10/2/2012 Lake Baikal to Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia and train to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY

We had free time at Lake Baikal til 2pm so Andrea, Susie and I ventured down to the lake and wandered through a few markets before going to the ice park. The ice park was full of ice sculptures and toys like ice ball pits and cubby houses. There was a massive ice slide that we slid down which was heaps of fun! From there we caught the bus to the Lake Baikal museum which was great, it had an aquarium with all the fish of Lake Baikal in it as well as seals (a bit sad to see them in such a small enclosure though). We made it back to the hostel in time to catch the bus into Irkutsk (through amazing snowy forest scenery) where we wandered around the city for the afternoon. At 10pm we made our way to the train station for our 10:15 departure to Mongolia. We had a few drinks in the cabin before getting some sleep.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Little birdy eating someone's bread at the markets

Wandering around Lake Baikal

Andrea walking down the side of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

Me in the ice park

The ice park

The ice park - ice slide

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park

The ice park - sculpture carving with a chain saw! 

The ice park

The ice park - the ice slide

The ice park

The ice park - inside the ice slide

The ice park - ice slide

The ice park - ice slide

The ice park

The ice park - ball pit 

The ice park - ball pit

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Andrea checking out the museum

Andrea loving the museum!

Lake Baikal seal in the museum aquarium

Lake Baikal seal in the museum aquarium

In the museum aquarium 

Outside the museum 

Lake Baikal 

Lake Baikal 

Lake Baikal 

Lake Baikal 

Lake Baikal 

Lake Baikal

On our way back to the hostel

On our way back to the hostel

On our way back to the hostel

Quick stop at the bakery

On our way back to the hostel

Andrea outside our hostel

The hostel cat sharing its couch...

The view from our hostel

Our hostel

Our hostel

Ellie in our hostel room

Andrea having her hair braided on the bus

Our bus

The hostel dining room

Farewelling the hostel owner

Costa outside our hostel

Leaving the hostel for Irkutsk

Driving back to Irkutsk

Driving back to Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk - check out the icicles! 

Sunset over Irkutsk

The team back on the train! Andrea, Anya, Martha, Susie, Sophia and Ellie playing uno