Hyello Russia! - Blogabond

A small can of beer to celebrate my succesful entry

After a slow train North, mainly because of the incredibly long winded border crossing/shunting operation that took approximately 8 hours, I have arrived in Russia.
Another comfortable train and fairly uneventful trip all the best sights where sadly missed as we passed lake Baikal in the night.
Irkutsk isn't just the grey city I expected it to be it has quite a few old wooden houses with ornate window frames and gutters scattered amongst the soviet style concrete apartment blocks.
Its expensive here but the food is good, particularly the salami style sausage, bread and Russian salads.
Weather not so great today, just hovering above zero so the snow that remains is fairly slushy and there's that fine rain in the air that really wets you through!

Traditional local wooden buildings, starting to get a little worn!

Strolled the streets this morning and went to collect my ticket to Moscow, slightly confusing apartment block the women lived in and after stumbling into a pet shop with an extremely large baboon I was directed upstairs where I had to enter number 11 apartment to get to number 12! After all that she doesn't have the ticket yet but she was a very jolly soul and we had tea and cakes whilst she assured me she'd have it by Friday.

Will go to Olkhon Island tomorrow to check out the western edge of Lake Baikal. Day long bus trip there and back but I've been assured by other travelers its well worth the effort.