After a day of chilling out on the train, playing cards, drinking, chatting, drinking, sleeping, drinking, reading and drinking, we finally arrived into Irkutsk around 7.30am. We still had a 1-½ hour bus ride to Listvyanka ahead of us. We left the train and were met by an Intrepid rep, who showed us to the bus, which was going to take us to Listvyanka.

The scenery along the way was stunning and I was really trying to stay awake so I could enjoy it but the power of sleep was too great. We arrived into Listvyanka around 8.30am, where we met at the guesthouse by the owner Nikoli. We checked in to the guesthouse, thankfully this time I was sharing with Brad and Tina. We then went downstairs for breakfast, before going to a Russian Orthodox Christmas festival in the village.

This place was, for lack of a better word, but it truly a magical place. The trees were all covered with snow, which glistened in the sunshine. At the festival they all sorts of activities, which you could par take in. There was skiing, snowboarding, ice-skating, tubing and lots more. We had so much fun here that we didn't want to leave but we managed to get booked into going dog sledding so we left and headed off.

We arrived at the dog sledding place and one by one we were geared up in these massive suits, which we all wanted to steal, as they were so warm. The dog sled ride lasted for about 20mins and we had the opportunity to drive the sled but I just wanted to sit and enjoy the ride.

After everyone took a turn we decided to head back to the guesthouse. Nikoli came to collect us, but Tina, Brad, Robin and Doug wanted to walk back, so leaving them we drove back to the hotel and chilled out.

After a while the Tina, Brad, Doug and Robin came back after Nikoli went to pick them up, then they took off again. I went down stairs to find out what was going on I found out that Robin had fell over on the ice and landed pretty hard on her shoulder so they were taking her to hospital to get it checked out.

We had a Russian meal for dinner, which was fresh fish from Lake Baikal with veggies. We sat up talking, playing cards and drinking vodka. Before going to bed.