Irkutsk and further into Siberia

September 2nd 2017 continued...

I have just awoken from a slumber; I think my pork rib noodles knocked me for six. My salt intake and sugar intake (from the worst Fanta ever!) has probably quadrupled in the last few days.

We have arrived in Irkutsk; the Australian and his mother are leaving the train here. We decide to wander down the platform as we are stopping for 30 minutes, hopefully I can buy something healthy-ish!

This was the about as healthy as it got.....it was quite refreshing though!




As we left Irkutsk, we decided to go find the restaurant car....10 carriages, and a lot of foul smelling noodles, later, we found it! After a beer or two, we were feeling more human again!

We decided to stick around for some food and ordered the "Beer Plate." It said it consisted of spicy chicken wings, garlic croutons, crispy cheese barrels and chips Karambas served with a sauce of ketchup and mayonnaise; we thought this sounded like a decent sharing plate.....it wasn't really what we thought! The following pictures probably explain everything.....Appetising, right?





So this was our experience of the Russian dining car...it is privately run and as you can see, not very good! At least the beer is cold, although it is expensive (200 roubles, about £2.80). We also wanted to try some Russian champagne but they didn't have any left, quite possibly a blessing in disguise!

Our next stop was Zima; this was a half hour stop so we headed to the platform to see if we could buy anything. There was a little shop on the platform which was heaving. Surprisingly enough, we bought a few cans of Russian beer called Baltika; they were 80p each....much more like it! 



Doing nothing is surprisingly tiring so we headed back to our cabin to enjoy our beers and reflect on our holiday so far.....

And have an early night; phew, no more border crossings!




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