Springtime

Day 15: Irkutsk (RUS). For me, there's something special about February. On the one-hand its my birthday month so it usually involves quantities of beer and cake! And on the other, February offers those tantalising glimpses of spring: The sun shines, the birds sing and just when you begin to believe warmer days are on the way - Winter returns to regain it's icy grip. So it was today.

The scene could have been any city in the Northern Hemisphere: Brilliant sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, old ladies discussing the unseasonal weather, children playing in the playground and students reading literature on park benches. But then if I told you that the slide on which the children played was carved from solid ice, the manuscript was that of Marx and the balmy temperatures registered a whopping -12C, then maybe you'd conclude we were in Siberian town of Irkutsk.

Dubbed 'The Paris of Siberia', Irkutsk is a quaint little town with traditional wooden architecture that must have been stunning when built 100 years ago. But sadly, the town doesn't appear to have weathered too well under the communist years and today it looks a little, well, tired. Deep into Russia, Irkutsk however does give you a feeling that East and West are finally united The people look different here. Not necessarily European, not necessarily Asian – just different. And despite its 'tired' appearance the Asian influence helps to brighten up those Soviet style concrete monstrosities that we had seen all over Russia by the addition of colourful banners, lanterns and dragons.

For Karen and me, the unseasonably warm temperatures were very much appreciated, because whilst -12C is not exactly tropical, it did enable us to spend pretty much all day outside sightseeing without suffering any of the effects that we had encountered back in Yekaterinburg (although I still found that I couldn't go for more than an hour at these temperatures without needing another wee!!)

Today's 'entertainment' came by way of the transportation system. Irkutsk has a excellent public transport system: trains, trams, trolleybuses & buses all play their part, but by far the most popular way to travel here is by using one of the hundreds of mini buses that patrol the city. If you can actually get on one, that is! If you've ever tried to hail a black cab after midnight to go 'South of the River' then you may just have an inkling of what's involved: We stood at one stop and watched 30 buses a minute go past. Most were full to bursting. Of those that had seats, many didn't stop. Many of those that did stop drove off before we had time to get in. Eventually, we finally managed to get on board. Only for it to drop us further away from our destination than when we started. Oh Joy!