Vodka! Vodka! Vodka! Oy!

Whew. I'm in a basement in Irkutsk. Up above on the street a waste paper basket is on fire. I hope you're all okay - I've lost my phone charger (reception died just after leaving Moscow anyway) and I can't get into Gmail. But I've had the most incredible week, four days on the train and then two more in a tiny village in the deepest depths of nowhere, on the edge of Lake Baikal - toasting in the banya and hiking along the edge of the lake and being fed dumplings and pancakes (I now weigh twice what I did when I left). We're off to Ulan Bator in the morning. But I'm still writing up the first train trip, so for now, off a CD I've burned, here's

( Day 2 - September 10th in Moscow )

Lots more pictures now in the gallery.