Following 3 days on the Transiberia railway we arrived in Irkutst which is 70km from Lake Baikal. 3 days and 4 nights on the train was fine. People in my group were getting a bit fed up of the train but I think I was enjoying the fact that there was nothing to do, no time to have to get up or sleep or eat so do what ever we wanted when we wanted. Have to say that the restaurant car helped, food was terrible but the beer was a good rest bite from sitting in our cabins (even if we did have to wait 40 minutes to even ask for the beer). I was very lucky with my cabin companions, but being in a group of 12 atleast I did have plenty of people to go and visit!
As we ended east accross Siberia it got so cold - athough the train was fine and comfortable the highlights were the 20 min stops (every 4 hours or so). Time to buy potatoe pie from the Babushkas on the stations and snow fights when we stopped in snow.
As soon as we arrived in Irkutst we headed straight over to Lake Baikal to stay in our homestays. Lucy and I stayed with a lady called Vera and her two daughters. Vera looked after us for our stay and fed us - I am still not sure what was in the food but it was good to have home cooked food again. And we did the washing up!
Lake Baikal is lovely and very beautiful - however when we arrived the weather had dropped below zero so it was more of a case of ohh lets have a look at Lake and then dive into cafes to warm up again.
We had a day of sight seeing in Irkurst again so cold that we ended up diving into cafes to keep warm. Irkurst is famous for exiled revolutionaries from the 19th century......I won't bore you any further!
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