The diary of a traveller, entry 15. Part 3 Irkutsk

15. November

Pretty good night’s sleep. Then a breakfast of freshly microwaved pancakes smothered in jam and, I think, yogurt.  After putting the packet in the microwave, pressing a button, waiting 40 seconds and then placing the plate on the table T. sat next to me, head in hands apparently in a state of utter exhaustion.  Shortly after this she cast me a glance as if she had just cooked a feast of epic proportions for me and that, frankly, спасибо wasn’t a sufficient enough response on my part. I think this family might be a little bit odd. They have caged birds in the kitchen, oil paintings of themselves in the living room where the television ought to be, and a piano which is “not for playing” I’m told. Ok.

Not an wholly successful day today truth be told. Spent the majority of the daylight walking through the city looking for a museum to the Decembrists which I’m convinced doesn’t exist whatever the guide book says. After that I gave up and headed to the art gallery instead which was closed despite Tuesday being their reported day-off and today being Wednesday. Then I had to leg it to the other side of town to get my visa registered before it was too late (even though I’m leaving the city tomorrow). The girl at the travel agents took pity on me as I was clearly looking a wee bit flustered and processed it for me in about an hour. Sputnik travel gets a big old tick from me. Decided to go and sit in the pub for a bit and read after that. 

The diary of a traveller, entry 14. Part 3 Irkutsk

14. November 

Am in Irkutsk now. Finally. One and a half days to play with then back on the train again. Jesus, Russia really does have a problem with Pizza! Avoid ‘Pizza Mario’ if you’re ever in Siberia. From the façade you’d think it would be quite a nice place for a cheap and easy pizza but oh no! How hard can it be? You don’t have to go to Italy I think… HK managed it ok. Oh well, rant over. I’ve learned my lesson - will stick with pelmini for the duration.

I’m staying in a nice flat very much in the centre of the city which is nice. Strolling down Karl Marx street I like would I’ve seen so far. Walked down the street until I reached the Angara river which is already starting to freeze over. After that I called into the Regional History museum – no English captions but refreshingly no dead animals either. The city’s female population is winning the beauty contest out of the three I’ve visited so far – still not a patch on St Petersburg of course. After this I went to get a second lunch at a bar. Not sure what I ordered but it was super tasty! Something with pork – not a million miles away from stroganoff I guess. Tender pork, onions, mushrooms and fragrant rice on the side. Only let down was I didn’t order bread to mop up the rich smoky sauce. I like the layout of the city. Centre is quite compact and the tallest building is only 12 stories. A few cool looking cafes and bars here and there which I guess is where it gets its tag ‘The Paris of Siberia’ from.

Back at the flat, which is the smartest I’ve stayed in yet. My host is another Tatiana and her husband, a daughter and a son. And a small dog called Pierre. Husband seems like a nice guy. Daughter’s a bit of a brat. T. is the only one who speaks any English. Dunno much about her except that she’s a self-professed animal lover. Although personally I feel keeping a bird in a cage is a bit of a paradox in that respect.

The diary of a traveller, entry 10. Part 3 Lake Baikal and Irkutsk

10. November

Approaching Ulan-Ude soon which means just another 7 hours to Irkutsk. More snow and more beautiful scenery to enjoy. Hardly an uninterrupted sleep though last night – quite the opposite in fact. Was woken around 2.30am by the arrival into our wagon of a huge dark brute of a Russian arriving from some god-awful Siberian outpost. Stupendously drunk, of course – had the obligatory 2lt plastic bottle of something. He was carrying two large hold-alls, each the size of a young child, and also a chain saw. Mercifully it remained in its box. After a few attempts at trying to engage with me he finally made it, with some effort, into the bed above my own where he lay making strange noises, breathing rapidly and occasionally shouting. Thankfully it wasn’t long before he was woken by the attendant to disembark at Chita. An experience to say the least.

We picked up two new traveling companions at Ulan-Ude.  Alexander (who looks just like Alexander III) and his wife who are both friendly Orthodox Christians heading to Krasnoyarsk. Alexander speaks very good English and I am very grateful to be able to have a more comfortable conversation for the first time in 48 hours. We have lots to talk about ranging from whether or not I like John Lennon (I said yes thinking it was the right answer – it wasn’t) to his studies of the Koran. We are coming close to Baikal and my stop now.

I was met off the train by my new host Valerii. He decides we should go straight to Listvyanka – so still a bit more traveling to go. Not sure what the plan is from now but I think Valerii will be acting as a tour guide for the next couple of days. I have never seen so many stars in the sky before in my life – not only the water which is clear round here. 

The diary of a traveller, entry 8

8 November 

Spent last night getting myself syked up for my longest train journey today – something like 49 hours to Irkutsk. Had a really nice stay in Khabarovsk and preferred it to Vladivostok on the whole. Now have a similar length of time on the train.

Sharing with 2 guys at the moment – both in their 30s I would guess. Not much conversation from my skin-head companion. He's a militia I think. Offered me some of his fish which I politely declined because it looked about 3 weeks old. Offered him some of my Cadbury's in return. The other neighbour went off to the restaurant car about 3 hours ago to get steadily drunk. He rolled back into our wagon, just as conversation was beginning to develop between the skin-head and I, and dragged me off with him to have a beer. He ordered 4 before realising he was 20minutes away from his stop. Asked me for a cigarette – when he saw that my cigarettes were from Hong Kong (white filters less common here I think) he wanted to buy them off me. I insisted he take them as a present but he thrust a handful of rubles into my hand before disembarking and leaving his scarf and the flowers he bought was his wife in our wagon. (Skin-head later took these when he disembarked and presumably gave them to his wife.)

Well that was a bit of an ego boost: Went back to the restaurant car for dinner and to read my book (which is inconveniently called 'The American'). The waitress was very nice and we chatted a bit about things in Hong Kong. Then two French guys came in and neither of them spoke or read a word of Russian. There was no English menu so the waitress asked me to translate for them (into English of course). I jokingly asked the waitress if she had a menu in French first. If they understood this then the French guys certainly didn't find it amusing - presumably because they felt that every restaurant carriage on every train should have a menu in French. After a few exchanges between me, them and the waitress they ended up with some kind of variation on fish and chips which I am happy to say they enjoyed! 

Most of the rest of the journey there were only 2 of us in the compartment - me and a very nice lady called Valentina who was also heading to Lake Baikal for a holiday. We got on very well and spoke a fair bit (although I am definitely running out of vocab). She certainly fed me very well and I felt embarrassed at having only dried mangoes and Japanese nuts to offer her in return.