Irkutsk

Most of us just go to Irkutsk for a stopover before going to Lake Baikal or Olkhon Island; maybe you should think spending a whole day in Irkutsk. It is far from being a waste of time. It’s a nice little Russian town which is worth visiting. There are few interesting things to see. First, you can find really nice orthodox churches. You can’t really miss them; there are at least 5 of them in the whole city. The famous ones and the most beautiful ones are, the Transfiguration Church next to the bus station and the church of the exaltation of the cross. After this, you can go and see Kirov square where you will see beautiful ice sculptures (if you are visiting Russia during winter; which I think is the best time). If you go for a walk in Irkutsk, you will see many little squares or parks, with those ice sculptures, where children enjoy so much playing with and roll in the snow, you might wonder if the temperature is really -20°C.
After the discovery of this nice Russian town, you may feel a bit hungry. For food shopping, there is no better place than the central market. It’s a real example of what kind of food you can find in Russia. There are a lot of cheeses, sausages, dry and fresh meat, dry and fresh fish and some vegetables which are a bit expensive in Russia. Once your basket is full with delicious food, you may want to try some vodka. For this, you have 2 shops in Central Market which have a great choice. Most of the vodkas in the shops are unknown to us; it can be a bit of a challenge to choose the right one, they all have different sizes and price. The size is from 25cl to 1l and the price from 50 to 700 rubles. Don’t choose the cheapest one you will be disappointed. For the size it’s all a matter of taste. If you are 4 or more go for the big one, otherwise you can choose 3 or 4 small ones to be able to taste different type of vodka.
Once you are done with all the shopping you can go back to you hotel and enjoy your meal with a nice vodka. Be careful with the vodka you may regret it the next morning.