There are no hostels between Irkutsk and Moscow, so the cheapest place to stay is usually a Soviet-era hotel.
The price is anywhere from 600 to 2000 roubles per night ($20 – $70.) For this, you get a small concrete room with a single bed and a sink. There’s a shared toilet down the hall, and a shared shower somewhere in the building. Sometimes you have to pay to use the shower.
When you check in, you’re given a card instead of a key. Each floor has an attendant who will exchange your card for a key. I guess this allows them to keep track of people coming and going.
The best part of the hotel I used in Yekaterinburg was this –>
It’s a radio that only gets one station! There’s a volume control on the side and that’s it. I guess the station used to be State Propaganda Radio or something, but these days it mostly plays English-language pop and dance music… Russians love dance music.
Oh yeah, there are photos – my Russia photos so far are here.
In Soviet Russia, radio tunes you!
With dance music!