Tomsk, in the middle of Siberia region

  Tomsk, Russia
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Tuesday 14-08

Transmongolian train

Transmongolian train

They closed the restaurant as soon as they saw me!! I cannot understand anything, my colleagues have just had breakfast ... a woman crosses the arms in front of her head and it means: CLOSED ...

The train restaurant

Uff, thank goodness I have the instant coffee I bought in Madrid ...

We began our first day without a shower. Our shared bathroom is similar to the airplains´toilets:

Our shared bathroom

Our shared bathroom

The landscape is beautiful with lots of big trees. We spent the time looking thought the window during hours.

First day: discovering the landscapes

Trying to learn russian

In the other cabin, the male cabin, Fenando and Antonio had received a sweet awakening: Basil with a couple of beers and after another couple and another and ...

Beer!!!!

Meanwhile, we met Arno, a Dutch nice gay from Utrecht who is a solo traveller. He speaks Spanish really well because we was living in Santander (north of Spain).

As soon as the train made the first stop, we went out to walk a bit and to buy some food for the lunch and the dinner: 3 big sausages (25 rubbles), 5 cakes (50 rubbles), apples (25 rubbles) and kasha (mashed potatoes with cereals that we can prepare in the train with hot water).

Where we obtein hot water to prepare coffe & food

The first stop

After buing something to eat

During the afternoon Fernando and Antonio tried to invite Basil to eat something in the restaurant, but Basil said no: I am married!! ... uff, I am afraid that the restaurant is something more than a space were you can eat food ... that is the reason why the restaurant is always close to me ... I am a woman, so no revenue from me ...

The sunset from the train

Suddenly Arno appears with a bottle of vodka an orange juice, so the dinner will be interesting ...

The dinner ... with vodka

Jokes with vodka are better

Wenesday 15-08

Basil told us this morning that yesteday there was an accident in the train to San Peterburg. In our train peple said that it was something related to electric problem but Fernando told me from Spain that it was a terrorist attack (Chechenia).
Probable that´s the reason why the police, while we were sleeping, went into each room. Marta told us this morning because she was woke up by them.

I was completely afraid, but my colleagues calmed me.
Operative things to do: no shower and instant coffe.

Our breakfast

At 12.00 we stop so we bought more food: bread, kasha and orange juice. At 15.00 we will stop and I will look for some fruit!

Another stop

A view during and stop during the way

One of the train stations where we stop

We rested a bit, we walked throught the train, spoke with people and when the night came we had a vodka party in the women room with Arno and David, a Spanish guy from Barcelona.

Sleeping ...

The kitchen

The kitchen inside the train

Everyday she uses the vacuum cleaner

The corridor

The third class wagon

Our hostess in the wagon

ONe of the stops during the travel

We shared the food we bought, Arno shared the vodka and Basil his russian military food. Vodka with orage juice was excellent, and Marta and Susana tested it and even drank more!

First step: Vodka, orange juice, bread, ...

Second step: Preparing the dinner

Third step: trying to understand Basil

4th step: some convesation and smiles

5th step: we began to drink

6th step: sharing russian military food from Basil

7th step: more people for Vodka party in our cabin

Vodka party

Vodka party

After some hours the girls throw out the boys and Antonio, Arno and Basil followed drinking and drinking vodka with other Russian guys ('malo malote' and others).

Fernando decided not to drink but his room was full of drunk people ... it wasn´t the best night for him ...



Thursday 16-08

4:30 am and we need to wake up: Tomsk is waiting for us!! ... but too early in the morning!!!!

Tomsk train station

Antonio is drunk, Fernando couldn´t sleep anything and Arno, well no comments ...

The resoult of the previous night: both are drunk

First thing to do in the trin station: to buy the ticket from Tomsk to Irkust ... but nobody understand us ... suddenly Marina appears, our guardian angel. She told us that there wasn´t tickets for us, so she recommended us to buy a ticket Novosibisk to Irkust in Tomsk and to buy also the bus ticket to go from Tomsk to Novosibisk (5 hours).

So we did it.

Arno had bought all the train anf Light tickets in Holland so, no problem at all for him.

Marina came with us to the TGU guest house (550 R/pax), good but withour hot water!!!!!!!!! From 15-25 Augost only cold water ... but our bodies need a shower, so I close my eyes, I open the tap and those frozen water began to go throught me ... of course, when I finished I Switched on my hairdryer to get some hot ( I always travel with a hair dryer!), I did the washing and I went out looking for a internet café to write in this blog and to send an email to you.

The plan for the afternoon: Lunch and to walk around Tomsk. At 21.00 we had dinner with Marina, who told us that a friend of her told that in the train from Moscow he drank vodka with Spanish people ...

A detail

A house from the soviet age

The peculiar wooden houses of Tomsk

The peculiar wooden houses of Tomsk

A peculiar wooden houses of Tomsk

A view of Tomsk

An example of the typical buses

A view of Tomsk

Detail of a house

The russian Georgie Dann

Hight-Heeled forever

Sunset in Tomsk

Eating something in a restaurant

Friday 17-08

I slept during 10 hours, I need it.
We left the luggage in the reception, we drank some coffee and Marina came with us to walk with us during our last day in Tomsk.

With Marina and Arno

The war ...

Always looking for flowers

More siberian flowers

A beautiful corner in Tomsk

A couple of newlyweds

After that, we returned to the guest house to take our luggage and to walk to the bus station.

The bus station is full of people, the busses are from prehistoric era and dogs can travel ... Our bus go out at 16:25 and 5 hours later we will arrived to our destination: Novosibirsk.

Selling pine nuts

The bus station time table ...

Men talking while waiting for their bus

Kids

5 hours trip, so time to sleep

We need to walk again, during 45 minutes to go to the Novosibirsk train station , and there, again, nobody understand us ... but a group of Russian boys helped us to buy the train ticket to go from Irkust to Ulaanbaatar ... but the train was full so no tickets!!!!
Marta began to stay worried because we need to leave Russia the 25 August (because of the visa expiration) ... so we decided not to go to Lake Baikal, to give back the tickets Novosibirsk-Irkust and to buy a new one Novosibirsk-Ulaanbaatar ... but the offices to buy was closed, so we needed to wake up early in the morning tomorrow to get the tickets ... and we were not sure about if we are going to obtain them ...

After lot of time in the train station we were completely exhausted, so we went to a good hotel in front of the station (65 euro/pax) to sleep something. We were in a real bed at 2.00 am and we need to wake up at 7.00 am ...