Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk

Ahh thank god the longest journey is over. It was tough. 3 days of not talking to anyone (in carriage with fattties on tour) was a challenge which I won (but struggled with the entire time). Ate little, slept little and spoke little. Ian is pictured here with a waving crab crisp which I bought from the restaurant wagon - they really are quite something not only for their hand waving abilities.

Took some snaps of the countryside going by as well as some videos which I can't put on here yet as the connection is too slow. Points of note about the journey - Russian men like going topless like Brits abroad especially the fat ones, saw some men selling furry hats (didn't buy one Alison, sorry), all Russians smoke, ear plugs are essential along with speaking Russian for a tour like this, there are no foreigners in second class, drinking on your own while not talking for 3 days is very dangerous for ones soul, fog rules.

So got to Irkutsk proper today - which is a very pretty city, much much nicer than Yekaterinburg. I walked from the train station to the hostel this morning, and it was lovely to be out in the fresh air after the last few days. The hostel is nice and I met Femke who I had met in Yekaterinburg, we hung out with an Italian for the day (I can't remember his name), basically just walking around the city. Saw some more bloody churches but nothing of note happened apart from us coming across a gathering of sailors celebrating something, what? we were never quite sure of. Had a bloody good Mongolian meal tonight and feel much better for it.

Am off to Olkhon Island tomorrow (in Lake Baikal) on the bus (another 8 hour trip) but not sure I will get internet access, so will update when I can.