2 June
Early to rise as usual. Leisurely breakfast (frypan toast, yogurt and coffee). Set out for a last morning of sightseeing. Caught the tram No.1, expecting it would take us to the bus station, near our first destination, Voronsky House Museum. Instead, it headed off toward the suburbs (return route passes bus station), so we got off again and walked via the market (where I scored a pair of slip on shoes for 600 roubles), to the Museum, via the garden where a small monument commemorates the Decemberist women.
The Decemberists were a group of nobles who, after the war of 1812, agitated for democratic reforms in Russia, and an end to serfdom. For their trouble, they were convicted of treason, and exiled to Siberia. After serving his sentence, Count Voronsky was permitted to live in Irkutsk, where he built the mansion where the museum is located. A very well set out museum (300 roubles entry, ($8) shows the layout of rooms, public on the ground floor, bedrooms on the upper floor. An interesting array of painting, prints and etchings illustrate the museum, along with furnishings of the era, most strikingly the upright pyramidal piano of Maria Voronsky. We spent half an hour looking around, then walked toward the Upper Embankment of the Angara River, past many fine wooden buildings, to a triumphal arch. Walked along the embankment to where the monument to the pioneers of Siberia (a Cossack, with rifle), stands opposite the Epiphany Cathedral, with fine wall niche paintings of saints, on its towers, and inside, the walls covered with colourful and detailed frescoes, depicting many saints, in a modernist Orthodox style. By the time we reached Kirov Square, it was time for lunch.
We walked back to Karl Marx Street, and managed to find Kimchi, where we had respectively tofu with brown sauce (me), and pibimbap (Minuk). Very nice food, superior to the Russian food we have sampled over the past few days. Reasonable cost (750 roubles, $19).
Then it was time to head back to the apartment and set off for the station for our first BIG train journey.
Early to rise as usual. Leisurely breakfast (frypan toast, yogurt and coffee). Set out for a last morning of sightseeing. Caught the tram No.1, expecting it would take us to the bus station, near our first destination, Voronsky House Museum. Instead, it headed off toward the suburbs (return route passes bus station), so we got off again and walked via the market (where I scored a pair of slip on shoes for 600 roubles), to the Museum, via the garden where a small monument commemorates the Decemberist women.
The Decemberists were a group of nobles who, after the war of 1812, agitated for democratic reforms in Russia, and an end to serfdom. For their trouble, they were convicted of treason, and exiled to Siberia. After serving his sentence, Count Voronsky was permitted to live in Irkutsk, where he built the mansion where the museum is located. A very well set out museum (300 roubles entry, ($8) shows the layout of rooms, public on the ground floor, bedrooms on the upper floor. An interesting array of painting, prints and etchings illustrate the museum, along with furnishings of the era, most strikingly the upright pyramidal piano of Maria Voronsky. We spent half an hour looking around, then walked toward the Upper Embankment of the Angara River, past many fine wooden buildings, to a triumphal arch. Walked along the embankment to where the monument to the pioneers of Siberia (a Cossack, with rifle), stands opposite the Epiphany Cathedral, with fine wall niche paintings of saints, on its towers, and inside, the walls covered with colourful and detailed frescoes, depicting many saints, in a modernist Orthodox style. By the time we reached Kirov Square, it was time for lunch.
We walked back to Karl Marx Street, and managed to find Kimchi, where we had respectively tofu with brown sauce (me), and pibimbap (Minuk). Very nice food, superior to the Russian food we have sampled over the past few days. Reasonable cost (750 roubles, $19).
Then it was time to head back to the apartment and set off for the station for our first BIG train journey.