Irkutsk invites its guests to admire buildings in a unique style (Siberian or Irkutsk Baroque), urban stone buildings and monuments of wooden architecture, visit the Nerpinarium and the icebreaker "Angara" (museum ship). And collectors and lovers of antiquity visit flea markets in Irkutsk with curiosity.
Flea market at the end of Workers' street
Walking along the "flea" rows on Saturdays and Sundays (preferably in the morning), you can buy brooms, auto parts and nails, as well as coins, books, locksmith tools, gramophone records, all kinds of figurines and figurines, paintings and even a rare moonshine apparatus.
Spontaneous flea rows often unfold at the Volzhskaya bus stop and in the Solnechny microdistrict. As for the collectors, they gather on Wednesdays (17: 00-20: 00) in the Officers' House (Karl Marx Street, 47). You can get there by fixed-route taxis number 20, 85 or 95.
Antique shops
Fans of vintage and antique gizmos are recommended to look into one of the antique shops in Irkutsk:
- “Irkutsk collector” (Fourier street, 9): the store specializes in the sale of coins, literature and related products (Hong Kong 1 piastre costs 3500 rubles; catalog-reference on coins - 300 rubles; 25 rubles 2003 Aries AuUnc - 9900 rubles; 5 kopecks in 1858 - 10,000 rubles; a tablet for coins with 12 cells with a protective cover - 440 rubles).
- "Collector" (Frank-Kamenetskogo street, 18): in this antique shop you can buy Soviet cup holders, icons made in different styles (metal-plastic, writing, metallography), all kinds of badges, items with a bear image and symbols of the Olympics-80, porcelain figurines of the times of the USSR, vintage Christmas tree toys.
- “Artifact” (Zvereva Street, 9a): its visitors will be able to become owners of samovars (a nickel-plated electric samovar will cost 3,000 rubles, and a turnip-shaped samovar - 25,000 rubles), icons (here you can find icons “Joy of All Who Sorrow” and “Archangel Mikhail”), kerosene lamps (they will ask you to pay 18,000 rubles for a ceiling kerosene lamp made of bronze), Soviet-themed items (a filmoscope can be purchased for 1,500 rubles, a school cap - for 3,000 rubles, and a 10-centimeter bas-relief of Lenin - for 500 rubles), hours (wall clocks, late 19th century cost 35,000 rubles, and a cuckoo clock - 800 rubles), household items (cupronickel vases cost 2,000 rubles, spinning wheels - 4,500 rubles, and aluminum cans - 150 rubles).
Shopping in Irkutsk
Shopping lovers should stroll through the local shopping centers, namely Brand Hall, Fortuna Grand, Fortuna Plaza. If you are looking for souvenir products, take a look at the Gagarin souvenir shop.
Don't know what to bring from Irkutsk? As a souvenir of the trip, it is recommended to acquire Baikal omul (lightly salted or dried fish), products made of lapis lazuli, rock crystal, Siberian malachite and charoite, herbal teas and medicinal preparations (it is better to buy in pharmacies or health shops), cedar cones, chocolates with pine nuts, Baikal resin (natural chewing gum) and vodka.
