Trans-Siberian Railway Adventure #4: Exploring Irkutsk and Listvyanka Near Lake Baikal
We got to Irkutsk, just 72 kilometers from the Baikal lake! In this article, I will show you what to see in this awesome wooden city and how to get to the Listvyanka town, the nearest town where you can see the biggest lake in the world. But beware - this small town is a real money thief. This is the fourth article about my Trans-Siberian railway journey, so if you want, you can also read about interesting places in Moscow, the awesome city of Yekaterinburg and the most boring one - Novosibirsk.
This time we are in the real Siberia! I will write here about the most interesting places and tourist attractions in Irkutsk and then we will get a bus and will go to Listvyanka, the nearest town over the Baikal lake. Let's begin!
Irkutsk
If someone asked me how would I describe the city in one sentence, my answer would be that Irkutsk kept the flair of the 19th century with a few early 90s turbulent. And this is exactly how I felt wandering the streets. The city center is full of wooden houses with interesting decorative carvings on the window frames and walls. It is a rare opportunity to see it even in Russia because most of that kind of houses were destroyed during the industrialization in the 20th century.
130 Kvartal
If you don't know how to find all those beautiful old wooden cottages and houses, it's name is 130 Kvartal (not very romantic name, right?).
It can be found south of the Raising of the Cross Church and you can find here a lot of cafes, restaurants, and museums. The interesting fact is that you can find here the only one real 21st-century shopping mall.
Interesting information: Not all these buildings are originally from Irkutsk. Some of this wooden houses in 130 Kvartal were transported here from other locations and some are fake, build nowadays as tourist attractions.
Museum in Volkonsky House
Volkonsky house is a small mansion with stables, a barn, and servant quarters in brown, blue an white colors. It's a Regional Memorial Decembrists Museum which tells the story of the family's exile in Irkutsk.
Znamensky Monastery
Znamensky Monastery can be found 1.9 kilometers northeast of Skver Kirova, it was built in 1762 and the Kolchak monument shows it's entrance. It's worth to visit not only because the monstery is very beautiful, but also because there are many awesome iconostases and a gold sarcophagus, where St. Inokent (a Siberian missionary) can be found. It's also a tomb of the man who claimed Alaska for Russia - Grigory Shelekhov.
Unfortunately, the Znamensky Monastery is not in the city center, so if you want to visit it, get the trolleybus number 3.
Baikal lake
It's time to get to the Baikal lake. This was the most important stop on our journey and adventure and we spent here about a ten days. We were in a few towns around the lake and also we came to the Olkhon island, but before that, we spent a one day in the Listvyanka town.
Shamanka Rock and some flowers near the Baikal lake.<brBaikal lake and a ship.Fisher boat on the Baikal lake.Sun beans in the Baikal lake. Shamanka Rock and a beach near the Baikal lake.<brMy friend on the huge stone in Baikal lake.Fisherman on boat in the Baikal lake.Port on the Baikal lake.
Listvyanka
Listvyanka is the closest town to go if you want to get from Irkutsk to the Baikal lake. If you (like us) get here through Trans-Siberian train, the best way is to get there by bus, which takes about 1,5 hour. Well, as I wrote before, this town is a real money thief, mostly because it's the city where a lot of rich Russians come for vacations. We can find here huge contrasts, like a few old wooden houses and a big new hotel.
We didn't spend here too much time and because of the prices, we decided to spend the night in the tent. Unfortunately, that night was the one big rain and I had just one travel tent for 1.5 people (and there was 2 of us), so we all got wet and our backpacks (there was no space in the tent for them) also got all wet. So we spend half of the day getting dry in the nearest cafe.
But, well, this is also a place when I ate one of the best meals in my life and a second-best fish that I ever ate. It was called Omul, which is a fish from Baikal lake. So it's a nice opportunity to try it, but as I remember I spend a lot of money for that meal.
Conclusion
It's hard to say how excited I was getting near the Baikal lake. Irkutsk proved to be an awesome and a bit exotic city, while Listvyanka disappointed me a little. But it was still just a few first days here and we still wanted to see an Ulan-Ude and the Olkhon island with the Khuzhir village.
If you enjoyed this travel article about Russia and Siberia or just have some questions, feel free to write me in the comments section below.
