Mongolian visa

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia)

We arrived in Irkutsk around 10pm and due to form, it was snowing, icy and freezing cold. We headed for Hotel Uzory on the other side of town and for the first time in Russia, they actually acknowledged our reservations and we were not turned into the cold night.... Progress! Shower, food, beer and a bed made for a peaceful slumber.

We woke late on Saturday and took a stroll through the city, which was much like other Russian cities, a few wooden houses, ugly concrete blocks and Orthodox churches.... thankfully i found the football stadium, which seemed to fix my cravings for sport! There was a game, but i decided i would not make Julia endure it, so we headed for U Dzhuzeppe restaurant in the back of the ground, which served up a really tasty meal of Veal with trimmings.

We spent the rest of the day lazily walking the streets and freezing our behinds off! With it been a saturday night, we decided to sample what Irkutsk had to offer in terms of entertainment.... thus, we ended up having an early night!

Sunday was spent much the same way as saturday, just looking around the town and keeping out of the bitterly cold winds wherever possible. Monday eventually arrived and we were able to apply for our Mongolian visas... the main purpose of been in Irkutsk. Due to form, i got mine with little effort, whilst Julia needed an invitation ($40) due to her cursed Russian passport, thus doubling her costs to nearly $80! We were given the information for a lady who issued these invitations and arranged to meet her back at the embassy at 15.

30, as we needed it handed in by 17.00, to be able to get it processed before the weekend. Turning up at the alloted time was clearly not this persons strong point. After numerous text messages and eventually a mad dash to call her from the post office to find out where she was, she eventaully met us at 16.55, an extremely close scrape as my visa expired on saturday and i had already bought train tickets for fridays train!

Visa spplications handed in, next stop was the bus station to get our tickets to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal, followed by a 'fix' of swwet and sour pork to round the day off on a high!