KNOWN as the "Paris of the East", Irkutsk is the capital city of Siberia. I arrived at the station in the early morning before being whisked across the Angara River to my hotel overlooking the square. From there I discovered a walking trail around the city centre going for about five kilometres with stops at the museums, monuments, churches and other landmarks.
The fountain is in the middle of the square outside the hotel. This was where I started and finished the trail. It had been a mild sunny day reaching 23 degrees - a lot warmer than usual for this time of year, and certainly not the temperatures one would expect to encounter in the middle of Siberia.
Blogs from today:
The Trans-Mongolian Express
Pyongyang to St Petersburg by train
Irkutsk
Coast to coast across Eurasia
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