Irkutsk

(Ulan Ude - Irkutsk 455km/282 Miles)

Total distance traveled = 5826 km/3619 Miles

I arrived in Irkutsk on 7th August at about 8:30am. This was the first time a train had been slightly late on my trip. I would later discover that the date was quite significant too.

Rain greeted me, but i decided to walk into the city centre regardless. The station being a little further out than most cities, it took me about 30 minutes to get to the hostel. The hostel itself was in a fairly central location and was similar to the others I'd experienced so far - in that it was a converted apartment. Unusually though,this one had two toilets.

The owner said he'd expected me the night before,and I subsequently found a mistake in my planning. My bookings were a day out for this and the following hostel. Luckily they had a room (his was the busyiest hostel yet and the doorbell and phone seemed to be constantly rigning) and he didn' charge me for te previous night. This mistake meant that I also had to contact my next hostel and let them know the mistake,as they were expecting me he same day.

These problems dealt with, I drank a few cups of coffee and chatted with some of the other guests, including Crystal (who I'd met in Vladivostok). After waiting for the rain to subside for an hour or two I gave up and headed out into the wind and rain to explore the city with Crystal. We walked through a huge square and then onto 3 different churches,all very pretty but quite different in style, especially the murals and paintings inside.

The rain finally stopped and we continued looking around, finding a nice little cafe for lunch, some old weapons and army equipment, but failing to find a Russian guidebook. After returning to the hostel, I met a few new guests, played rummy (which I'm sure I've played before, but the rules seemed different), and had a few drinks. Chris (also from the Vladivostok hostel) also arrived that night, but I spent most of the evening chatting to a Hungarian professional poker player, a Parisian guy, a couple from Germany, and a British woman. It was nice to meet another Brit and we stayed up til about 1am,depsite the fact I had a early bus the next day to Olkhon Island on Baikal Lake.

More photos here...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Irkutsk/?albumview=slideshow