Irkutsk! We got in at 7:21am, and we were here for a few days, staying at the Hotel Victory. We had most of today to look around!
The Tourist Information Office here has painted a green line linking most of the city's main sites within easy walking distance. We decided to walk part of this route today, and the rest tomorrow.
So we left our hotel — conveniently located a few paces from the green line route, and walked down ul. Karla Marxa (Karl Marx Street), past the Art Theatre, the inevitable monument to Vladimir Lenin, the Okhlopov Drama Theatre, down to the banks of the Angara River and the statue of Tsar Alexander III. This statue, of the emperor who was responsible for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, was originally erected in 1908, destroyed by the soviets in 1920, but after the fall of the Soviet Union a decision was taken to return Alexander and a new five metre statue was created and installed in 2003 on the 100th anniversary of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
We spent a little time sitting overlooking the river before continuing on our way through a park (paralleling the green line) till we came out near the Holy Cross Cathedral. We then walked on down ul. 3 Iulya (3 July St.) to 130 Kvartal (the 130th District), an area where old wooden houses have been reconstructed and turned into a shopping precinct — a lively tourist area.
Down near this area is a large, modern shopping mall, where we stopped for a little refreshment.
As you enter Kvartal 130, you pass a large statue of of the "babr", the symbol of Irkutsk. This mythological creature has a curious history! The city's first coat of arms, in 1600, depicted a 'babr', the local word for the Siberian tiger. Over the years, the Siberian tiger was hunted to extinction and the word itself disappeared from the vocabulary. Late in the 1800s, officials in St Petersburg, redrawing the coat of arms of Irkutsk, thought the word 'babr' was a mis-spelling of 'bobr' (beaver), so concocted an animal with elements of tiger and beaver! So Babr now has a broad flat tail and webbed claws! But it still has a sable in its mouth, a symbol of the part Itkutsk played in the Siberian fur trade.
Walking back, we came to the Holy Cross Cathedral. The construction of this little gem was begun in 1747, and it was consecrated in 1758. A quiet spot in a busy city.
We then came past the Theatre for Young Audiences. Seems they have just finished performing 'Snow White'!
We came past our old friend Lenin on the way back to the hotel. Looks like early summer planting is in full swing!
Anyway, we thought we would call it a day, after having walked probably 2km of the 5km green walk, leaving us a good walk for tomorrow.
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