Hotel Victoria Irkutsk
1 B.Khmelnitsky Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russian Federation
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Wolves and wandering on beautiful Olkon Island
After a night of rest in Irkustk, we decided to head out to Olkon Island on beautiful lake Baikal. It was about a 6 hour drive to get there in a local "Marshutka" which is basically a minibus, though they must have some sort of magical grippy tyres or something because we were literally driving full speed on solid ice roads!
After passing some stunning scenery for a few hours we arrive at the ferry crossing where we have about an hour to wait until we can ...
Now we feel like we're on holiday
... fit, overfed condition). We eventually reached the top sweating and panting but the views made it all worth the while and the beautiful sunny weather made it feel more like Summer than late Autumn. We headed back down to the bikes and hopped back on for the ride home ... to say my bum was sore is an understatement.
Once back at the accommodation, we sorted ourselves out and the guide advised us that our banya was ready! Now if you don't know (I ...
Falling in the deepest lake in the world!
... a girl from the USA and we were going to venture to Lake Baikal together but I ended up not going as the bus was leaving too late. I ended up at my hostel, eating noodles and chatting away to Canadians, Frenchies, and a guy called Bob from Mongolia. Some guys from Lebanon invited us out for drinks and I walked us to a Beatles bar I had spotted earlier. Expensive beer and fun chat ensued, but you should know, Bob, for some reason, ...
Trans-Mogolian Pt 1: Moscow - Irkutsk
We had both been looking forward to getting on the Trans-Mongolian train in Moscow. 3 days/4 nights on the train to Irkutsk meant some enforced relaxation time including a chance to catch up on some sleep and some reading. Stocked up with different flavoured instant noodles, bread, meat, cheese, cereal and coffee we boarded our train just before midnight.
Moscow was marked km 0 of our train journey across Russia and Irkutsk ...
Seen one Lake you've seen them all?
... partiers at the hostel are reluctant to go out at night in Irkutsk. The city has a reputation for danger after dark, at least according to the Gospel of the Lonely Planet. It wouldn't surprise me of course - drunk young western backpackers would make easy prey in a frontier city like Irkutsk.
The next morning we pack up after breakfast and ride the tram to the city bus station. It is a wild old bus station with people coming and going to all corners ...



