Omsk The Sequel

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Actually, I'm sure Jonathan is going to be disappointed as we didn't really have enough time in Omsk to truly discover it (& certainly to find a T-shirt - we could only find one postcard!). However, it seemed to be a very pleasant town, situated at the confluence of two large rivers with lots of parks and gardens. Our hotel was probably the highlight just because it had the most comfortable beds we've had so far & a truly wonderful breakfast. People seemed keen to assist when we were clearly lost and the girl in the hotel did not get too exasperated when we complained about the drilling. It was also possibly the warmest we've been for some time.

Anyway, as we didn't manage to find out much about the place, the first of the Hugh & Sarah's travelling challenges is for someone to come up with the most interesting/amusing fact about Omsk (as judged by us) to be sent as a comment....go on, get googling!

We had to head for the station again after lunch. This was the real deal this time - the full Trans Siberian train going right across to Vladivostock. We were led to believe that this was fancier than the others but this seemed to manifest itself in tassels on the curtains and pillow cases which said Rossia on (the name of the train). For the afternoon and evening we had a compartment to ourselves again but we were woken in the middle of the night for two people to take the top bunks. They were quickly up there and asleep but one of them could snore for Russia, disturbingly fast breathing as well so the earplugs were required to continue sleep.

The two guys disappeared from the compartment for a while, clearly until they were ready for breakfast as, around 9am, they returned and started unpacking mountains of food and brought in their friend from the next compartment. So started another sign language conversation with the universal language of vodka helping to smooth the way. Yes, I did say vodka, at 9am. One of the guys probably drank 2/3 of a half litre bottle and ate the best part of a whole cooked chicken (it's that chicken thing again Sarah). We'd already eaten but they tried very hard to make us join in until we gave in to a shot of vodka just before we were due to get off the train at around 12pm. By this stage we knew that they were travelling to the last town before Vladivostok to pick up a Japanese car which would take 6 days to drive back home. It was not clear what the purpose of this car was but we guessed it wasn't totally legitimate. They started taking photos and showing us their family snaps. We ended up exchanging phone numbers and email addresses and Ivan gave me a wooden rosary as a present.....and I still have little idea of much of what he said! I just think that we were lucky to be getting off there - we could have suffered a great deal if we had been sharing with them for the next few days....

Another bus journey with packs into Krasnoyarsk which is surrounded by the first hills we have seen for a long time - we're hoping to get out into them at some point. So, that's where I will leave it for now. It might be a little while to the next one as, after here, we are spending time on Lake Baikal where there is unlikely to be access.

Hope all are well - it'd be great to hear from you.

S & H xx

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Comments

[Alice]

Omsk challenge....
First up for the challenge Earlier this year (April 28th), Omsk held a World T'ai Chi and Qigong Day. There is photo evidence at worldtaichiday.org Enjoying the blogs....... Alice xx

[Ross McB]

The funniest thing about Omsk
This might not be very funny but I do find it hard to understand why a city of about 1.1m people would be twinned with an English seaside resort like Bexhill. Glad things are going well - not sure I'd cope these days with sharing a sleeping compartment with snoring strangers but I'd be interested to hear more about the trains. Are they on time? What's the food like? etc etc. I'm not really a trainspotter , honestly.

[Gerry]

The Omsk Challenge
Hi you two, hope all is well. I'm taking a quick break from work and thought I would login and see how you are both doing. Well..i've taken up the challenge and had a search, and although what I have come up with is not really the type of thing you were asking for, I found it quite interesting. Anyway, what I found out was, on Wednesday 31st Jan 07, It snowed orange in five districts of the Omsk Region The snow ranged from light yellow to orange shades, and covered covered with oil slicks and smelled rotten! The good news is, samples were examined and they have determined that it is NOT radioactive...phew. Stay safe - Gerry

[jonathan]

T=Shirts (Again)
Apparently Omsk is one of the few cities in the world that doesn't sell I Heart Omsk T shirts. Obviously I'm not suggesting that other cities sell I Heart Omsk T shirts, they put their own name in, for instance, I Heart Manchester, or I Heart Irkutsk or whatever. Strangely although I own an I Heart Manchestr T shirt (actually it says I Adidas Manchester but the sentiment was there) I don't own an I Heart Irkutsk T shirt. Now if only I knew someone going to Irkutsk... J x