Moscow, the historic capital of Russia and, for much of the 20th century,
the Soviet Union.
Irkutsk, a city of 750,000 people, is capital of Eastern Siberia, is 5191km from Moscow.
The Trans-Siberian Railway runs from Moscow all the way to the Pacific
Ocean. I travelled for 4 nights and 3 days to reach Irkutsk.
The Circum-Baikal Line, the section of the Trans-Siberian
from Irkutsk round Lake Baikal to Ulan Ude, after which the line into Mongolia branches off from the main line which
continues eventually to Vladivostok.
The beautiful Lake Baikal is the oldest lake in the world, about
25 million years old. I stayed in the village of Listvianka, 70km from Irkutsk.
