"[Irkutsk] has depressed me much more than prison has ever done. All 9 prisons I was at were better than this." - A Decembrist exiled to Siberia.
6 times zones later we're in Siberia. Feels like its been ages coming here, but actually we only left Ireland 2 weeks ago. Crazy. Feels like so much has happened. I'm feeling a bit 'train-lagged' after the trip. Was brilliant though. 3 and a half days on the train. Was epic (in the good sense of the word...not the Lord of the Rings sense.) You basically just snack, sleep, read, talk, get drunk and do it all again. Was some of the best nights sleep I ever got. Am already considering doing it on the way home...Vladivostock to Moscow. 7 day trip.
The cabin just had me, Mike and Rodney in it. We also made friends with a couple next door, Richard and Becky. (Maxi, Richard is a Newcastle version of Derek...and his girlfriend is very much like one of Derek's birds...you know what I mean). Day 1 I discovered I left the Yahtzee scorecards behind and Mike nearly threw me from the train a la Danny Devito. Uno became the game of choice. Some real characters on the train including 'Coinsy' (a guy obsessed with coins), 'Champagne', and Slovak...the train security who showed us his gun when he was pissed and insisted we buy him a drink cos it was International Woman's Day. We didn't. What an asshole. Got talking to a Babsushka on the train and practiced my Russian. Can't tell you how satisfying it was when I understood 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've never seen any slow like this. Absolutely amazing. Wish we could spend longer in Russia but they were such bastards about the visa that it's hard to do. Still no luck with the photos. Probably won't get any up until China at the earliest.
| 
Irkutsk Hotels
63 votes 
This is a top pick!
