We left Listvyanka after breakfast for a quick 70 km drive over the roller coaster highway to Irkutsk. It’s the administrative centre and one of the largest cities in Siberia with a population of around 500,900. It was founded in 1651 as a Cossack garrison to control the indegenouis Buryat peoples. We had a lovely drive around Irkutsk and noted many very fine and interesting looking buildings and also loved the smaller streets and wooden homes of the older part of the city. We could have done with more time in Irkutsk on our own to investigate, even just half a day, and less time in Listvyanka. I think we have decided we are definitely not "tour" people; it's a little too restricting because they think you have to be entertained all the time!! We much prefer to wander on our own taking our own time do do things and going where we find intresting . The "overland" trips are better at this. However, having said that, it makes it so much easier if you have someone who speaks the language with you. Nonetheless, its far more exciting figuring things out for yourself.
We spent a few moments on the banks of the Angara River and saw the statue of Alexander III one of the Tsars responsible for establishing public education and promoting the building of the Trans Siberian railway. The Angara runs through Irkutsk from Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. It’s quite wide in Irkutsk and we were able to look over it to the railway station on the other side. We went into the Irkutsk Regional Museum located in a delightful building which had been rebuilt after the massive fire which destroyed three-quarters of the city of Irkutsk in 1879. We had a quick walk through the bottom floor which supplemented the information we gained at the Open Air Museum of Wooden Architecture the previous day and gave us insights into some of the indigenous peoples who still inhabit Siberia. Leaving there we drove to a hotel, passing the two Dutch boys we had met in the chalet in Listvyanka standing at the side of one of the city streets and exchanged big waves and smiles as we whizzed by. Small world. I hope they are travelling safe!! We went into a pizzeria and had a quick slice of pizza for lunch before heading off to the railway station. The station is a truly outstanding wooden building, recently renovated, and painted yellow with green and white trim. I went off with Olga to look for a notepad as I didn’t want to run out of paper on the train and ruin the opportunity to capture our inner thoughts and feelings. We found the perfect pad with vivid green leaves and a bright red flower on the cover and graph paper inside instead of lines, which I love, for 20 rubles. Ray and I then had a little wander around the busy station, taking some pictures, buying some water, etc. before loading on the train at 3:50 pm for a 4:20 pm departure. True to Russian precision, Train 9, The Baikal, started to move out of the station at exactly 4:20 pm.
There is 5 hours difference between here and Moscow, and so we travel through various time zones. We changed our clocks the first time when we entered Russia from Mongolia and will do so several more times as we travel through. The train time though is always posted based on Moscow time, so it’s all very confusing to know exactly what the correct time is, and which time everyone is referring to!!
The total train journey from Irkutsk to Moscow is about 5,185 km and about 100 hours of train time. The first part crosses fairly uninteresting scenery, flat, lush, grasslands and small Siberian communities with typical wooden houses. The train stops regularly, maybe every hour or half hour, and usually for two minutes with every so often a longer stop of 20/30 minutes. Our fellow travelers are Russian with one or two English speaking tourists in the compartment next door who are currently teaching at an international school in Bangkok. Its times like these that I would love to have an opportunity to live another life, at least one other, because there are so many interesting options for living it. It’s easy to become tied to the 9 – 5 option, working in your local area, struggling to make enough money to have a house, a car, educate your kids, buy nice clothes, etc. Then you meet so many people doing things differently, contributing to society in meaningful ways that you either never thought of, or never had the courage to pursue. I have learned though, that even at our age, there are still many opportunities available. You just have to seek them out.
Around 8 pm, Jon, Ray, and I went along the train, stepping tentatively over the metal floor panel joining the carriages. It’s fun staggering down the corridors to the sway of the train, passing all types and nationalities of people tucked away in their compartments, or standing out in the corridors chatting, or gazing laconically at the countryside rolling by, or smoking between carriages. Crossing between the carriages usually results in an extra violent stagger of both the body and the heart as you catch a quick glimpse of the rails speeding past underneath you. The dining car wasn’t too busy, and had a mix of English and Russian speaking characters. The ladies there didn’t speak English. The menu was partly translated, but still a little hard to figure out. Then when we chose something, a few minutes later we were told it was “not possible”. Ray ordered a cheese sandwich and when it came it was a half a piece of rye bread about 1” x 3” with a thin slice of cheese – hardly enough to sustain him! I first ordered some chicken which after a 10 minute wait turned out to be “not possible”. Next I ordered some solyanka soup with bread and got the same size of bread without the cheese. The soup was steaming hot and delicious; smoked ham, sausage, potatoes, onion, an olive and a slice of lemon. Jon had the hardest time. The first dish he ordered was unavailable. He waited then for a potato pie, which never came and on follow up the pie was “not available”. So, to be safe he ordered solyanka soup – which never came. So we asked where it was and eventually it came! I think we were in the dining room about 2 hours!
Around 11:15 pm, the last vestiges of daylight were dying, and we made up our train-bed and settled down to sleep.
Today I finished reading “The Stone Monkey” by Jeffery Deaver, the author of “The Bone Collector”. It was a quick, easy, and fun read; thrilling plot, good character development and full of interesting explanations about Chinese cultures.
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