After breakfast we were meeting a local guide in the Kremlin, but the guide was about an hour late so whilst we were waiting we made snowmen, snowballs and had some fun in the snow. Eventually the guide came and took us through the cathedral, palace and then onto the Museum of Wooden Structures. We then went back to the main centre and had some lunch before getting our bus to Moscow. We caught cabs back to Vladimir and waited at the bus stop for the bus to Mos...

We were left Listvyanka (8.01.09) to catch the Trans Siberian across to Vladimir. On my way down stairs for breakfast I ended up slipping and hurting my little toe, it hurt so much that I think I actually broke it as it swelled up so much and I couldn't move it. After breakfast we packed our bags, said goodbye to Nikoli and boarded our bus to Irkutsk. We had a free day in Irkutsk before catching the train, so we went to the Decembrist museum. After looking at ...

We had breakfast in the guesthouse and found out that Robin had broken her shoulder and was going to have to fly home to Brisbane as she may need surgery. Around lunchtime we headed into the main centre to check out Lake Baikal and the markets. We got dropped off at a restaurant on the main road and went in for lunch. There were a lot of people in the main centre as it was Russian Orthodox Christmas day so there were lots of activities in the main centre. We w...

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 b...

After a rough nights sleep we woke up in the morning, somewhere in Russia, to find that our train was all alone on the tracks. We were able to leave the train and wonder around as we were going to be here for most of the day as we were waiting for another train to take us the rest of the way to Irkutsk. We spent the day wondering around the town, re-stocking up on beer and food, chatting, playing cards and chilling out. It was a very relaxed day. At about 4.30...