Novosibirsk - A childhood dream come true

---

---

Ok this becoming a habit... Greetings from the train from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg. This time its a short 21 hour trip so I better start writing.

A childhood dream

It is said that Russian scientist studied Lenin's brain (fortunately for him once he was dead) for over 40 years to understand why he was such a genius. The same might happen to my brain to understand the twisted logic and selective memory that brought us to Novosibirsk.
I don't know if you remember a lot of your geography lessons at school. My memory is bad anyway and I have close to no recollection of my school years but I can clearly remember that we studied the Russian map and where the various natural resources in Russia are (god only knows why we did this. Maybe it would come in handy next time we try to take over the world). From all those hours studying I can remember two things. Vladivostok and Novosibirsk. For strange reasons I can't explain, I was always fascinated by these two cities and since I was a little boy I wanted to go there (true story).
The little boy in me is very happy as I finally made it to Novosibirsk!
Just proves that if you want something bad enough you can make it happen. Next time my dreams should revolve around lots of money, fast cars...

The train

We did our second leg of our train journey from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk. In total we covered 1800 km and traveled close to 31 1/2 hours. We are now getting the hang of this and were prepared with provisions of salami, cheese, bread and instant noodle soup. It is very relaxing once we settled in and the landscape passes by.
Siberia really looks like how we imagined it. Huge forests of birch trees are followed by huge forests of pine trees, followed by large grassy areas full of flowers. Sometimes this is interrupted by a small village where most houses are small and made out of wood. They look like they have been unchanged for the last couple of hundred years and they probably are. Our Irish friends will be excited to hear that every house has a small veggie patch which always seems to have potatoes in it. One thing that is missing are animals or fields. No idea where they raise cattle and grow wheat.
The train we got was a (small) step up from our Mongolian train as it had air-conditioning, better toilets and a restaurant car which sold Hoegarden beer. The attendants come around every now and then to sell the local version of pies and other snacks and the provodnitsa sells everything from Mars bars, instant coffee to train souvenirs (am now the proud owner of a Russian railway mug).
The trains are super punctual and usually leave the station as per train schedule. This is made a bit easier as the train stops in a larger city every couple of hours for 20-60 minutes. This allows us to jump off the train, stretch our legs and buy some food or ice cream from the platform kiosks or from locals who sell cooked meals.
Life couldn't be better.

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is Russia's 3rd largest city and our guide book introduces it as "Once crusty and impersonal...".
Yes the only reason we stopped in Novosibirsk was me wanting to go there. Our travel guide hyped it further up as a great place to party which previously would have been tempting but with Dillon we have a party every day anyway.
It is certainly not the most exciting city but there is something to it. Might have something to do with our excellent accommodation close to everything but mostly with a fantastic bakery just meters away.
Ok there was also the very excellent and huge Novosibirsk Zoo that we visited. It is by far the largest Zoo I have been to and still has a bit of a Soviet flavour to it with animals behind iron bars. Apart from that it is very good and worth the time we spent there.
Other notable sights are the huge (and I mean massive) train station, the equally massive domed opera house and the usual Lenin statue. We were quite happy with the 2 days we spent here.

On food

• The Russians love their priozhki which are the Russian version of pies and are either donuts or pastries with stuffing of meat, potatoes, cabbage or sausages. They are readily available everywhere and taste great.



• Siberia has a lot of pine trees and therefore pine cones. When peeled they reveal tasty sweet pine nuts which have an earthy flavour as some of the pine sap still sticks to them.



• Beer. Various brands from all over the world are available. Local beer is mostly very good and (most importantly) very cheap. Around AUD 1.2 or 1 Euro for a small beer.

Rotymbiion*

^{* Random observations that you might be interested in or not}


• The weather in Siberia is pretty good. Temperatures reach 25-30 degrees during the day and it hardly drops below 15 at night. Certainly better than the weather Germany experiences at the moment...
• Doors in Mongolia and Russia could be used in Fort Knox. Most of them are made of steel and all have a lock that move up to 8 or more deadbolts into the frame. It would be easier to get through the walls
• Russia has a statue for everything. There is one for the First date (a bench), lab mice (mouse holding a DNA), traffic light (yes a bronze statue of a traffic light complete with policeman saluting it), Sewing machines, tourist (yes a tourist statue), electricians.... You name it they have it.
• Germans are not the only ones wearing sandals with socks. Enough said.
• Modern talking (German pop band from the 80s) is still a thing in Russia.
• Coffee is an obsession in Russia as it is in other countries. Heaps of coffee shops, carts, stands, vans provide a caffeine fix when needed.
• Supermarkets. For some reasons there are not many supermarkets but the ones that we found have an amazing array of produce from all over the world. The chocolate section alone would take weeks to study...


Please don't forget to check out the pictures at the bottom of the page

---

Photos

Ready for bed
Quite compfortable

Ready for lunch
With provisions frim The Irkutsk market

Getting up early??
Not really. The time along all 9000km of tracks across 7 timezones is measured using Moscow time. We got on the train at 12:30 local time.... Very confusing

and this
For about 3 days

Not sure if this is the right way to eat them
Inside are very delicious pine nuts

A travel blog in the making
The beer is optional but helps

bakery!
Daddy and Dillon are happy

Comments

[Kristie]

worlds strongest boy !
wow ! love the picture of dillon - what a muscle-man ! ralph i do hope you kept the hat from mongolia - it suits you very well ;-) i am really enjoying following your travels and I'm pleased you all look like you are having a great time. we are all jealous that you are out of the office ! i am surprised you are finding such good food - i still have a (clearly wrong) image of russia being all about boiled cabbage ! especially pleased you are finding coffee - that's important. FYI I am down to my last few days at IAG - I was contacted out of the blue for a role at CHUBB Insurance (no - never heard of them either) and I start 9 August. So i'll definitely be gone by the time you are back, but I will keep checking in and travelling with you vicariously on your big adventure. Travel safely Wartas ! Kristie Jones xx