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Irkutsk Blog
This busy city of a half-million people was called the "Paris of Siberia" for its variety of trade goods. Near Mongolia and China, it is a cross-road and fascinating cultural melting pot.
We checked into our nice three-star hotel, which is centrally located. Our room has a great view of the main park, directly across the street. Ice sculptures are starting to decorate the park, and look great illuminated at night - foreshadowing the Ice Festival we're looking forward to visiting in Harbin for New Year's.
We had the daylight to get around the city yesterday, so we dressed up in most of our layers and set out in the -17°C afternoon. We walked along the beautiful steaming river to the Alexander III Trans-Siberian Obelisk; through the streets with old wooden houses sporting fancy, "lace" wood trim; through the shopping street and to the "mall" for an inexpensive "fast food" lunch. The fried chicken and French fries with a Pepsi was 165 R ~ $5 for both of us - you couldn't eat out that cheaply at home!
After a long, late afternoon nap, we ventured out for dinner and to check out the "biggest nightclub in Siberia". We had a tough time finding a restaurant that we wouldn't be subjected to frightful live music, but managed to find the basement cafe of Hotel Rus a quiet sanctuary. We nearly left there, as the desserts on offer in the display case weren't exactly what we were looking for as a meal, and the Russian only menu and non-English speaking waitress were more than we could cope with. As we were getting our jackets, the chef came out and cheerfully drew the menu for us! She was so pleasant and helpful that we were quick to overcome our desire to leave. Of course, a picture of a chicken done Indian style leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but the food was fine and we were in shape to check out the club.
The "Stratosphere" is a bowling alley come disco catering to the college crowd that has a large population here. It was modern, large and far surpassed Eric's prognostication: "You know this place is going to be a dump?". The music was mediocre techno - fine for dancing. Drinks were reasonable: a pint of good draft was 100 R ~ $3.60; several of which I managed to down in a full night of dancing. They close the disco at 3:30, or did last night... Eric bailed early - too damn Canadian, (or is that British), to have fun dancing, but we both managed the short walk to the hotel safely.
Obvious from the posts today, this is the first real opportunity we've had to use the Internet. Here in the city, we've found a basement busy cybercafe, with two-dozen machines and reasonable connections speed - and shades of the Soviet era, queues have been forming to use the machines. We'll find out how much this two and a half hour session will cost each of us. Half an hour on the pathetically slow, (and nearly unusable due to adware), single computer at the hotel in Listvyanka cost a staggering 180 R per half hour. The three posts I made cost me about $10!
Will - from Irkutsk