Summer in Novosibirsk

10 - 12 Aug 2012

Hostel Zokol was a lovely find from the internet. Small, safe and clean, it has all the amenities a traveller would need (kitchen, washing machines, wifi ec), and is just 5 mins from the main street - ul. Lenina. This would be home away from home in Novosibirsk.

common room / kitchen

little red door to the hostel, and the red brick houses in the neighbourhood

super cute doggie belonging to one of the ladies running the reception

Novosibirsk is grey, concrete, sprawling, but its city centre has the charm of old European cities - the grand classical style buildings with elaborate porticos and colonnaded windows, tree-lined boulevards, large central park. The monumental scale of Ploshad Lenina (Lenin Square) and Krasny Prospect (the main street) is distinctly Soviet.

quintessential giant statues of Lenin and Soviet workers at Ploshad Lenina

Krasny Prospect from Chapel of St Nicholas. A linear park runs down the middle of Krasny Prospect behind the chapel.

chapel of St Nicholas, said to make the geographical centre of Russia when built in 1915

Novosibirsk is a relatively new city. Created as a trading post and Trans-Siberian railway stop in the Far East in the 19th century, it was formerly named "Novo-Nikolaevsky", after Nicholas II. The Local Studies Museum has beautifully drawn town plans of the city from the early 20th century, and pictures of the railway bridge construction over River Ob.

Thanks to my Russian teacher in Singapore, Natasha (at Russian Language Center http://www.russian.sg/), I made some new friends in Novosibirsk! Maria and Nikolai took me for a walk around the city on the day I arrived, and made my first day in Russia a fantastic one.

Maria and Nikolai, my lovely guides for the day. They are standing at one of the many non-existent tramvai stops of Novosibirsk!

statue of Vladimir Vysotsky (the most famous Russian bard) behind Globus theatre. i need to figure out what his poem says, something about standing on the razor edge of something.

On Sunday, I met up with Andrew and Daria for picnic. They run an English online course and speaking club in Novosibirsk (http://www.bigappleschool.com/). Young entrepreneurs in Russia!

sunday music and dancing in the central park

Sunday picnic with Daria, Andrew and Maria

Met some wonderful people, seen some fantastic summer weather, stayed in a great hostel, seen a woolly Siberian mammoth - Novosibirsk has been good to me!

On Sunday evening, the Biosphere Expedition (BE) Altai team met up at Hotel Sibir for the first time, and it's onward to the Golden Mountains of the Altai.