So as you can see I have succeeded in grappling with technology enough to upload some photographs.

Unfortunately I have not succeeded enough to have something more symbolic of my time in Russia as the album cover than a blurry photo of a budgie.

I am currently in Irkustk (it's minus 22C) waiting for the train to take us to Mongolia at 5am. I'm quite looking forward to going on the train again as it'll be an opportunity to sleep lots. My body is somewhere between UK and Irkutsk time so I'm going to sleep about 3am and waking up about 10. Cue lots of listening to Bruce Springsteen and staring out of windows. The sky is so clear here you can see all the constellations really clearly.

I have come to a decision about my blog - I was talking to Laura the other day about this and I've been cutting back (and editing and deleting things I deem "unsuitable") because I don't want to bore people by rambling on about irrelevant things. I'm also very conscious I told lots of people I used to want to be a writer and that my writing is shockingly bad. But having reflected on this and having come to realise that:

a) my blog is as much for me as anyone else; and

b) if people are that bored they don't have to read it; and

c) I have spent way too much of my life trying to please other people at the expense of myself.

So in conclusion we are going to have appalling writing, inane observations and photos of budgies. ;-P

So, Irkutsk. I think I wrote at the end of my last blog that it was a different kind of cold and didn't feel that cold at all. I have changed my mind. Well, it is a different kind of cold. It's not really windy, but it's a kind of stinging cold. You have to get wrapped up properly before going outside anyway, so when you step outside (feeling increasingly like Mr (Mrs?) Blobby with the amount of layers I am wearing) you're so wrapped up you don't actually feel anything. It's only when you've been outside about an hour you suddenly realise your hands have gone completely numb and are so cold you know you have to get inside right away. I'm now thankful for the fact all the shops and cafes in Russia are so hot. You need to extra warmth to keep you going a bit longer outside.

People in Irkutsk are slightly more friendly than those in Moscow and St Petersburg. Well, most are still unfriendly but then you get the occasional person who is really nice and helpful (though I suspect some of these are just using it as a chance to practise their English). I had a grand adventure the other day. The hostel we've been staying in is slightly out of town so we need to get a bus in. At 5.30pm I left my nice warm cafe, wrapped up like Mr Blobby, and waddled off to find the bus back. I could not find it at all and spent about an hour wandering round getting increasingly confused and cold and hungry. There are three bus stations here but only one is served by local buses and isn't so much a station as a sign outside a shop. After trying to ask someone in the bus station and getting shoved to the side by impatient Russians I did what any English person would do and waddled into the police station to ask them for help. They tried to make me get a taxi (500 roubles) but I knew I could get the bus (10 roubles), I just needed to know where to get it from. Ensued a 20 minute argument in my broken Russian and their even more broken English: "you taxi", "Nyet, nyet, aftobus vozkal!" Anyway, I made it back in the end, 2 hours later and very frozen, but feeling quite proud of myself.

I'll be quite sorry to leave Russia, I've got used to it now and whilst I don't think I want to come back in a hurry and it is not the most friendly place I have been to, it is definately interesting and feels like a completely different world. I'm also doing quite well at learning Russian, though have realised I tend to say a sentence in English and substitute the key words for Russian ones. Then I wonder why the Russians don't understand.

The last few days has been our Lake Baikal trip. It's made me realise how important it is to get out of the cities and into the smaller towns and villages, as it is a completely different experience. The people in Listvyanka were really friendly, we got escorted to our rooms by some random ladies walking down the street on our arrival. We also went husky sledding and on a snowmobile which was great fun. Though I am more talented at driving a husky sledge than a snowmobile (a cross between a golf cart, a granny buggy and a motorbike)

It's so cold here everything is icy. Car and bus windows are covered in ice, and on my first day out my sandwiches and banana had frozen in my backpack. The lake itself wasn't frozen yet but the shore was. It was very sea-like which surprised me, there's a tide and everything.

Our accommodation in Listvyanka was meant to be a homestay, but turned out to be a two bedroom appartment all to ourselves complete with kitchen and bathroom. After two weeks of eating Russian food which always seems to have butter in, I actually almost passed out the other night after dinner from stomach pains (lactose intolerance), so I was very excited at being able to cook for myself and made a massive risotto. And then had a bath in the olympic swimming pool sized bath (though the water was very dirty and I'm sure I was cleaner when I went in). Oh, we also had birds, hence the budgie picture.

Well I had better go. Will update in Ulan Bator hopefully (it's warm there - minus 11!)