Train to Irkutsk (36 hours)

Pictures: Craig's
Although we bought our tickets at different places, prices, and times, it turned out that Scally and Ollie were in the same room as us. Ruth was a little ways down the carriage, but hanging out in our room was no problem.


The ride was made shorter with great company, a bit of vodka, and card games. We tried several games including a version of Crazy 8's, an Irish game called 25 with the most convoluted rules that Scally had to make a chart of the card hierarchy, and we eventually settled on Diminishing Whist (sp?).


A huge portion of the trip (12 hours) was stuck within the 20km area around the border. The actual customs and searching didn't take so much time, but we just sat there on the tracks, two carriages without an engine, waiting and waiting and waiting. It was a little torturous at times when washrooms couldn't be used. And even when washrooms could be used at the station, they were appalling, no disgusting, no...there is no word that truly fits the state of these washrooms - think the movie Trainspotting - the scene with the worst toilet in Scotland!

Anyway, we arrived safely together, found a hostel (turns out to be the same hostel that Matt chose since we found his entry in the guestbook) and arranged a trip to Lake Baikal for the next day...