Irkutsk. The morning is free, but we need to catch the train at 4:15pm for a long haul on the Trans-Siberian to Yekaterinburg. The train trip is nearly 2 days, arriving in Yekaterinburg at 1:39pm on June 17, 2 days later. We were a little bemused by the accuracy of the departure and arrival times quoted for the Trans-Siberian, but apparently the Russians leave the Germans and Swiss for dead when it comes to train timetabling! At least we have been guaranteed a cabin to ourselves for this (and the whole Trans-Siberian) trek! The Trans-Siberian runs across 7 time zones, so to simplify the whole thing they used to run the entire railroad, from Vladivostok to Moscow, on Moscow Time! But as of August 1, 2018 (less than a year ago), they have decided to use local times, which we suspect means fewer people missing their trains!!
Started the day (after breakfast downstairs) with Warren doing a little on the blog. Then out and about again. As we left the hotel, we took a photo of the next-door building. It was from the top floor of this that we had heard piano music and operatic singing our whole stay. Suspect there may be a music teacher in residence!
The streetlights are all decorated with flowerpots — Irkusk is takng full advantage of the warmer weather while it lasts!
Walking further along ul. Karla Marxa we noticed an odd little parking place — not all cities have a rocket launcher like this sitting by one of its main streets!
We turned right down ul. Dekabrskikh Sobyty, a street replete with the old wooden buildings we have come to admire. We found the tourist office and dropped in to try to get a better map, which they happily supplied.
We reached a large street carrying all the forms of transport — buses, trolley-buses and trams. (Irkutsk does not yet have a Metro.) This was ul. Sovietskaya.
We walked along this street till we came to a small shopping centre, 'Karamelo'. Went in, wandered aroound, had a bite to eat, then made our way out and up ul. Litvinova back towards the Central Market, this time to the large shopping mall beside it. On the way, we passed a number of markets. Suzie twisted Warren's arm, and he went in to one and finally bought a pair of new sneakers to replace the ones he bought on our last trip — and, let's face it, were way beyond their use-by date!
The day was drawing on. It was time to get back to the hotel, pick up our bags and get to the station to catch the 3:31pm train to Yekaterinburg. This was to be the long hop, over two days on the train. Fortunately we were booked first class, so this was going to be a comfortable trip!
Guess what! My comments about the punctuality of the Russian trains were blown out of the water! The train arrived about 90 minutes late. (The last column indicates how late — the board was later updated to '01:30'!) Apparently there had been some delay somewhere between Vladivostok and here. You've got to cut them a little slack — after all, this is the third-longest continuous railway service in the world — from Vladivostok to Moscow, the route this particular train, the 'Rossiya' ('Россия'), runs is 9,289km, through 8 time zones! (The two longer services are Moscow–Pyongyang, 10,267km, and Kiev–Vladivostok, 11,085km, both of which also follow the Trans-Siberian for much of their routes.)
Anyway, by about 5pm we were on our way!
An exhausted Warren enjoying music
on the train's on-board radio system!
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