Irkutsk - 27 August

Today has been a day for studying buildings.

After we left Lystvyanka this morning we stopped off at the Taltsy 'wooden houses' museum on the way to Irkutsk. We had arranged for the driver to wait one hour, so it turned out to be a whistle stop tour.

They have collected buildings from all over the place. The first set were reconstructions of the dwellings the Evensk nomads would have had, tepees made from bark, bark boats, wood store house, burial platforms, etc. Then we moved onto a set of estate buildings including three mills arranged down a hill so that they used the same water source, which was from a reservoir with a wooden leet. The peasants house was furnished with original artefacts and looked very cosy. We moved onto some houses which Cossacks would have lived in, apparently they were given a plot of land after so many years service; and then the governors house which even had wallpaper! That compound also had a prison! There was a small chapel with an amazing shingle roof, a stockade with guard tower was in the process of being reconstructed......and much more besides. It is all set near the river Ankara and would be a great full day out....

We then continued to Irkutsk where were able to check in early to the Victory Hotel. After a drink and a light lunch and yesterday's blog writing we set out to explore the city. We walked north to look at the old wooden buildings which are left from the days when Irkutsk was known as the Paris of the North. There was a gold rush here and many peasants made the equivalent of many millions of £s, so even though they were illiterate they built very fancy houses and lived it up! We reached a high point overlooking the city, passing through a Market on the way, all sorts of goods for sale, clothes, shoes, toys, light fittings etc. Some of the stalls were set up from freight containers.

Irkutsk is rather down at heel in comparison to western Russia, there does not seem to be the development going on here, however the main street, Karl Marx Street, has the full range of very expensive clothes shops and perfumeries. It was Saturday so everyone was out shopping, families, teenagers having good time, the young in high end fashion....and the babushkas with their shopping trolleys.

We were really pleased to find a nice Italian restaurant where we indulged in tea, coffee and a cake, I am still a bit tired after the hike yesterday.....we have booked a table there for this evening too.....and hope we have enough roubles left to pay for it ;)! Most places want cash here, so we have not exercised the plastic at all so far.

We leave here at 4.0am tomorrow, Sunday, and are due to arrive in Ullaanbaatar at 6.30 on Monday morning. So the next blog will be from Mongolia......