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: 

Yekaterinburg (July 1-3, 2019) #11

The train trip from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg is the second-longest of the trip at 18 hours, but it's an overnight trip so there is lots of time for rubber-necking at the start and end of the trip plus another excellent night's sleep on a hard 18" bed in a rocking, rolling train that stops at every town on the way.  This is our only overnight 2nd-class compartment, as we were unable to secure a 1st-class one.  So what they did is give us all 4 seats in the 2nd-class compartment and charge us for 2 seats in 1st class!  And it turns out the compartments are basically identical; we still have air-con and plugins for our chargers, the only big difference is the backrests on the seats no swing up to become beds.  Which of course we don't use, but swinging them up at night is a good idea anyway as they use up 4" of our bed space.  So the carriage is more or less identical but the Providnista (the lady attendant for that car only) is definitely a bit less zealous about keeping everything clean, and the free meal provided has descended from just barely acceptable to absolutely vile.  Steve basically eats anything that can't outrun him, but this meal stopped him in his tracks.

I'm pretty sure this is a potato cooked with a clothes-iron (note the tell-tale flat top) and then set adrift in a sea of boiled buckwheat.

No thanks, I couldn't possibly eat another potato.  Second-class compartment.

  So we're thinking more time in the dining car lingering over beers.  Steve heads back to check out the dining car, which is always just one car away from our 1st-class carriage, and- it's not there.  This is a 2nd-class carriage, and for some inscrutable reason they have put 4 3rd-class carriages between us and the dining car.  3rd-class carriages are reminiscent of 1960s logging camps, or perhaps the higher-end billets in a Great Patriotic War concentration camp.  Don't travel 3rd-class,.. just walking through them takes practice as they are VERY cramped and the washrooms are unspeakable. the beds were a mere 18" or so apart, and everyone brings their own food. The medley of all these foods was pretty overwhelming. Needless to say, we severely depleted the wine, cheese, and noodle pack inventory in our compartment.

The countryside is becoming much more settled in a Russian sort of way.  It's still predominantly forest dominated by quite beautiful stands of birch with grasses and forbs underneath, but now there are many more cities and towns and they are closer together, and farms are starting to become routine.  We are still east of the Urals, hence in Asia, but this is no longer the wild country of the Far East.

Firstly, I should say that Yekaterinburg is a large, beautiful city.  It would take a week to do it any kind of justice. Yekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg is the largest city between two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Its the 4th largest city in Russia with 1.5 million and the administrative capital of the Urals. It is the major transportation hub on the Trans Siberian Railway.  Every hour, 78 trains cross the border between the two parts of the world.

We only have 1 full and 2 part-days so we'll focus on the city center and the walk-able sights from our apartment.  Which is very nice, by the way!  We are in a modern tower and the apartment has all the necessary bits and pieces and there is a 24-hour lobby with 2 extremely helpful young ladies and there is a convenience store inside the building that has all the things we need.  And it's 1/2 block from the Arbat and surrounded by many attractions within 1-2 kilometers.

Deb saw the roll-out dish-racks and said 'Want!' 

The light bar slides back in when it's not being used.

It's not raining (!) and one of the ladies at the front desk told us that there is an observation deck on a high-rise just a kilometer or so from here, so this evening seems like a good time for a walkabout.  It's only a block from the apartment to Lenina Prospect, turn right and walk 2 blocks, and- there is a beautiful lake to the right and a river with fountains to the left!  The lake is Gorodskoy Pond, which was made by damming the Iset River.  It is completely constructed (stone walls, broad walkways all around) and stretches for a couple kilometers upstream through historic buildings and parkland as well as new developments like Dynamo Stadium, Yeltsin Centre, and a couple of universities.  One of the outstanding buildings, right where the pond meets Lenina Prospect, is Plotinka which is an excellent example of properly restored pre-revolutionary architecture.

Photo doesn't do it justice.  Gorodskoy Pond.

Plotinka, a properly restored pre-Revolutionary 'home'.

A little gazebo on the lakeside walkway.

The Iset is a rather pathetic creature as Russian rivers go, but you go with what you got and the good folks of Yekaterinburg have used it to make a number of lakes within the city, and in this stretch they have walkways on both sides and a number of fountains in the middle of the river.  As we are right beside the Ural Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art, there are also funky little attractions along the riverbank such as the Monument to a Keyboard and Monument to the Beatles.  Makes for an interesting walk.

Walkway down to the river.

Lake outlet with an interesting bas-relief.

And a big rock!  Rhodonite, I believe...

Fountains on the river below the lake.

How could you call yourself a Russian city without a
"Monument to the Cheese Grater"?

Once we finally drag ourselves away from the river and the lake it's time to head for the observation deck which we can see ahead of us about a kilometer and of course all uphill because, like in most sensible countries, Russian lakes and rivers are at the bottom of the hills.  Sadly, it is starting to rain, and by the looks of the sky it is threatening to really rain, so we ruefully decide to beat a fighting retreat back to the apartment for a dinner of scrambled eggs and red wine, which might also be our breakfast if it doesn't stop raining.

KFC mammoth-burger only 69 rubles!  ($1.39) 

Streetcars doing fine, in front of
a pair of beautifully-restored buildings.

Nice little Georgian restaurant.
Steve is dissecting his meal,
looking for little Georgians.

It tastes way better than it looks.
The little chef-hat things are dumplings,
and the innards are lamb, veggies, and spices.

Morning dawns and its not raining.  Yay!  Big walking day today.  First, down the Isket River to the arboretum.  For those of you troglodytes that don't know what that is, it's a place where they plant a zillion different kinds of trees and let them grow, and  they put signs on them and everyone can go and see them for the next 200 years.  Steve was quite excited about this for some reason known only to foresters, but it turned out to be a bit of a bust as (according to him) they didn't do a really good job on the plantings to begin with and it's been neglected for at least 20 years and pretty much all the signs are gone and it's just generally a sad, decrepit place.  It's still a nice walkabout and a pretty good park, it's just not much of an arboretum.

Off to the observation deck, which is located on the 52nd floor of the Novotel Yekaterinburg City Center.  It's quite a hike actually, but a very good view of the city and it has four posters showing all of the buildings with names.  

A little courtyard beside a busy street.

Old stuff mixed in with the new...

A quick-and-dirty way to add mobility access.

The lake downtown,
surrounded by both the historic and the new.

Looking across the city to one of the large
lakes, with parkland behind.

Then it was time for a stroll along Ulitsa Karla Libknehkta (don't even try to pronounce that, you'll just hurt yourself).  It's a nice walk past a number of historic buildings and a couple of nice little parks, and for us it ended at the "Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land."  With a name like that, you know it's got to be a pretty big church just to fit the name on the door.  And it's beautiful indeed, stuffed full of stained glass and ornamentation and a number of large murals depicting the Tsars, patriarchs, etc.  Also very much a working church so if you ever have the opportunity to go there try to be unobtrusive and Don't Use The Flash On Your Camera!

A little streetside park, part of the
"Hooray for Communism!" collection.

Church on Blood in Honour -
yadda yadda yadda.

Super-cool big high ceiling-thing.
Everything not stone is stained glass.

Family tree of the Romanovs.

The Romanoffs, men and women, in WW1

Coronation of Nicholas II, the last Tsar.

Coincidentally we arrived at the church just when the heavens opened up and delivered much rain to the multitude, which meant that we were stuck in the church with a number of soggy Russians for about 20 minutes until we figured out that the taxi we had summoned us to rescue us wasn't coming closer than the embankment a block below us because traffic is restricted around the church.  (No obvious reason; I'm thinking they don't want some nutcase blowing up the church.)  A fun interlude as I got to see how fast Debbi can still run as she hates rain; she can still cover a lot of ground if she has to!  So, amid much grumbling that was it for the day except we did manage to sneak out for an excellent dinner nearby.


We still had a few hours to mooch around in the morning so we walked a block over to the Arbat, which is really quite nice.  It's about 4 blocks long, quite wide, and it full of statues, temporary art works, funky architecture, and is just generally a great place to hang out and have breakfast, coffee, lunch, whatever.

The Arbat

Lots of quirky little statues!

Notice the hand coming
through the glass.

I have no idea.  Really.

They rub the nose for luck.

And sometimes they rub the belly.

Then it was off to the train station, as the train pulls out for Moscow at 14:00 and it's a 24-hour pull.  Saying goodbye to Asia, when we wake up on the train we'll be in Europe!

This is not the train station, but a marvelous example of Soviet brutalist architecture.

We get our dining car back!  Yippee!