Day #32: Wooden houses

---

All across Russia, it is not uncommon to see wooden houses. These buildings are very distinctive and unlike any others I have seen elsewhere. They are often bungalows, in dark brown wood (I think they are made from spruce or pine trees), sometimes with ornately carved gables and window frames. In small towns, it is still sometimes the case that the majority of homes are wooden (the houses are also popular as dachas), and in the big cities it is possible to see them dotted around (usually appearing at random between Brutalist appartment blocks) and even occasionally to see a small cluster preserved somewhere in the city, as Yekaterinburg has.

However, Tomsk is the only city I have been where a whole main street of wooden houses is preserved together. Walking around from Tomsk's busy main thoroughfare into Kuznetsova Street (a walk of only 5 minutes) is like stepping into a different world. It feels totally different from the rest of the city, much quieter and leafier. The city's main mosque is also on Kuznetsova Street and many Muslims live locally to it, so the population is visibly different too.

I spent a lot of time looking at the houses. One of the problems with wooden homes in some areas (including Tomsk) is that they sink into the ground, and in some places the level of the ground was halfway up the ground-floor window. I'm not sure what the pros and cons of living in them are - I tried to speak to people at the hostel about this, but the general impression seems to be that they are just seen as houses like any other, nothing really special.

This was the highlight of Tomsk, but the whole city is compact and very pleasant to spend time in. Next to the river is a beautiful silver birch park in the centre of which is the Eternal Flame. Past the park leads up to the university grounds, all stately white buildings set in woodland, and then to the main street, which is dotted with small parks, cafes and interesting monuments. Tomsk is the first place I have visited in Russia where the fountains have now been turned on for summer, so I was excited to see my first operational Russian fountain!

---