Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Irkutsk and Lake Baikal
Sun at last! The siberian we've been longing to see finally materialised... Bright colours and crisp fresh air.
Irkutsk is pretty, small and manageable and all transiberian tourists seem to converge there (who, at this season, are almost exclusively swiss and dutch!). The town also still has lots of traditional wooden houses, parks and a pedestrian street.
... siberian windows:
Lake Baikal is 70 km from Irkutsk. A good day trip by taxi-bus. Like most people, we went to Listvyanka, the picturesque village on the lake's southern end. From there, we followed the scenic trails up the hill along the shore.
Not to be missed is the endemic onmul fish, which is sold either dried or smoked at the port.
... another window photo:
On our last day in Irkutsk, the snow started to fall. Walking around the streets, we met Sacha, a Russian with whom we travelled from Krasnoyarsk in the train compartement. He very kindly invited us at his place to meet his wife and son. We eat there and then they drove us around to the Baikal Seal Aquarium and the river promenade: a very nice memory to leave Russia!
Irkutsk is pretty, small and manageable and all transiberian tourists seem to converge there (who, at this season, are almost exclusively swiss and dutch!). The town also still has lots of traditional wooden houses, parks and a pedestrian street.
... siberian windows:
Lake Baikal is 70 km from Irkutsk. A good day trip by taxi-bus. Like most people, we went to Listvyanka, the picturesque village on the lake's southern end. From there, we followed the scenic trails up the hill along the shore.
Not to be missed is the endemic onmul fish, which is sold either dried or smoked at the port.
... another window photo:
On our last day in Irkutsk, the snow started to fall. Walking around the streets, we met Sacha, a Russian with whom we travelled from Krasnoyarsk in the train compartement. He very kindly invited us at his place to meet his wife and son. We eat there and then they drove us around to the Baikal Seal Aquarium and the river promenade: a very nice memory to leave Russia!
