48 Hours In Irkutsk Russia

Irkutsk, Eastern Siberia, Russia

By the time we reached the hostel, we were all hot and bothered. Our rooms were downstairs with little natural light, and we discovered there was no hot water…at all. The hostel staff told us this is a regular occurrence in Russia. Really, where are we? I didn’t think Russia was third world. Hmmm. I wasn’t sure I believed them, but a (very) cold shower it was. We had no hot water for the two days we stayed in Irkutsk.

On our first afternoon, we went in search of a bank and food. The bank was easy; finding food was trickier. We ended up miles from our hostel in an area called District 130, which has several restaurants and pubs that were all closed because it was Sunday.

District 130 is a strange place. It has several replica Irkutsk-style wooden houses built to create a tourist precinct. They are quite nice, but I struggled to understand why they would build so many new replicas when stunning original Irkutsk-style houses all over the city are falling down and in desperate need of restoration.

By the time we arrived in District 130, we were all hot, tired, hungry, and cranky. We managed to navigate the Russian buses and caught one back uptown to our hostel. We discovered a nice bar just around the corner where we enjoyed a much-needed couple of drinks.

We had dinner at a cute restaurant nearby that served excellent pelmeni and pancakes along with big mugs of tea—delicious.

The next morning, we wandered around the corner to a cafe for breakfast only to discover they had no food—just coffee and tea. Strange. After coffee and tea, we ventured across the road to a boulangerie (just like in France) for more tea and quiche.

We then set off to explore Irkutsk. The city has a beautiful style of housing unique to the area. Some houses have been restored, but many are quite dilapidated and in need of some TLC. We spent ages wandering the streets, in awe of the amazing architecture.

Irkutsk was also home to several exiled Decembrists, a wealthy group of people who attempted to get better rights for all in 1825. Their attempt failed, and they were sent to hard labor in a Siberian mine before finally ending up in Irkutsk, building beautiful homes, and becoming influential in the city.

We wandered through the Trubetskoy House Museum, the former home of a Decembrist, and read about the history of the movement—it was very interesting.

We also visited the Regional Museum, which was interesting but only in Russian, making it difficult to understand the full story (or actually any of the story, really). One of the ladies in the museum insisted we sit and watch a video about explorers, which I’m sure was very interesting—if only we understood it. We snuck off when she wasn’t looking and quickly escaped the museum, heading to our now-favorite bar, The Library, for our evening drinks.

That night, we ate at a lovely restaurant with delicious shashliks and people all around smoking water pipes. Nice, but a tad smoky.

On the way home, we explored a local supermarket where you could buy caviar by the scoopful and picked up a few bits and pieces for our onward journey the next morning.

In the morning, we were off to the famous Lake Baikal and the village of Listvyanka for five days.

For information on traveling in Russia, read our Russia Travel Guides.