Arriving at a mild -20 me and Ben who happened to have booked the same hostel, made our way slightly over dressed into town to find the “down town hostel”, after ringing the bell 5 times we eventually got in to the small apartment with 2 dorms. With 6 hours to kill before we were aloud to check in I seeped on the sofa until day break and then went for a walk along the river and into town. Irkutsk is fairly dull city and in an hour or so I had seen all there was to see. On returning back to the hostel I decided to bring forward my trip to Listvyanka and head down the following day with Ben and 3 other people from the hostel, Listvyanka is on the shore of lake Baikal which is quite a sight, 636km north to south, 60km wide and 1637m deep, making it the deepest lake in the world. What makes it even more impressive in the winter is the lake is fully frozen, even thick enough to drive across in some places. Imagine a very very very big glacier but perfectly flat. We arrived early by mini bus and immediately ran out onto the ice, with always being told as a kid never to walk onto a frozen lake it was a strange experience, even with all the cars on the ice I still felt slightly uneasy. We spent the day playing on the ice and watching the rich Russians driving around on the ice with a few hand brake turns thrown in for good measure. The following day I managed to miss the last bus to Irkutskas as the time table showed the town that the busses left from on and not the destination! Resulting in a rather expensive taxi back to the city.

The following day I took an early train to a small Ski resort called Baikalask also on the shores of the lake. Arriving at mid day I was presented with lots of small wooden houses, a little train station and a small shop. I was expecting more… I was hoping to be able to wander around the town until I found a cheep hotel or something, there was one bus an hour to somewhere but where I could not be sure. After unsuccessfully trying to phone the only hotel listed in the lonely planet (LP) and a local travel agent I sat in the train waiting room contemplating my next move. Luckily the ticket lady who must have seen I was looking a bit lost came over to me and I tried to explain I was looking for a hotel by pointing to words in the back of the LP and tried to ask if the bus at 2pm would take me to hotels, she didn’t quite understand but did phone a local hotel with a member of English speaking staff, a room and a taxi were arranged, all quite a relief. I spent the next two days skiing the small resort with great views of the lake/ the runs were good and the resort was so empty that I was able to play around and practice my carving. Unfortunately the runs got a bit icy towards the end of the day and my rental skis were not maintained very well which made it almost impossible to hold an edge in the ice.

The only disappointment has been the weather which has been 10-15 degrees warmer than it should be. Some day it has been as warm as -4!!