Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

After a train journey with a 9 hour border crossing, we arrived in Irkutsk in Russia. The first thing I noticed was definatly the cold! -21degrees with lots of snow! The second thing was the amount of fur that people were wearing! We checked into a lovely hostel and explored the city wearing as many layers as possible! Irkutsk has some lovely cathedrals and churches which look even nicer with a snowy background.

The next day was even colder at -24 and we then took a bus to Olkhon Island which is in the middle of Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and could supply the whole world with water for 40years should it run out. The bus journey there was pretty long but we were kept entertained with a Russian alcoholic who spoke to us in Russian and fed Ben many large vodka shots! He would say random stuff in Russian and Ben would say random stuff in English as a reply. He could have been agreeing to anything and at one point we thought he may have sold Jen for 70,000 roubles!!

On the Island we stayed in a lovely guest house called Nikita's where three meals a day were included. The meals were mainly omul fish from the lake. I am not a fan of fish and would never eat fish that actually looked like fish! However, I did eat it and ended up really enjoying it by the end of the three days. Apart from eating, sleeping and using the banya (Russian Sauna) we went on a jeep trip to the north of the island. It was cool to walk to the tip and appreciate how big the lake actually is. It was a clear day and the views were great. We also had lunch on a random table by the forrest (fish soup of course!) cooked on a random fire which was cool.

The next day we woke up to snow covered streets and decided to go for a walk. It was cold of course but it ws lovely to see the lake with different scenery. It looked totally different from the day before. We put our hands in the lake to, apparantly, add one year to our lives! We also walked up one of the hills to see a Christmas card view of the snow covered town.

We got the bus back to Irkutsk and spent one more day walking around and taking photos. After relaxing in the warm hostel and having one last shower, we went to the train station to board the 82hr Trans-Siberean train to Moscow. Previously we have travelled in second class but this time we decided to go third class as it was 100pounds cheaper and we thought it might be more of an expereince as we mix with locals in an open carriage! We'll see.....