October 2, 2001 – Irkutsk

Our local Intourist guide, Julia, saw us off at the train station. In the black jacket, in the center of the photo, is Trisna. Sue H. is to her right, and that's Rudy trying to gather up all his freshly purchased groceries to board the train. The Russian trains were freshly painted (blue, not the green of the Mongolian trains), and were in much better condition than our previous trains.