russia: irkutsk and angarsk

My bus from Khuzhir to Irkutsk dropped me off near the bus station in Irkutsk around 1530. My train didn't leave for 4 hours, so I figured I might as well see something.

I checked the map and discovered a Lenin statue I hadn't yet seen, so that was first up. It was just a 10 minute walk from the station, so it was perfect.

Across the street from the man was a yellow church. The inside was about as exciting as the inside, I didn't even take photos inside.

Around the other side of the church was the property of the Volkonsky Decembrist museum.

The Decembrists were a group of military officers and minor nobles who wanted to make some changes in the governance of what is now Russia. The attempted coup failed, in December of 1825. Within a year, around 100 of them were sent into Siberian exile.

From what I've seen in various museums, they brought their entire lives with me. Wives often moved to be with their husbands, bringing what seems like all their household goods.

This museum was over two floors, and showed the house and lives of some very wealthy Decembrists in exile. 

I saw fancy dresses and furniture, tea sets and toys, even a big piano. Princess Marie (of Siberia?) wasn't allowed to go to public places of amusement, so she made her home a cultural center of the city. The piano was used for concerts back then, and it's still used for that reason, though I suspect the concerts are less often.

Great museum, and I didn't have to pay extra to take photos. I also noticed that docents didn't follow me around, and I was the only tourist there at the time. Quite nice.

From there it was a bit of walking to get to a quirky monument: one to a tourist. It's a statue of a skinny guy wearing a backpack looking up at nothing in particular. Cute.

Across the street from Mr Tourist was a supermarket, so I loaded up on non perishable food, mostly carbs.

When looking for places to eat online I found a listing for a place serving New Zealand pies. I couldn't resist, since New Zealand was the first country I ever fell in love with, and I miss their pies. I had two meat pies, which weren't completely authentic, but they weren't awful either. I couldn't say exactly why, but that's how they tasted to me.

I intended my fruit pie to go, but I ended up eating it before leaving the cafe.

From there it was a quick tram ride to the train station, in plenty of time to board my train.

I left Irkutsk on the evening of 3 March, and returned the morning of the 8^th.

Like many Russian cities, Irkutsk has plenty of public transport, including trams. I adore trams, I almost always choose them over buses, if given the choice. The tram I took from the train station brought me within a few city blocks of my hostel. Very convenient.

I was able to check in straightaway, also very convenient. I should have dropped my stuff, then gone right back out the door to explore, but I didn't. Sometimes it is hard to walk away from wifi and plugs.

I finally got out the door a bit after noon, having charged everything, as well as organized some photos and such. First on my list was a church, the Kazan Cathedral. To get there I got to ride another tram part of the way :)

The outside of the church was red brick, with blue domes. Nice, I guess, but I don't love brick.

The inside of the church was beautiful, especially with the light being very visible as it streamed through the windows. The entire interior was painted with brightly coloured frescoes. I could've stayed in there for a while, just enjoying the colour and light.

As I left the church I couldn't miss the signs on the insides of the interior doors, the signs were written in Chinese. Because of the coronavirus pandemic having started in China, I was expecting something more along the lines of instructions of behaviour for Chinese visitors.

I used a translation app to read the signs, which actually reminded Chinese visitors to buy items from the small shop in the church. Hmmm.

When I used my phone to check how long it would take to get to my next sight, it said 12 minutes by public transport, or 15 minutes by foot. Since the weather was amazing, I chose to walk.

Trubetskoy Decembrist museum was similar to the one I'd seen a few days earlier, but smaller. There is a combined discount ticket for the two, but you have to see them on the same day to use it, darnit. This one was smaller than the first one, but the building in which it was located was just as nice.

Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1790. He was a minor nobleman, from both sides of his family. Then he married a woman who was the daughter of a man who was also a nobleman, at least that's how I understand it. He chose a military career, which eventually sent him to St Petersburg, which is where the Decembrist rebellion failed.

This museum was also on two floors, the basement and the first floor. I assume there are offices or something on the second floor? Everything was displayed well, though there were fewer exhibits overall.

I walked to my next sight as well, since it was quite close. Even though the sign on the door said it should be open, the City History Museum was closed. Maybe it was because this was Sunday, 8 March, which was International Women's Day. Booo.

I kept going, to the main (only?) synagogue of the city. There was an information sign out front, in three languages: Russian, English, and Chinese. A good summary of the history of the synagogue itself, as well as of Jewish life in the area. As I was reading the sign a couple locals went into the synagogue and told me it was okay to come inside and look around.

This was the first time in a long while that I've entered a Jewish facility without having to go through a metal detector, or someone looking through my bags. This is a good thing, I think.

The 'sanctuary' was nice, two floors. Since I was in there by myself I was able to look around a little more than I normally would. I noticed some items on display, such as a prayer shawl that was a couple centuries old. There were other prayer shawls tucked into bookcases/shelves at the back of the room. Do people leave these shawls there during the week? I need to learn a lot more about how a synagogue works. 

After leaving the synagogue I walked back to a nearby main street, Marx street. This is the same street on which I'd seen the monument to a tourist a few days earlier. I ended up stopping somewhere for dinner, before a quick check into a supermarket.

The next morning my alarm went off as planned at 0630. I'd had a pipe dream of getting out the door by 0700, in order to get to the train station, buy a ticket, and get on a train to Angarsk. I did all that, but it actually happened 3.5 hours later. I was awake at 0630, and stayed awake, but couldn't get moving.

Buying the ticket was easy and cheap, less than $1USD. The lady selling tickets tried to tell me which train to take, but realized I didn't understand her. She wrote the number on a piece of paper instead, which made it obvious. She didn't have to do that, but I really appreciated her effort.

The train departed and arrived exactly on time, of course.

Angarsk feels like a smaller city, but Wikipedia tells me it has more than 230,000 people. It's a new city, having only been founded in 1948, and granted official city status in 1951.

It is 50 kilometers from Irkutsk, about an hour on the elektrichka.

When I got off the train in Angarsk I wanted to take a photo using my tripod at the train station. (So I could be in the photo, with the city name on the back side of the train station.) For the first time ever for me in Russia, a security guard/police officer came along and told me it wasn't allowed unless I had permission from the chief of station.

That didn't stop me from taking photos inside the station, as I walked through. The first floor was not very interesting, but the second floor was quite nice. 

Surprisingly, (to me,) there were quite a few people out front of the train station. I don't know if they were just hanging out, waiting for someone, or something else. I'm used to movement in front of a train station, going in or out, but not so much standing around.

It was an easy walk toward the center of town, Lenin street went straight there from the train station. My first sight in town was Lenin, the man himself. The statue wasn't memorable, he wore a coat and had his hands in his pockets.

Behind Lenin was a theatre, and behind that, a park. The park didn't have much, just a fountain and a small children's play area, with plenty of trees.

Across the street from the park, a block down from Lenin was a mini Eiffel Tower. I have no idea why such a thing would be here, it looked really out of place.

I kept going, eventually getting to the Park of Culture and Leisure. It was also smaller than I'm used to seeing, but did have a big ferris wheel, which was running! One of these days I'm going to have to ride one of these in a random Russian city.

From there it was a longer walk to get to my last sight in the city: the Trinity Cathedral. The outside was a boring white, with green towers and gold domes. The inside was fantastic though, and well worth the walk. Gold and colour everywhere, really bright and beautiful. I was happy to stay in there a bit longer, it was lovely.

From there it took me a little over an hour to walk back to the train station. It was easy to buy a ticket, and hop on the next train back to Irkutsk. This one was a LOT busier, with every seat taken. I had to stand for more than half the ride. The standing was easy, but moving out of the way for everyone who wanted to go up and down the aisles was annoying.

After returning to Irkutsk I went straight to dinner, at a place whose name translates to cheese and oil. Or is it cheese and butter? I didn't need to go out to dinner, but I wanted to splurge a little on my last night of holiday. It was good food, both in taste and look.

The next morning it didn't take long to get to the airport, where everything went smoothly.

I wouldn't mind going back to Irkutsk, there are still plenty of things to see, and I haven't (yet) been there in warm weather.