Day #30: Easter day in Russia

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Today was Easter Day in Russia, a national holiday and day of celebration. Like Christmas in the UK, it is celebrated very religiously by some, but more out of tradition by most of the population.

In Russia there is no chocolate egg tradition, but instead it is traditional to decorate boiled eggs, either by dipping them in coloured dye, or by sticking onto them specially-produced decorated wraps. These eggs were everywhere: even the Russia Starbucks equivalent, Travellers Coffee, had them as table displays. Also very popular is Easter cake, which in Russia is a plain cake the colour of Victoria sponge, but with a texture more like panettone, decorated with icing. To me it was dry and flavourless, but again it was everywhere (including in huge supermarket displays) for Easter.

In Novosibirsk, there was a parade first thing in the morning, which we unfortunately missed, but when we got to Lenin's Square there was a stage where there was some kind of local talent show for young singers and bands going on - they all got one song each. They were all very competent but some a bit characterless. The best were two lively, camp guys and a band who were a bit like The Editors.

We also went today to Novosibirsk's Natural History Museum, which, like several Russian museums we have searched for, was incredibly difficult to locate. It was quite good fun, full of stuffed Siberian animals and birds. We wondered how some of the birds (including pigeons and even flamingoes) survive the -40 temperatures here over winter. The two centrepieces are a bear and an arrangement of a stuffed owl killing a stuffed rabbit.

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