Day 22 - Novosibirsk - Forever in my memory ....for lots of reasons

the lovely women of Novosibirsk

5,062 Miles GMT  +7hrs Temp -18

Up early again this morning to be at the station for just after 5am, for our 7 hour journey. 

Very few people on the train but we paid the now customary 200 rubles(£4) to the provodnitsa because they’ve all been lovely.  We had two Russian Sailors, Valerie and Alexei, in the next carriage. They came to say hello, so we shared our picnic with them as kind of brunch. Their train had been searched yesterday too.They are on their way back to Vladivostok, both 19 and very big football fans, took the mickey out of England because Russia is getting the World Cup, but they had both heard of Newcastle United. Six degrees still holds true, even in Siberia.

a spot of painting in the park

We had an interesting walk around the town, especially the outdoor market, with women standing all day working in these temperatures. One of them was selling hot soup so we stopped and the women who were standing and talking just joined us into their conversation, which had two amusing aspects. The first being that they thought I was blind because I was wearing sunglasses, and so were highly amused to find out that I was foreign and in Russia in the winter. The second was that they offered me two places to get a good cheap fur coat, which in isolation wasn't funny, however............... We left the market to go and find our hotel, which turned out to be the kind of hotel that rooms could be booked by the hour, with a few women outside, all very friendly and wearing fur coats looking for business.

Fur coats galore, but I declined

The railway museum, which we also declined

Lena was mortified, as she has booked the hotels, telling us that it had been advertised in the newspaper. We have of course been completely sympathetic and not pulled her leg at all….haha.  We tried two others, but they were pretty awful too, as the city is a big dormitory for workers in mining and oil, so we decided to leave tonight for Krasnoyarsk. 

The chapel of St George, which used to mark the centre of old Russia

As it had started to snow heavily and we had about four hours to fill so decided the cinema might be good, it was, it just wasn’t the good we expected..….. Star Wars Episode II, dubbed in Russian. ‘могут быть силы с вами’ – ‘may the force be with you’. Laugh, I think I’ve got a suspected hernia, as the whole film was dubbed in Russian, very badly, by one person. I took my balaclava out of my pocket to bite on, tears rolling down my face. 

We might not have stayed in Novosibirsk for long but I think I'll remember it for a long time.