Irkutsk 1
Parts of Irkutsk airport are closed for renovation so the arrivals area is a small room with a small circular luggage conveyer in the corner. Unfortunately another flight had arrived just before us so we couldn't get near the conveyer. The baggage arrived in the opposite order. So the conveyer was full of our bags that we couldn't reach because of the solid wall of Russians in front of us. Chaos ensued with bossy old women shouting instructions and stopping and starting the conveyor.
We were met by an Intourist guide who had also been up for most of the night trying to find out when our flight would arrive. She confirmed our suspicions that the airport had been open all night. The bad weather story was completely untrue.
We arrived at the hotel at about 13:00 just 24 hours after we had left Barnaul. We were allocated room 328. Up until now all our hotel rooms had been either OK or good, many of them being two pokey old rooms converted into one spacious one. Room 328 was a traditional Soviet room. The only modernisation being new towels. It then took us another half hour to get the room changed for what we had paid for.
1. Typical old style hotel corridor.
2. Room 328.
3. Room 501.
4. The hotel is near the river bank. The railway station can be seen on the far side.