I woke myself up this morning and thank god everyone had set alarms. I was pretty hung over and I was fighting to keep it together. I managed to get everyone up and ready and then off the train at Irkutsk, where thankfully our driver was waiting and had actually come on the train to get us.

He walked us out of the station and straight onto a waiting bus, where he put on a DVD about seals and everyone proceeded to fall asleep for half an hour while that was on.for the rest of the drive to Listvyanka, a little town on the edge of Lake Baikal in the middle of Siberia, we sang. Alan and Moy started it, first with a bit of Phil Colins, then Yellow Submarine and finishing off with American Pie, which we nearly got all the way through until someone stuffed up the last verse. I fell asleep just as we got to the town, I was really tired by this point. We were driven past Lake Baikal the deepest fresh water lake in the world and then up a hill to the chalet where we would be staying.

As soon as we got the very excitable Russian proprietor, by the name of Nikolai came up to me and shook my hand vigorously and started stammering on at me in Russian. No English at all. Wonderful. Actually it didn't matter, he was so excited to see us and went so overboard to help out, the group liked him instantly. I managed to get everyone into their correct rooms, though not before falling down the stairs in front of the group, how embarrassing.

I gave everyone half an hour to get freshened up and then went out to explore. As there was no walking tour listed in the trip notes, I made a game out of it. The things we are supposed to find include, a supermarket, Pharmacy, ATM, Exchange and a traditional restaurant. I said anyone who managed to point these things out to the group before I did would get a free beer on me. That was it Moy, Alan and Tom raced on ahead of the group, ready to claim the reward.

We set off and when we got to the bottom of the hill, there was some kind of ceremony going on. We had arrived on Victory day, kind of like the Russian equivalent of ANZAC day. There were soldiers in uniform everywhere and people were making speeches. They had a minutes silence and then played the Russian national anthem. It was great to be there for something like this and the little town in Siberia had a wonderful atmosphere to it.

We continued along the main road and I managed to point out the market, one beer saved. Then Moy pointed out the Tourist information, which is something important, so I owe him a beer for the extra effort. Ally found the ATM, but it was out of order, unfortunately it was the only ATM with in walking distance and we ended up on a grim death march out of town trying to find another ATM. In the end Catherine went back and then caught us up, saying the ATM was now fixed and she would shout us all lunch and we could pay her back.

We had lunch at a restaurant on a hill, the menu was in Russian so we had to order using the waiters very limited English, which in itself was a great experience. I managed to communicate fried chicken. While we were waiting for our food, I started giving the group a few Russian lessons and teaching them a few Russian words, like please and thank you, hello and good bye.

We then walked back to town and I visited the tourist information, who also spoke no English, but whom I managed to get the price for a boat trip out of none the less. 3000 rubles for a boat for twelve people, not too bad, when you consider the ATV's were 1000 for twenty minutes!

After that struggle I went back to the chalet for a sleep for a few hours and then went out with the group for dinner at a restaurant, which Alan found, so I owe him a beer too. I had pork chops with roast potatoes. I love the food here. I actually ended up staying up quite late, sitting in the front room on the chalet and just chatting with people and generally having a few laughs. Am I in the right job or what?