we're right in the middle of nowhere, it seems. irkutsk, the heart and industrial capital of siberia. alighting the train this morning at some ungodly hour we hadn't been accustomed to for some time, a lit-up temperature display told us 2 degrees C. that's more like the siberian weather i was hoping for - icy winds slashing at our faces, and such. chatting to the girl at the hostel, it's hit about 16 degrees in the last few weeks, but generally it's been snowy and cold. hurrah!
look how british i am; getting excited about the weather. bad weather at that.sorry.
they say irkutsk is 'the paris of siberia.' thank god i've never been to paris, and now i know not to. it's a perfectly okay town, lively, bustling away, new born puppies are sold from cardboard boxes on the street (slightly fresher than we'll find in china i suspect), there is no way of working out the traffic flow and ensuring safe passage across the four lane street.
it reminds me a bit of canberra in that there are plenty of official looking buildings, lots of people... but absolutely nothing to do. it's one of those it's-a-good-place-to-get-to-other-places-from places.
there's no running cold water in the hostel. a dead dog falls to pieces on a street nearby.maybe this wouldn't have been a place we'd have come to if we'd had sight beyond sight.
but i'm still glad to be here. i wanted to see the country, and no country is completely bells and whistles, or whistles and flutes, or whatever. the people are nice, the river is impressive, it's 28 degrees (sorry). global warming anyone?
we followed a random path today and found ourselves on an island filled with 16 year olds in traditional costume. at one point we seemed to have ended up in a school's grounds, but a school with a train station in it. nobody seemed to mind us, out of place, lost, in a primary school... although it was a bit eery. we stared at each other, unsure, quite a lot. but we didn't get arrested so i guess it was fine.
and we met a real life vietnam vet today.
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