Saturday 21 December 2019

Russia 8: Tomsk, Oxford of Siberia


We caught the train to Tomsk at 5.00am, so early that we went back to bed on the couchettes. We had a fine Sunday lunch on the terrace of our hotel, fish soup and pie, Ann had blancmange with pine nuts for dessert and red Russian tea with added herbs. 
The gulag museum was closed. I had been fortifying myself for reading the accounts of life in the gulag. 









Central Tomsk has university buildings, the medical faculty adorned with statues of great men. The botanical gardens had elegant 19 th c building In Siberian parkland but the garden was closed.  




We explored the tower above Tomsk in the history museum. I counted 7 steeples from there. We were amused by an art installation about Russian sweets, full of sweet wrappers, including a biscuit tin celebrating the defeat of Napoleon in Moscow. We walked along streets of old wooden buildings, attractive old designs. We had smoked fish and beer for supper. I wandered round the university square later, enjoying the evening light and relaxed people.





Tomsk, ideal place to spend Sunday where we enjoyed food and views.

Friday 20 December 2019

Russia 7: Novosibirsk: art and railways


We arrived in Novosibirsk early in the morning after a 2 night journey from Irkutsk.  We stayed in the modern Azimut hotel and enjoyed their renown buffet breakfast a day early.  We walked through the town and visited the Alexander cathedral filled with icons.  The Roerir museum is Novosibirsk’s link with the international world. He was born in St Petersburg and he left Russia after the revolution. He explored the Himalayas and Tibet with his family and friends in the 1920’s and produced remarkable work of brightly coloured views of mountains with religious figures included. The museum had a short film about his work but omitted his important work arguing that cultural work should be protected during war, The Roerich pact. He never returned to Russia but is highly regarded here and in India. Fortunately I learnt more about him from Wikipedia.


The state museum illustrated the development of Novosibirsk, driven by the railway development at the end of the 19 c. with Russian and English panels with many photos. I enjoyed an exhibition of Black and White photos by a local woman, capturing people in poses that told stories.





We enjoyed the evening light on the central square with presided over by a statue of Lenin and a huge early 20 century music venue with vast arches, built when the expanding town oozed confidence.


I eat Siberian octopus in a cafe and looking out on silver birches.  In Siberian towns we have enjoyed the summer evening light and seeing families relaxing and street artists performing.

In Novosibirsk I learnt about Siberian development, I enjoyed local art and saw how Roerir’s Siberian work is internationally important.








Train stats 1820 km with 2 nights from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk

Thursday 19 December 2019

Russia 6 Irkutsk Siberian architecture and Volkonsky Decembrist museum


Aug 8



I walked down to the lake before breakfast, maximising my walking time there. The Taltsy Museum of Architecture and Ethnography  shows wooden architecture of Siberia across the centuries in an open museum in the forest with rebuilt chapels, watermills, and simple cabins. 
One cabin showed the administration in the 18th century with the Tsar’s decree displayed. But the local administrators were not paid and they relied on bribes for income. Living in a forest requires many wooden adaptations to compensate for metal. Young brides were expected to bring many sheets to their new marriage home. I enjoyed the museum. It reminded me of the Welsh National museum in Cardiff with its collection of Welsh houses. 

Our guide had learnt her English in Irkutsk University in 1974. Her mother taught on Russian culture and they had been to York University in the late 1960’s, so they must have been party members. Her mother moved to the USA; after perestroika and now back to Irkutsk. She has seen so many changes. Our guide’s grandmother who lived through The Revolution had seen most social and political change.









Ann and I went by tram to Irkutsk centre and visited the Volkonsky museum. This recreates the life of the Decembrist exiles were exiled from St Petersburg after their plot in the 1830’s. They were forbidden to communicate with their friends. Their wives were allowed to divorce them. However nearly all their wives followed them and supported their husbands in exile including writing many letters. They initially lived in a small Siberian village and relocated to Irkutsk after receiving a partial pardon.  They recreated their intellectual lives impressively with reading, study, meals and soirées. The house has been recreated room by room including library, music room, dining room and a large drawing room. Their energy was palpable.  The garden was good to relax in.


We bought fresh food and cheese for our journey in the Irkutsk central market, brimming with fish sellers. We eat in a tiny cafe and took the tram back to the station. We had a 3 hour wait here for our late night train which departed at 00.01. Russian railways provides sheets, duvets and towels and we slept well. We are on the train for 2 nights.

Wednesday 18 December 2019

Russia 4 Lake Baikal, fish and sunsets


Aug 6-7
We took the train from Ulan Ude to Irkutsk in the daytime to enjoy the views and had not expected a 2 hours delay. Russian railway is rigorous in timetable observance. Notices in the carriages give the arrival and departure times from stations, if more than 5 minutes passengers are allowed down for a stroll and I often wander the length of the train. Many people are having a smoke. So we were amazed to have a 2 hour delay on our train to Irkutsk. We wonder if The Russian rail service give pay delay compensation, I doubt it.

We went to the Baikal resort Listvyanka by taxi. Here we had a home stay, our host had an impressive collection of samovars and was drying his mushrooms there. He grew raspberries, potatoes and flowers in his garden. We enjoyed baked Baikal fish for supper on the lakeside. The fish market sellers had different varieties of Baikal smoked fish, which we bought for a picnic lunch, some fishes were leathery like kippers, others had white flesh.





The lake Baikal Museum had interesting maps of temperature and ice thickness and fish activity over the year. A fine glass model captured the depth of the lake.  The lake with the water, sky and forest is good for photography.  We took a local ferry across the lake to port Baikal, there were about 40 foot passengers and several cars, a huge old station remains from the days when there was a trans Baikal railway. 




















The sunsets on Baikal were impressive, I could happily have stayed longer here doing lake Baikal walks or bike rides.