Best Eastern Delta Hotel Irkutsk

Arriving at 5am with a snowy blizzard and little sleep, the first few hours were spent in the station drinking tea, eating pizza slices and people watching whilst we waited for it to lighten up outside. By 7.30am we decided to head for the bus station on the other side of town by tram. We ended up walking as we couldn't figure out the tram stops. In the snow, crossing over the Angara River the city was dead quiet and still by 8am the sun ...

... to relax, until some crazy Russian woman in the next carriaqe started shouting and going mad. We had no idea why. This caused a massive scene on our carriage, everyone was out they're compartments watching this woman going mad. Eventually the woman who looks after our carriage appeared and dragged her through the doors at the end of the carriage. She re-appeared about 5 minutes later looking a lot more relaxed. Glad I wasn't in her ...

... main street that ran next to the lake.<br><br>After about 15min I ran into a few of the guys from the train who'd come directly up to Listvyanka that morning. These guys believed in travel plans, planning and being organised, hence their pre-booked transfers to the lake. <br><br>My travel plan is always, there is no plan, and I organise the bare minimum and then see what happens. As it was, I was glad I'd had a few hours in ...

... It remined us of a Swiss village. Most of the houses were made from wood and the window frames painted in bright colours.<br>Although at the far end for the village in the port area was the inevitable drab grey appartment block.<br><br>The view across the lake was awesome with the mountains on the other side. Lake Baikal is the oldest, deepest and biggest fresh water lake in the world<br><br>Russia does have a big drink problem from early morning and throughout the day you ...

... Baator&#8230;pilsner beer&#8230;cultural show&#8230;contortionists&#8230;ger camp&#8230;rain&#8230;cards and wine&#8230;buuz maing&#8230;archery&#8230;vodka party&#8230;Summertime&#8230;Old MacDonald&#8230;horseback riding&#8230;ger district&#8230;drinking wine on the Russian border&#8230;swimming in Lake Baikal&#8230;Nikolai's banya&#8230;infected spider bites ...

... we were ready to tackle the Kremlin. We walked around to the Kremlin entrance off Alexandrovsky Sad or Alexander's Garden - a lovely park where they also have the eternal flame memorial to fallen soldiers. Then we queued up to get in and wandered around the huge Kremlin complex, most of which was off limits to visitors, but we still got to go inside some of the churches with their superb mosaics and beautiful ancient ...

... whole system would collapse), and local time. The last one is where it gets tricky as local cities aren't options to choose from on my PDA, plus Russia is on daylight saving time at the moment which shifts the time one zone East. This means that Irkutsk is on Tokyo time, Krasnoyarsk=Beijing, Novosibirsk=Bangkok, Omsk=Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Perm=Karachi, Pakistan. When you get to Kirov you're on Dubai time, which at this time of the year is the same as Moscow ...

... fee that had all the souvenirs you could ever hope to find. Belle was very disappointed to find fur hats available at the outer market because she had succumbed to temptation and purchased a typical Russian fur hat, made of rabbit fur, yesterday at a souvenir stall just outside Red Square. At the time it seemed cheap and Belle had accepted the stall holders line that the hats were unisex even though we both knew, in our heart of ...

... on the trip. While we wait to check into our fantastically named Godzilla hostel we go for a walk around. (disappointingly the hostel is named after the giant lizard and not some hilarious mistranslation or coincidental Russian word). Even a simple set Breakfast from a cafe with only 3 options turns into another marathon affair with 16 people to be served. On the way to Red Square we stop into the best 24hr shop I have ever been in. The ...

... sign of the times, multiple shopping bags imprinted with the full range of designer names. Ho-Ki and I, on the other hand are only seeking some shady place to have a coffee and a sit-down. In the spirit of staying out of the sun, we venture to the State History Museum (because it is now 3pm and it doesn't close until 7pm whereas the Kremlin closes at 4pm). I found it to be an interesting museum, it spans Russian history in 40 halls from ...