We Knew that Siberia Was Synonomous With Punishment

Irkutsk - the Capital of Eastern Siberia!

We should be aux anges with anyplace that isn’t the train, right? Well, the verdict on Irkutsk/Lake Baikal is mixed. We hate, loathe and despise the parts we didn’t find gorgeous and wonderful. In Irkutsk, the first thing to strike the eye is that the vehicles are a bizarre 50/50 split of left and right side driver seats. After learning that the streets with no walk lights/stop signs are the ones where pedestrians have the right to take their best shot; we were able to turn our attention to the large number of old wooden houses richly ornamented with marvelous carved decorations. These were lovely, and it is very sad that so many burned out hulks here and there around town testify to the loss of many more– doubtless due to the local custom of tossing un-extinguished cigarettes around like so much confetti.

While there were tasty baked goods and decent vegetable dumplings about, we suffered our worst culinary misfortune here in quest of Zada’s interminable pizza. Picasso Pizza more than lived up to its name – I think our pizza dated from his Synthetic Cubist period. It was not representational.



Lake Baikal - it's real big



Nerpas - precious even when in the seal gulag



Lake Baikal – stunning; Nerpas – precious; Listvyanka – ugh. The ride out was like a cheap danger carnival ride. Everyone needs a spinal readjustment. They should have put those political prisoners onto building real roads out here. The cratered surfaces and disintegrating sidewalks made seeing the town an obstacle course. It had been described as terribly touristy. All we can say is that they have a lot to learn about tourism and tourists. Russia has all these amazing places, all this incredible history and is sitting on piles of treasure – natural and man-made and they have no idea how to present/package/market whatever it is that tourist traps elsewhere do to attract and appeal and sell you stuff. We had planned a boat trip to the island for the real deal pretty, but being showered with raw filth from vehicles racing through the sludge-filled road craters used up those last crumbs of tolerance for this part of Russia and we scammed our way onto the first bus out.