Still reminiscing over the tour of Mongolia, we boarded our first class carriage to Ulan-Ude. Our first stop in Russia.

I wish we hadn't got off.

Ulan-Ude felt so different to anything in Mongolia. It felt Russian. Gone were the Prius cars and traffic chaos, and instead we had crossings that people actually stopped for you to cross, and a lot less of the charm of Mongolia. There was also a lot of fish in the supermarkets!

We were stopping here really to see Lenin's massive head (a statue) and originally some temples. After Mongolia we decided we were templed out, and it fell down with rain, so we did some admin (getting a new SIM card) and wandered around the city.

We went to a cathedral, a street of restored old wooden houses (that Irkutsk does better), a mall and a tank.

I've not got much more on that. Having my time again we would have stayed on the train to Irkutsk directly from UB.

We traveled on a Sunday to Irkutsk, Lonely Planet suggested taking a day train as it skirts the lake in a picturesque manner.

It pissed down the whole way to Irkutsk (we didn't know that there was a state of emergency declared for floods at the time), delaying the train by 2.5 hours. We were in 3rd class open and had seats... well at least we can say we have been third class. We were trying to decide whether the blokes in the area next to us were military or gangsters (I got a picture of the little one). We decided on military as gangsters wouldn't travel in 3rd class.

Irkutsk was, I'm sure, a very pretty city in the sunshine. We saw it in the rain (so much rain) and grey.

Irkutsk has an excellent walking tour, which is actually marked out on the street by a green line. I'm sure it would not surprise any of you (who have travelled with us before) that we did the walking tour despite the rain. I wished we had longer there.

We went to a couple of cafe/restaurants (recommended by Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor) and bumped into the same couple from the Netherlands whose whole experience of Russia was Moscow, a train non-stop(!) for 5 days and Irkutsk. They were then off to Mongolia for 3 days.

One of the churches in Irkutsk we went to, had a priest wandering round in it. Much to our amusement Luke and I both came out of the church and agreed that we had Boney M' "Rasputin" going round our heads. That evening at the restaurant, you'll never guess what came on the radio... "Rasputin". It made our collective day (it's the little things).

That evening I got to use some proper Russian as our waitress couldn't speak English, though we were given an English menu. I managed to ask for a fork, order the same drinks again, and let her know the meal was delicious. I was quite proud of myself I have to say.

Next day we were off again to Lake Baikal, which is suffering from smoke haze from some of the worst wild-fires recorded in Siberia. So after the floods comes the fires (plague of locusts to follow? - please no).

The van here (booked by our hostel) made us miss our Mongolian UAZ's which were comfortable by comparison. It took 8 hours.

We are here for 4 nights which is a bit of a luxury, we might splash out again and get some laundry done (what lushes).