Our original plan for today was to just hang out, relax, work on our journals and pack before we had to leave for the train station in the afternoon for our train to Yekaterinburg. But our extended stay at the post office yesterday trying to send a package resulted in us missing out on seeing one of the prime sights in Irkutsk - one of the two Decembrists houses that have been turned into museums. So, after eating a late breakfast, checking our emails and finishing packing our bags, we left the home stay shortly before noon and went out to catch the taxi-bus into the city.
We take the now familiar route into the city, but do not get off at Kirova square, as this would be a long walk to the museum. We are not quite sure where the taxi-bus is taking us, but we now know the roads and we will take it as far as we can in the direction we want to go. We actually get very close to the museum, when the taxi-bus suddenly turns off to the left up a side street. We quickly signal that we want to get off and we walk the 5-10 minutes to the museum.
Today we are visiting the Volkonsky house, which is much larger and certainly more grand than the Trubetskoy house we visited a couple of days ago. This house is a couple of stories high, and has a large courtyard surrounded by a high wall and various buildings that acted as stables and servants quarters. We have another very good tour - included in the price is an English speaking guide (when we get to Moscow and St. Petersburg we certainly appreciate how much more tourist friendly they are here).
There is not very much of the original furniture left, but there certainly is enough to give us a very good idea on how they lived. And a number of the many rooms have been restored to their original condition. One of the best examples is the music room. It was well decorated and the acoustics were amazing. It had been specially designed and built for this purpose. Maria Volkonsky, also known as the Princess of Siberia, had followed her husband out to Siberia and, after his penal sentence was over and they were allowed to settle down in exile in Irkutsk, seemed determined to live a life as close as possible to her original life back in St. Petersburg.
Her home became the center of the social scene in Irkutsk. As she was not allowed to attend the public concerts, she held her own concerts in her home. Many dinner parties and other gatherings were also held here. The house was certainly well suited to it. We spend quite some time in the museum, but it is soon time for us to head on as we have a train to catch. But first we head back to the central market to do some shopping to pick up supplies for our train journey. We get some fruit, bread, snacks and other things that we will need on the train.
Then it is time to head back to the home stay. We have not yet caught a taxi-bus from this area, so we are not quite sure where we should hail one, so we wander around a bit until we find a likely spot. Soon a number of taxis come by, but they do not seem to be going in our direction. Finally one comes by that has our destination written on the sign board. We hail it and climb aboard and our on our way. The only problem is that at one critical junction, he turns left instead of right. We are just hoping that he is going our way - we guess that he may be crossing the river over the dam rather then via the bridge. In the end, our guess is right. And the ride did not even take much longer and we got to see a different part of town. But we are running a bit late and we need to hurry.
Once back at the home stay at around 2:30 PM, we finish packing our bags and have a quick shower (our last for a few days). Our host is then kind enough to offer us some tea and cake before we leave. We had asked for her to arrange for a taxi, but she asked if it would be OK for a friend of her's to take us. Sure, why not. He comes by and we carry all our bags (now one less as we have mailed one home) down to his car and we are soon on our way to the train station.
Once at the train station, we confirm that our train is running and is on time (the platform is not yet displayed) and then go and see if we can change our tickets from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We want to see if we can get on one of the better trains. We are told that there are seats available and start the process of changing our tickets, but it takes too long and we have to run off to catch our train.
The platform is now displayed and we head down into the underpass to make our way to the platform. After showing our tickets and passports to the friendly provodnitsa (a good sign), we board our train - train #009 known as the "Baikal" - at around 4:20 PM and quickly settle into our compartment in first class for our ride to Yekaterinburg.