Day 11

Breakfast in the Russian hotel was not too different from Marriott; the food tasted just as good but the presentation was not as sophisticated.  Our plan for today was to go to Listvyanka, on Lake Baikal because on Sunday we only had 1.5 hours there and could not explore it properly. We took a bus to the central market, then a minibus to Listvyanka.  It was a picturesque 1 hour ride.  We got off the bus before the town at a maritime museum. The museum was excellent, showing  the geological historical formation of the lake.  Unfortunately, most of the explanations were in Russian. They had a video simulation in English of a submersible dive to the bottom of the lake, which was very interesting. At the deepest point it is 1 mile deep. From the museum we took a cab into town. The town was totally different from Sunday. It was empty compared to the crowds on Sunday.  The weather was beautiful, 72 degrees. We walked along and across the village. There are many old wooden houses there, and the village could be lovely if people cared more about their surroundings. Many places look neglected even though many if not most houses offer accommodations for tourists (often with the traditional Russian banyas =sauna-like baths). We had 2 omul fish, one hot and one cold-smoked and bread for lunch. We definitely prefer the hot omul to the cold. There were quite a few people on Listvyanka beach, boat operators were offering boat rides along the coast and people were just enjoying a beautiful summer-like day. In the afternoon, we took the marshrutka (little bus) back to Irkutsk and found our way back to the hotel (via the central market and a lot of fur hats).

For dinner we went to the Chinese restaurant  in our hotel. It was terrible. We ordered two dishes but they only brought one. We walked to Travelers Coffee and had nice dessert. Then back to our hotel English Pub for Armenian brandy. Pub is nice.