Irksome Irkutsk
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2009
1
141
214
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Trans-Sib Hostel
Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia
Saturday, March 27, 2010
We managed to find our hostel quiet easily all things considered. It was 6.30 in the morning when we first tried the buzzer to the hostel. We swear we only rang the buzzer once but it just wouldn't stop. Bzzzzz Bzzzzzz Bzzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzz Bzzzzzzz and on and on. Finally someone sleepily answered. He showed us up, sat down with us and explained a few things about Irkutsk and the hostel. It took us until the next guests arrived for us to realise that this guy (Naten) who we had woken up didn't actually work here, he was just another guest. Normally this would be something Dino would do. The first thing we did was shower. It was so nice, such a luxury.
Trying to put off the sleeping and get into the new time zone we headed out to explore the city. Irkutsk is a grey, concrete, dull, seedy city of 600 000 people. You can stroll across the centre of town in less than 20 minutes, “admiring” the statue of Lenin.
We went in search of the city market and found a cheap bits and bobs sort of place before we came upon the fresh fruit and vegetable market, the highlight of our day.
After seeing the dullest of the sights we made our way back to the hostel for dinner and a couple of drinks before we settled down for the evening. Well that was the plan anyway. Somehow our couple of drinks turned into a great night into the early hours of the morning with our very drunk Russian hostess cooking us all a meal and us five backpackers supplying her with Vodka. In the morning we found 6 empty bottles scattering the kitchen.
