Day 4: Irkutsk – First Impressions

Distance traveled: 1317km
Total distance by rail: 4072km
Distance from Moscow: 5185km
Average speed Vladivostok-Irkutsk: 58km/hr

This evening we arrived at Irkutsk, which is located about an hour northwest of Lake Baikal, and our destination for this part of the trip.  Irkutsk, once known as the “Paris of Siberia” has a population of 600,000 and is one of the first “real” cities we’ve seen since Vladivostok (Ulan Ude, which we saw earlier in the day, comes close).

A few hours out of Irkutsk, we got our first glimpse of Lake Baikal.  The railroad follows along the southern shore of the lake for a good distance before climbing into the hills and arriving in Irkutsk.  The weather was perfect and even from the railroad, the lake was beautiful.

Lake Baikal out our window.	The train passing along the south shore of Lake Baikal.

But enough about Lake Baikal – more on that tomorrow when we go down to Listvyanka, a town actually on the lake.  Irkutsk… what to say?  The city struck me in many ways as stereotypically Soviet.  Let me explain:

First, the streets still have names like “Lenin St” or “Karl Marx St.” – there are still statues of Lenin and a bust of Stalin up, and there was even a fresh wreath and flower placed at the foot of Lenin’s statue.  The Russian Bank (Банк России) still has on the side of its building “Гос. Банк СССР” (State Bank of the USSR).  They have even resorted to reverse-engineering Western trends like Starbucks (a lookalike called “Lenin St. Coffee”) or a place called “Домино пицца” (Domino Pizza) which clearly was not Dominoes!

Russian Bank in Irkusk (note “State Bank of the USSR” on the side)	We swear – those capitalist pigs at Starbucks stole our idea of a proletarian coffee shop!
Gazing into the future with a furrowed brow and a hard stare.	That pigeon was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor in the gulag.

Not only that, but the city had the Soviet-era architecture throughout its buildings, the trolleys looked very industrial and ancient (old-style wood seats, you can see the bicycle chain that opens the doors, etc.), old Soviet-era cars and trucks spewed billows of black smoke into the air, and there were even anti-vehicle obstacles on some of the streets!

A street trolley from the 60s rumbles at an agonizingly slow pace across the V.I. Lenin Memorial Bridge.	I suppose you never know when you might need vehicular obstacles like these.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on Irkutsk – but again, my impression is that the city seems to still be in the Soviet-era.

Anyways, we arrived at the train station at 1812hrs local time (a fitting arrival time for a city in Russia) and caught the tram across the bridge into the city.  The upside is that it only cost us 12 rubles for the ride (about $0.30).  The downside is that the ride was slow and noisy… but it definitely had character!  As the old, beat-up and worn trolly rumbled across the bridge at its top speed of 22kph (14mph) we got a great view of the river which flows out from Lake Baikal, and the city itself.

The view from the trolly crossing the Lenin Memorial Bridge, looking north.

We got out on Lenin Street and made our way to the Baikaler Hostel, our home for the night.  Like many inner-city hostels, the outside is nothing to look at.  Once you get through the outer door, inner metal security door and climb up four flights of stairs, the inside of the Baikaler is well maintained and has good facilities (and you can’t beat the price – 700 rubles per person per night, roughly $22).  The only downside is that there wasn’t any air conditioning.

Front door to the stairway that leads to the Baikaler Hostel.	Hostel entryway.
Sleeping arrangements in the Baikaler.

After checking in and dropping our luggage, we asked the hostel manager Nadia for her recommendations on places to eat, got a map of the city, and set out in search of dinner.  More on that in the next update.