Paris of Siberia

Cathal tracks down a Siberian Guinness. Extra cold.

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Back from Olkhon island, we had three days in Irkutsk before we needed to catch our onward train to Ulan Bataar.

 Irkutsk was once called the Paris of Siberia, due to the lovely buildings.  It's clearly suffered from lack of investment as a lot of the buildings are in poor repair and there are many wooden houses which are simply falling down. The detailing on them is quite beautiful and it is such a pity.

When we got back to the Baikaler hostel we met up with an English couple - Zoe and Justin and also a Belgian girl, Cindy and a Dutch girl, Marieke; all of whom were going on to Ulan Bataar. 

During the day we visited the art museum in Irkutsk. Like all Russian museums we've been to, this one was stuffed full of interesting things. Some lovely Expressionist works, plus interesting Buddist Tankas. The building itself was quite dilapilated. but looked as though once it was quite lovely.

Forlorn wooden building in Irkutsk, one of many. Most people there can't afford to maintain them properly.

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That evening we drank far too much and had a meal and the following day we stocked up for our train journey - noodles, instant mashed potato, apples and carrots and beer.

Our last job in Russia was visiting a pub to get some Guinness so Cathal could fulfill his mission. This we did in a place called The London Pub, which seemed to have an Irish/English identity crisis.  But they did have food without meat in it which was good enough for us.  And then suitably fed, we headed off with Cindy and Marieke to catch a tram to the train station.