And on to Irkutsk............. 9th August As you can see from the image, the photo's we can choose from are limited, so let me paint a picture. It was once described as the Paris of the East. It is very much a frontier town to Siberia and the town has experienced a gold rush. It's notable history took place at least 100 years ago so the town is now looking tired and faded. If you look beyond this, there are some lovely old wooden houses with decorative features but some now lean quite badly. Unlike Moscow and St Petersburg, the stone buildings of interest are yet to be restored and refaced. The people also reflect the location as a border toward the East and South. Many more Chinese and Mongolian people so there is quite a mix. And I say this all after only having arrived this morning. We have just spent 3 nights on the train (and yes there was no Vodka for me) covering quite a distance since we left Moscow. We have so far covered 5185km (not including the St Petersburg leg) Once on the train time moves surprisingly quickly. We have read, stared out of the window looking at the countryside that hasn't really changed that much and taking trips to the Buffet car to break up the monotony. The best thing though is trying to hold a conversation with these Russki's. They are very willing to give it a go and once you get into the sign language etc you can get to know quite a bit. The lady in our compartment challenged me to a game of chess. She won all three games, which kept her happy! Tomorrow we head to Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world and bigger then all of the North America Great Lakes put together. Apparently if you go swimming you can see down 40 metres but we are told it is very cold so it is unlikely. We are hoping once we are there to take an excursion on the Circumbaikal railway - apparently very scenic. We have also been told that we will be in a homestay when we get there - so there might be more Vodka, just for hospitalities sake and hopefully some interesting stories. That's it until next time. Dobry den'/paka!!!