We arrived in Irkutsk this morning and I met the driver, whom at first seemed to have gone a bit wayward. He was in fact a bit lost because they had changed our carriage number from number one to number eight at the border. After I located the driver, we all trouped out of the station and I put the clients onto the waiting transfer bus and then left them there while the driver and I went to see about changing the etickets for paper tickets. Yes, I know, the ...

Had a bit of a day off today, had breakfast at 9am and then sat around until about 12pm trying to readjust to the right time zone… I had once again ignored my own advice to get off Moscow time as soon as possible. I stayed in the chalet for most of the day and at about 4pm went back down to the café for sunset. The sunset over the lake was unreal. It was like seeing hell above heaven, fire in the sky above and icy world below. The Lake is not just one...

The guard woke me up far too early this morning for our disembarkation from out 3.5 day train journey. Consequentially, this meant everyone was standing around in the hallway for about an hour and being in the way of each other. We arrived at Irkutsk passenger terminal early in the morning where our transfer driver Dmitry was waiting for us. We got on the bus and began the hour and a half drive out to Listvyanka. Having no idea whether or not the Lake Baika...

Continued from last entry.... It was at that point that Valera came downstairs bearing a navy blue and red fluffy robe and proceeded to dress me in it. The robe actually had a hood and no way to tie it up. Valera pointed at himself and punched the air. Fighter?! I said Da! Said Valera excitedly, obviously pleased I'd gotten the drift so quick. He held up three fingers and made the sign for knock out, three knock outs, impressive. Champion, said Costa...

Today started out pretty much the way you would expect after last night's antics. With me getting up just in time for breakfast, eating breakfast, copping a lot of jokes about how drunk I was and then going back to bed until 1pm, waking up watching some TV and then at about 3pm coming to the awful realization that I was starving and that I would have to go all the way into the town, and sit down at a café to get food. That however, is where the expectations ...