Saturday, October 15, 2016
I had most of the day just to wander around and take photos. I rode a street car until I saw the historic district and jumped off. I walked all around, then I walked back to the hostel where I'd left my bags. Then I walked to the train station and boarded my train west. Nobody spoke English at all, so I worked on my photos, and updated my diary.
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| This guy caught me taking his picture, but then he just looked away. |
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| I think this might be the caregiver's cottage, which is adorable. |
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| A wall of icons in the church. |
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| This gypsy woman is training her daughter young to beg. |
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| The coat of arms for Irkutsk is a Siberian tiger with a sable in its mouth. |
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| I ran into the Korean woman who did the Olkhon Island tour with me. We made a plan to meet in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I booked a bed at the same hostels where she already had reservations. |
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| See the red heart-shaped lock on the right? That's typical all over Europe. Of course not that big. But you put the names of two lovers on them and then lock them to a railing or a park bench. |
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| I wandered into a fancy shopping mall to use the rest room and buy some food for my train trip that evening. |
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| These jeans are in a really upscale store. I always think that I could find the same thing in a thrift store (or garbage can) for way less money. |
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| I was looking for a rest room, not the gas chamber, in this fancy shopping center. |
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| The inside of the rest room looked just as cold and sterile as the outside. |
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| These are traditional Russian chocolates, the same kind the Malaysian guy brought to share in the Ulan Ude hostel. |
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| In many ways, this looked like any upscale supermarket....except the dried fish section. |
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| A surplus of vodka too is something you wouldn't see in an American supermarket. |
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| They make fresh crepes in the deli section. |
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| "I Love Irkutsk" |
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| Russians can be quite affection in public. |
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| Notice the hammer and sickle in the top left, left over from Soviet days. |
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| The ever-present Lenin. |
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| I don't need to read Russian to know that this is a Lost Dog poster. And I don't need to know Russian to imagine that the owners are really missing this cutie. |
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| Rodin's "Kiss" |
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| Rodin's "Thinker" |
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| I really appreciated these bilingual signs in the historic district. |
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| Tex Mex in Russia |
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| A display of firefighting vehicles over the years. |
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| Back on the train |
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| Looking cold outside, but the train is well heated. |
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| Time for bed. |
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