Irkutsk,
Siberia,
Russian Federation
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The train journey to Irkutsk was my best yet. Damian and I were in separate compartments but on the same carriage and I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I saw 3 young guys entering my 4 berth compartment! It turned out that they were really nice - they worked for Volkswagon and were traveling around Russia designing pavilions to advertise the cars. The two younger lads were in their early 30s but had children who were already 6 and 8 years old. They spoke a few words in English but again with my few words in Russian, the dictionary and paper to draw things we got on really well. They were impressed with my music on my ipod (Thanks Owain!) because they also loved rock. They played what they had an introduced to me what they called the Russian version of Iron Maiden. They had food and vodka with them and happily shared - I shared what I had too and soon the Vodka was gone. No problem though because they sweet talked the provodnitsa (train attendant) who sold them another bottle of vodka and a bottle of Brandy. We stayed up until 4am talking, drinking and eating (very important so you don't get drunk), and the next morning after an initial coffee we started again on the Brandy. Once we'd run out they sweet talked the provodnitsa AGAIN and she managed to find a part bottle of Brandy which we happily finished off! It was interesting to hear about their lives, interests, family and dreams and I was very glad to meet them. Damian joined us for part of the journey and was able to speed up the conversation and fill in the gaps with his Russian! One of them Alex, also impressed us with his 'Russian Origami'! making me a rose from a napkin and making a very detailed plane for Damian from a cigarette packet.
It was evening when we arrived in Irkutsk and we stayed in one of the partner buildings of Downtown hostel. We good a good meal in a Chech restaurant that was dedicated to Jaroslav Hasek Svejk - the creator of a famous cartoon character.
It's just a short stay here because tomorrow we get a bus to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal.
