Indian summer in Siberia

... but no indians showed up, mostly russians.

Late night arrival in Irkutsk meant that we finally got to feel some of the well known temperatures Siberia is known for, and finally it actually meant I was right to bring my rather thick coat. Not really cold, but +2 degrees is a bit colder than our first stop in Siberia where we all bought ice-cream as that just made sense in the heat, and with our expectations being so far off. We didn't really have much time in the city on this day, just a small walk to the core of the city to find somewhere to eat, which we got at about midnight - but most of us were still quite lagged and didn't really see it as that late. The food was excellent and to the clear joy of some of my fellow travellers, they even had Newcastle Brown Ale on tap. Next morning we got a decent, but rather weird breakfast where they had something like 6-7 different types of cake as well. With combined efforts we did try all of them, some successfully and some were left to rot on the plate. About 1,5 hours drive to our B&B stay by Lake Baikal where our very animated and entertaining host Nikolai had built his own house as well as an annex. He also offered us the option of doing a Russian Banja, their version of a spa where you get cooked in the sauna for about 2-3 times longer than comfortable, then jump in the small pool outside where we had to break through the layer of ice to get into the water (well, it was probably 12-13 degrees, but coming from 100 in the sauna it gave the desired shock treatment. Repeat these steps once more, and then in to get scrubbed by Nikolai himself which was not really the most pleasant experience I've had. Bonus was that we got to borrow some weird sauna hats which made us all look very classy.

As Mark so perfectly said it before we left "can't we just take Nikolai with us?"

Sometimes the sky IS the same blue as your paint

The small harbour city of Listvyanka isn't the most populated place, but there was a small market which mostly sold fish, but also had some excellent grilled pork and some very overpriced souvenirs, mostly of seals that looked ready for clobbering. We took a boatride for about an hour, which was more relaxing and nice in that way, than really offering spectacular views. Before dusk, I'd rather clearly stated that I wanted to go to the viewpoint for sunset, and as there wasn't really too many options, all but one joined in. The view up here was however spectacular.

Sometimes it IS worth spending some time just enjoying the sunset

Getting back to the guesthouse was a bit more tricky than expected. There is no time schedule for the busses, and it was too dark for it to be safe to start walking home. We did however have the number for some taxies just in case, but the bus arrived soon enough, so none of us got downgraded to roadkill on this day either.

Sometimes you screw up the focus, but the picture is still ok

Next morning we drove back to Irkutsk, and if it'd been a bit chilly there on arrival the other day, things had started to heat up with a very surprising +31 degrees. Our guide met us, took us on a short orientation tour and sent us off into the wild. The wild started with a Russian who's bumper fell off at a red light, and another one drove over it. They got into a heated exchange of words, and when the light changed a car chase almost started. It did however stop almost as soon as it started as the inevitable happened and he crashed into someone else. A bit of live action for us, and all the clips we see of mad drivers from Russia on youtube might hold some truth. That being said, how people drove in general in Russia was a lot better than what we got when we came to Ulan Bataar a few days later... The rest of the day was spent more or less just wandering about, which actually meant it was one of the nicer days of the trip for me. And then it was off for another two nights and one day on the train before what was my main goal of the journey - Mongolia.