Finally... Three days of train-pain was over and we arrived in Irkutsk on monday morning, tired but excited. Our host Jane took us to her crib where we met one of her roommates Sasha and two other couchsurfers from Germany. The crib was awesome, two bedrooms in which Jane, Sasha, another Jane and other couchsurfers spend their time...Not forgetting toxic and Sau, the two crazy buttnaked pussycats.
Each day brought new couchsurfers who shared the room with us. The walls were painted by the british flag colours and the floor was covered with a huge british flag.
Mostly we have been chilling out at the crib getting to know our hosts and the other surfers. We had a lot of fun with Frans and Esther from Holland, especially one night when we had a few Baltikas (beers) and taught eachother about our cultures and languages :)
Jane and her friends also showed us the center of Irkutsk after a walk by the Angara river. The suburbs are very different from the center which is very modern, in an oldfashioned way. It gives you a warm and relaxed feeling with all its beautiful nature and parks whereas the suburbs resemble more a third world country. There's also a lot of smaller beaches along the Angara river where you can chillout and maybe take a swim..

Overall our time here in Irkutsk has gone by very fast even though we haven't done much. We've got to know many great people from different countries and hopefully made some new friends.
Tomorrow we'll leave to the "paradise island" Olkhan at Lake Baikal. It takes about seven hours to get there by bus so there's more sweat and tears coming up.