Alas, not a womble to be seen!
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2006
1
15
27
Trip End
Nov 19, 2006
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Tomsk,
Russia
Friday, October 13, 2006
Tomsk is an old Siberian town, off the main Trans-Siberian line. The main thing that attracts travellers is the architecture - most of the town is still made up of traditional wooden houses. I'd seen a lot of these kind of houses from the train window, but they mostly looked as if they'd fall down any second. In Tomsk, the only real difference was that they were a bit bigger! The houses all have really ornate carving on the eaves, window frames, shutters, doors, where ever the craftsmen felt like it. It's called 'wooden lace', which is actually quite an accurate description! Any spare space is covered in this really intricate, delicate carvings.
I accidentally stumbled off the main street into a kind of short cut to the museum - it went through a really old, ramshackle neighbourhood, where most of the houses looked uninhabitable, but there's such a majesty about them. I think the snow helped make it seem more magical! There was such a stillness - most cities in Russia have knocked down most of these houses in favour of huge concrete blocks, so it was good to actually see what Siberia was like.
Apart from wandering around looking at the pretty surroundings, Tomsk didn't have a huge amount to do - the city museum was pretty poor, the main attraction being the tower on the hill, but the houses don't really look that great from above! There were none of the cute cafes in old buildings that I'd been hoping for after my guidebook's glowing description, just soulless canteens style places.
There Opression Museum was interesting - set in an old KGB prison in the basement of a house on the main street (ulitsa Lenina of course!), it's quite chilling, with exhibits in the cells. However, I think you need a guide - most of the displays are just photographs of gulags, and personal effects and photos of people who got caught up in it all. There's little explanation, even in Russian. I'm glad I saw it though, it was very sobering.
Tomsk really is a town for random wandering, but it was so cold that I couldn't really enjoy it. It had snowed a lot the night before, which was fun, but it froze over pretty quickly, so I spent more time looking at where I was putting my feet than anything else! I properly fell at one point, I still have the bruise on my knee a week later! I don't know how the Russian girls manage in their high high heels! I did have a nice day though, even if I couldn't feel my toes (I forgot to put your socks on Hayley, silly silly me!).
