We arrived in Irkutsk in the morning, met our honcho Costa and drove one and a half hours to Lake Baikal. We were staying in a wooden chalet overlooking the valley and the lake, the view was amazing from our balcony as everywhere was snowy and the lake was frozen. Everyone showered and then catherine and everyone went to a russian sauna which involved being slapped with pine branches and rolling around in the snow whilst drinking tea. We all chilled out in the evening and as it was one of the groups birthday we all had some drinks and cake that the hostel had made for him, played cards and generally just had a laugh until the early hours. The next day we went out for about a four hour hike across the frozen lake which was like walking on glass, the ice was up to 4 metres thick and fractured but completely clear. We hiked up to a ski lift which then took us up to a viewing point which was stunning as you could see overa huge part of the lake from the edge of a mountain. We then went for traditional russian pastries for lunch which were amazing!...easily the best russian food that we had had. After lunch some of the group went out on snowmobiles whilst the rest of us went husky sledging which was great despite the fact we both managed to fall off. For the evening we just got some pastries from the shop from lunch and took these back to the hostel for dinner and had an early night as we were all exhausted from a full on day. In the morning some of the group went for a hike up a mountain to a different viewing point across the lake which again was stunning. Before lunch we got the coach back to Irkutsk where we had lunch at a really good russian restuarant. We chilled out at a bar for the afternoon until our coach came to pick us up to take us to the train station where we caught an evening train to Ulaanbaatar.