After braving the snowy weather and slippery footpaths, we had finally located somewhere where I could exchange my Australian dollars for some local currency. We headed back to the Congress venue, I finally paid ...

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... Platz im Regen, singen und tanzen. Sie sehen glücklich aus. Sie sagen, es gibt sonst nichts im Leben hier, was ihnen Freude machen würde. Nach einer Stunde gehen sie. Wie gehen auch. Die Bilder sind schlecht. Die Rentner sollten beim guten Wetter tanzen, umgeben vom Volk. Wir brauchen andere Bilder. Am Montagabend verlassen wir Irkutsk - sechs Stunden Economy. Unser Büro hat schon den nächsten Flug nach Irkutsk gebucht, für Samstag.