After having had dream weather compared to Switzerland so far, it is now heavily cloudy with light snowfall upon our arrival in Irkutsk. Irkutsk is known as the Paris of the East or the Pearl of Siberia, but for the first time on our journey, we are not experiencing such beautiful weather. We accept the weather as it is, because we know that we cannot change the weather or our relatives 😂.
On the way to the city through the market
You can see the harsh winter on the roads and rails...
When entering through the main gate of the Holy Cross Church, you feel like you are in a different world. Instead of traffic noise, church chants can be heard. Many churches in Russia have speakers installed outside, playing religious church music. We actually visited the Angara icebreaker, which is now a small museum. It is considered one of the oldest icebreakers in the world and was first used in the year 1900. The ship was built in New Castle and transported to Russia in individual parts, where it was assembled on site. When the railway line was not yet continuous, wagons were transported across Lake Baikal by a steamship, which the icebreaker cleared the way for. Dani as captain
Lenin also welcomed us once again in Russia
The coat of arms of Irkutsk contains the BabrThere is a funny story behind it. It was supposed to show a tiger with a sable in its mouth. When the design was submitted in 1878 in distant St. Petersburg, there was a misunderstanding. In the native language, tiger is called "Babr," but in St. Petersburg, Babr was interpreted as Bobr (Russian for beaver).They corrected the perceived mistake and also adjusted the animal image, and that's how Irkutsk came to have their tiger beaver as the coat of arms 😂
