Irkutsk
The rendezvous plan that my son Chap and I hatched had him arriving in Irkutsk a day before my plane was to arrive. This was to give him a chance to get things organized, notably a place to stay while we planned our back-packing trip to Lake Baikal. When the plane landed and we debarked, we were led off to the side of the terminal and had to go through a hole cut in a chain-link fence and then enter the terminal from the street. I still don't know why. Chap was not in sight so I sat down and waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour I began to get a bit restive and started indulging in catastrophizing fantasies. Chief among my concerns was that I did not speak Russian and I was in a part of the world where no-one spoke English. Half an hour later a breathless Chap showed up and explained that he had taken a couple of wrong buses. Sigh. After we had settled into our new lodgings I learned through Chap that the district of Irkutsk in which we were situated was having a bit of a problem. Seems the entire district relied on a central facility to provide hot water for heating and washing and that the facility was having a major ouchie. So much for centralization.
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