Novosibirsk

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In Novosibirsk (meaning ‘New Siberia’, it is the largest city in Russia east of the Ural Mountains) I stayed with Dima, an old friend from Manchester University. He was doing his PhD in computer science while I was an undergraduate there. Now he works for the university in Novosibirsk. I visited him a couple of years ago when we took a trip together to the Altai Mountains. That time I went to Novosibirsk by train, a 56 hour journey from St. Petersburg.

Dima’s parents are academics too and the family live in a satellite town, 25km from the city, built in the 1960s as a university town and research centre. In my opinion, it’s one of the most successful Soviet projects and its design benefitted from the centralized co-ordination that Communism provided. 4 or 5 storey residential buildings are set in parkland, with amenities, laboratories and university faculties located nearby. It’s possible to walk to most places; there are no big roads and the whole area is very green and well-looked after. I was glad to be there again and spent a couple of days with Dmitri, relaxing in cafes and restaurants and doing necessary preparations for the next part of my trip. I took the car to a Lada service centre (with fantastically rude staff) and got the windscreen wipers fixed (a loose connection, it turned out), went shopping and booked my return ticket to St. Petersburg. I visited a medical clinic to have an injection: the second part of vaccination against the encephalitis carried by the Siberian tic. I also had an evening out with some new friends I’d met in Kazan, volunteers there for the Universiade who come from Novosibirsk.

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Photos

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Agatha and one of her sisters

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That's where Mercedes got the idea from!

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An unhappy-looking bear next to a roadside cafe