Trans Sib Hostel - Irkutsk

The Trans Sib Hostel is in an amazing location less than 10 minutes from the train station by foot. That is where our amazement ended. There is currently only one room open, because the hostel is under construction. They, I'm assuming the owner and his friend, are building a shittily constructed wall to separate the two dorm-type rooms from the main reception area. According to some old reviews, this was once an open space. After growing up in a house that was being built, and helping to build parts myself, I can safely say these are more “walls” than real walls. They are insulated with egg holders that have been foam sprayed to keep them together. Very classy. They used what looked like 2x2 studs to hold up the sheet rock that forms the wall itself. I think I could probably step through their wall without much effort. I think privacy curtains would do as much as their walls, but they just don't give that same sense of false security I guess.

Giant key.

The staff was extremely nice and helpful whenever they weren't turning the television up so they could hear it over the pounding of nails that comes with construction. They really should have closed shop for a couple weeks, or really a couple days with that kind of quality, and just reopened when the wall was finished. If the wall had been finished before we got there, I wouldn't be writing about how poorly they put it together, and I would be writing about how awesome their gigantic bathroom is and how comfortable their beds are and how fun it was to have a giant key for the front door.

Water, water everywhere...

and none of it was still. That's what we discovered in Irkutsk. It was nearly impossible to get water that wasn't carbonated. We finally found some at a grocery store, but we were both shocked when we saw it. They even gave us carbonated water on the train to Yekaterinburg. It tasted like sweat.

Aside from that, Irkutsk was a nice, small city. It is home to over 500,000 people, and if I remember correctly, is the largest city in Siberia. It is definitely a city, but it doesn't really feel that big. Most things are centrally located, and you can walk to the big sights from almost any hostel, save the one that is over 4 kilometers from the train station.

The biggest things to see are definitely the churches. They hover near the river, and loom above the surrounding buildings. Every church is beautifully colored and has murals and icons painted on the outside walls. There is also an eternal flame, but Emily and I never found out what it was for. It is behind one of the churches, and just over the hill from a bushy-bearded statue of Tsar Alexander III looking imposing with his sword and musket.

We ate at a restaurant called Pervach one night. We have come in well under our budget, because many of the home stays have offered meals, so we decided to splurge a little bit. The food was excellent, but the portions were a little small, and you had to pay for all sides. The English translations in the menu are pretty funny, and you are never quite positive of what you're getting. I ordered beef in its own juices, which I thought would be a steak of some sort and got a bowl of beef stew. The translation was correct, but not what I was thinking. We also found out that since the tourist season is ending, certain dishes are unavailable, like 4 out of 6 desserts. We were told 'nyet' to both fried ice cream and tiramisu, so we opted for the apple strudel. It was tasty, but I really wanted the ice cream.

It was definitely better than an earlier meal where we tried the old, let's just point at stuff on the menu trick. The first choice was solid, a nice meaty soup with vegetables called solyanka. The next choice was randomly chosen from the salad section and didn't turn out too well. The name literally translates into, "herring in a fur coat." It consists of: shredded beets, diced onions, loads of mayonnaise, all topped off with cubed herring. We thought the herring was potato at first, so we dug in. That was a mistake. Every bite reminded us of what a bad idea it was to just point at the menu.

The next day, we took the tram out to the Volkonsky House Museum. The Irkutsk tram is only 12 rubles per person, which comes out to roughly 34 cents for the Americans or around 350 won for those in Korea. Top that New York MTA. The Volkonsky House Museum was a little pricey, around $6/person, but very fun to look around. The Volkonsky's were Decemberists. I am going to put my history hat on here for a second. Decemberists were people who were opposed to the rule of Tsar Nicholas I, who was the youngest brother of Tsar Alexander I. Nicholas I was set to be crowned Tsar December 26^th, 1825. Prior to his crowning, the Decemberists attempted to stop Nicholas from taking control of Russia, and were stopped by soldiers loyal to Nicholas. Some of the Decemberists were executed, but most were exiled to Siberia. Most of the Decemberists were military officers and aristocrats, so they were quite wealthy. Their wives were responsible for paying their own way to Siberia, which was around $200 in 1825 money. Despite the difficulty in raising the money, they faithfully followed their husbands and brought with them European, mostly French, style and taste that you can still see in Irkutsk architecture today.

This house is a good example.

We took a picture of this, because it was awesome.

After that, we hit the fine art museum. The museum looks a little run down fr om the outside, and you can see just how outdated it is on the inside. The lighting is terrible, and more than a few of the paintings look like they belong enclosed in glass. They are being degraded by sunlight that pours in through the large windows. To be honest, I think we could have skipped it. The portraits were beautiful, and the Chinese and Mongolian art they had in their collection was nice, but I don't know if it is worth the mandatory 200 ruble ( $6) entrance fee.

Before we got on the train, Emily decided we needed to try to find the Nerpa seal aquarium, Akvarium Nerpy. So, we took the tram back across the river toward our hostel and the train station. We got off about where Emily thought we should, and then began walking. This was our discussion:

She said, “Ok, it's 300 meters that way. How far is 300 meters?”

I said, “A little more than three football fields.”

“Well, I know, but I can't visualize that.”

“Ok, think about one football field. Now triple it.”

“Uh, ok.”

Following that exchange, we walked. We walked about 300 meters and then decided we had no clue where this place was. After trying to figure out where it was supposed to be on the map (the map ends and then has an arrow pointing straight off the page with a caption that says, 'Nerpy Aquarium 300 meters'), we decided to head back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, Emily decided to look online to see where exactly the aquarium was. Of course, she decides to do this AFTER we already tried to find it. I called it, we walked right past it and had no idea it was there.

We got a few supplies at the store, went to the train station to get our tickets, ate dinner, and then got on our 30-hour first-class train ride to Yekaterinburg.

The pretty much empty dining car. Our train was the #1, so it had a name, the Rossiya.

From Russia, With Love

The train from UlanBaatar to Ulan Ude takes approximately 24 hours. You spend around 11 of those in customs or waiting for them. The train ride itself is pretty pleasant though. We started at 9PM, so we met our neighbors and then were asleep about an hour later. When we woke up in the morning, we were sitting in a station on the Mongolian side, where we sat, and sat, and sat for about 4 hours total (most of the time our car sat without an engine...just the car).

This is the car we called home for 24 hours. This is what a normal engine looks like.

Soon after we woke up, we were joined by two Russian women with 4 or 5 extremely large bags full of cashmere products. The had extra papers, so I can only assume that they were importing goods into Russia, because they were with 4 or 5 other people who had a similar amount of baggage. When we finally got going, we were treated to views of mountains, rivers, and forests for a while. Then we hit Mongolian customs less than a half hour later. They came on the train, grabbed our passports, had a laugh at my (Richard's) last name, and eventually gave them back after an hour. Then we waited more.

If you order tea or coffee, you rent one of these with a glass. Emily in our cabin.

Finally, we crossed into Russia where the gers turn into houses and the people turn white. Guess what happened next...We were met by Russian customs and waited more. A customs official took our passports, looked us over, laughed at my last name (again...), and then went off to do whatever with our passports. When the officials finally came back about 2 hours later, they talked to the two women and kicked them off the train. They had to take their bags in to be inspected and weighed. A couple hours later, they came back, grabbed their personal bags, and we never saw them again.

Then we were off to Ulan Ude! It only took another seven hours to arrive. The whole time we chatted and played cards with a Frenchie and a Brit who were heading to Irkutsk. I got my ass handed to me in Hearts, which I learned on the go. We arrived in Ulan Ude around 11PM, and went straight to Olga's Homestay (see our review for a description). The next day, we walked around the city, which is small, but quite nice.

Food.

Ulan Ude's main attraction is the world's largest head statue. Of course, it is of Lenin. We are in Russia after all. There is also a beautiful shopping district, and an imposing cathedral. We aren't sure if it is Eastern Orthodox, but that's our best guess. The buildings in Ulan Ude look very new, or at least they have new paint. They are quite colorful. Around 4PM, we jumped on another train to Irkusk.

Lenin's monstrous head.

The cathedral. (Anyone got a name?)

The shopping street.

This time, there were no long stops along the way, and we were joined by a Russian babushka (grandmother) who spoke a little English, but was extremely friendly and outgoing. Completely the opposite of what we had come to expect from Russian people. We spent the next seven hours chatting and using sign language to talk about various topics such as: Putin, Putin's hobbies, Putin driving a tank (complete with illustrations), our lives, and our families. We arrived in Irkutsk at 11PM, got a cab to our hostel, and now it is time to say goodnight!

That is a 1 liter CAN of beer that apparently is only for women, because it weighs in at a dainty 4.8% alcohol, which is quite low in Russia. We had 8.2% beer the night before.

Richard in our much older train cabin on the way to Irkutsk.