Tomskaya Oblast’

Hello again! Since my last entry i have actually seen two new cities/towns. I visited Novosibirsk for a day, then Tomsk, then back to Novosibirsk again. So for the ease of the blog entry (and the fact that I want two pins in my map) I've separated them and will catch you up with Tomsk first.

Tomsk is only four hours from Novosibirsk, and is a city (or large town, I am not really sure) that is famous for its wooden architecture. The train journey was slightly different than the other trains that I have taken in Russia as it was a seated carriage instead of bunks. I slept part of the way as the train left Novosibirsk at 6:30am, but when I woke up i was greeted with fresh snowy scenery. I then started to worry that I wouldn't be warm enough as i had only taken an overnight bag with me and the clothes I was wearing (my hostel in Novosibirsk kindly let me leave my main bag there for the night as I would be returning the next day). When I arrived in Tomsk I was greeted with yet more snowfall, though I was pleased to realise that it wasn't any colder than anywhere else I have visited so far. The walk to the hostel, although fairly direct, was probably one of the most difficult. As we know, when snow is walked on and melts it is turned to slush. But in Russia, land of the potholes, this makes walking quite treacherous. Though thankfully my trusted Hotter (aka "granny") shoes my feet stayed bone dry and nice and warm. I arrived at my hostel at around 12, quickly dropped of my bag and headed out for some sightseeing (I only had today!). I had marked a few places on my maps.me app and learned that i could make little routes for myself with it. Here is what I saw; a white mosque, a statue of a pregnant lady, a statue of a baby coming out of a cabbage (seriously...), a statue of a horse with five legs, another mosque, many wooden houses, a yellow church on top of a hill (after I almost got chased by a dog, scary stuff - well he sniffed my leg after I didn't notice him following me so I screamed and he started barking...), a statue of a family of three bears, a statue of a tiny frog on a stone, a hose with dragons on the roof, a red and orange house and a blue and white house. So as well as being the place to see unique wooden architecture, Tomsk also appears to be the town/city of random statues. Seeing these statues and buildings took me all over the city, and when I got back to my hostel i checked my step counter and i had walked 12 miles! Seriously who is this person i have become?? Couch potato to Forrest Gump's walking cousin ("I just felt like waaalkingggg!"). So there you have my whistle stop tour of Tomsk. A nice city (minus the slush and scary dogs).

Next stop Novosibirsk.

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