Novosibirsk (June 28-30, 2019) #10

Novosibirsk is a working-people's city.  We're not expecting any great crush of tourists but it's a good way to break up the VERY long train leg between Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg.  That's a 2-day run, and there are 3 cities to choose from if you want to break up the trip; Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, and Novosibirsk.  Omsk lost the toss, so we'll have to visit that one in our next life.

These are the coffee mugs that are sold to commemorate the Trans Siberian Railway...approx. $12.00 cnd or 573 Ruble

 The country-side between Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk is much more settled than the country east of Irkutsk.  Lots of little towns and small cities, each with a train station and churches and all the things that go into a  normal Russian existence.  Deb was kept busy with the camera, but the pictures are, sadly, not up to her usual standard as the windows are filthy and that's that.  If I was doing this trip again, I would CLEAN MY WINDOW when I was at the train station, or if that wasn't possible, find some kid with a squeegee to do it for me.  It ain't gonna happen if you wait for the train company to do it, and you miss a lot of good shots😔

                                              The train station         
We got to Novosibirsk at 8 in the morning, and couldn't check into our apartment until early afternoon, so we just hung out in the train station for a while.  Russian train stations are interesting. 

They're a mixture of monumental architecture, 1930s decoration (sometimes very good), huge potted plants, and people trying to get where they are going and would you please get out of the bloody way.  I like them.  And then of course there are the Cyrillic signs with the arrows pointing up that everyone but you knows means you're supposed to go down, and there's always a coffee shop or restaurant selling food you've never seen before but everyone else thinks it's perfectly ok so what the heck.  

We also had time for a perhaps 1 km exploration of the main drag leading downtown from the train station, and it was a cool mixture of old and new stone buildings (this place got trashed in the Revolution), funky shops and sidewalk cafes, etc.  Interesting.

Beer to Go...This is a beer keg. You bring your bottle, they fill it on the spot!  How cool was that!!!!!

Out door Restaurant.  Lots of these where they just draw the curtains/drop the blinds. Very civilized. Loved them

TA DA

Eventually it was that magic time, so we got a Yandex taxi and arrived at our building, which is a bright, modern 20-story tower, and our room is in it somewhere but we'll never know exactly where because the host isn't there!  As usual.  This is becoming a thing, either with Airbnb, Russia, or Russian Airbnb.  After much texting, pacing, etc the guy finally shows up 40 minutes late and escorts us via a nice bright elevator through a nice bright hallway to- another steel KGB door.  I guess it's a cultural thing.  After the ceremonial Opening Of The Two Doors, we end up in a very nice apartment.  Turns out this is a property management company, everyone checks in and out at the same time, and our host is 'The Guy' that has to open and close every property throughout the city all at the same time.  I'm thinking entry-level position...  A very nice man with a tough job!

It is, of course, threatening to rain (there are apparently only three types of weather in Russia:  threatening to rain, raining, and just finished raining but maybe about to rain some more) and we are seriously wine-deficient and Google Maps suggests a shopping mall just a 10-minute walk away, so we're off on our first adventure.  The Jupiter Mall is brand new (still under construction on Street View) and full of all the things people want today, not 30 years ago when our malls were built. It's obviously popular and very busy, and it's a great place to hang out, people-watch, and snoop through Russian shiny-things.  It also has a big supermarket in the basement so we are now good to go with bread, cheese, sausage, wine, and eggs for breakfast.  Let it rain.

Morning brings us a pretty nice day hopefully, and this will be our only full day here, so we're off to see the opera house and etc, about a kilometer away.  This is a big city, Russia's third-biggest at 1.6 million people, and it's on the very substantial Ob River.  Our side of the river is all train yards and industrial land 😞 but the other side is newer and sports river-side amenities which we won't have time to see. 

Still building old Soviet style apartments but now they are called Condo's...just like North America

It also has great transit and an extensive subway system, but we don't really need it as it's an easy walk.  The opera house is an impressive piece of monumental architecture with a big-ass dome forming the roof, and it probably looks great inside, but of course it's closed.  It sits in Lenin Park, which like many other cities has a statue of Lenin but this one is different as it also has statues representing what got them there (guys with guns) and what they want to achieve (agriculture, science).  Didn't work out that way, but it's still good art.  (I'm glad to see that they haven't started tearing statues down to reshape or hide their past, like is happening in the west...)

The Opera House. Loved the gardens and the piano design

Then it was time to cross the street, which is not as simple as finding a crosswalk.  There are none.  If you want to cross the street you find stairs leading underground which take you to a combination of shops, corridors, and the subway station and then if the stars align you come back up on the other side of the street.  We wanted to get over there because Deb had heard somewhere about a parade and festival that was going to happen the next day, which we would miss because we were leaving, but at least maybe there would be something to see...  And she was right. 

NO idea what its about

 The blue bottle tree

 

hmmmmmm

They had a couple blocks of a very funky shops/restaurants street blocked off, and everyone was out building floats for the parade.  And very strange floats indeed.  So we got to have coffee and snacks whilst watching the goings-on.

The weather was deteriorating again, so we decided to tour the downtown streets for a bit and then zigzag home through a number of city parks, cultural attractions, and water-holes.  It was an interesting afternoon; even in a non-touristy city Russians have found ways to create little parks, quirky statues, al fresco restaurants and coffee shops.  And if you're into architecture, the buildings are a mix of new and old and there's something different around every corner.

This little church is in the middle of an intersection. Interesting parking.

Got home just in time to beat the rain, good thing we bought a second bottle of wine!  Happily, it cleared enough to get a bit of a sunset panorama from our loggia.

The next morning of course dawned with clear blue sky and all the promise of a summer day, which meant that we had to find a cab and get on the train.  Rats.  There are a lot more things we would have liked to see here, but we only had one full day and life is hard.  They have a truly world-class zoo here with over 10,000 animals, and there are a ton of museums, etc.  Maybe next time.  So, we get down to the sidewalk with suitcases in tow, Steve whips out his phone- and it's dead.  No comment.  No problem!  Deb whips out HER phone, all is good, she orders up a taxi, and... it doesn't show up!  Hmm.  Order up another one.  Doesn't show up.  Finally we figure out that her phone still has the old map base from the Far East, and the taxis are all going to some spot in the universe that Isn't Here.  No need to panic, I'm sure we can flag a taxi down.  Turns out you CAN'T flag down a taxi, you must order them.  Panic is now definitely the preferred option.  Debbi buttonholes a woman walking down the sidewalk and asks if perhaps the woman can order a cab for us with her phone.  She of course doesn't speak a word of English, but flags down a man walking down the sidewalk that DOES speak English.  He orders us a taxi, loads us inside- AND PAYS FOR THE TAXI!  We're horrified, that just seems wrong, and we protest strongly to the driver and the gentleman, but he is adamant.  "This is my city, and my country, and we want you to think well of us.  This is my gift to you."  How do you argue with that?

And its back on the train. 

 

Assume the position. This is the position the whole train takes hour after hour as we travel through Russia. And yes, the windows are dirty. But wait...The train stations throughout the country are pretty impressive. Here are a few: