russia: kaliningrad again

I used most of the three day weekend to see places in Kaliningrad Oblast, but I also realized there was still plenty to be seen in the city of Kaliningrad itself. Even though I only spent one of my three days in the city, it was the perfect base for the entire weekend, as there is plenty of public transport to get around the entire oblast.

On day three I got up, packed up, and checked out, leaving my bag at my hostel. The day before, when I'd walked to the train station in the morning I noticed a pretty view over one side of the bridge and vowed to take the photo the next morning, day 3. 

So that's what I did. The view of several museums from the bridge was pretty. Then again, I'm almost always a fan of photos that have water in them.

The first sight I wanted to see was a Lenin statue marked on Yandex maps, but after hunting around for it, I realized it was in a walled in courtyard behind a building that was most definitely not open to random visitors. Darnit.

Next up was a museum. The walk to the museum was supposed to be around thirty minutes, but of course it was longer with me, since I stopped to take random photos and follow random side streets a few times.

The Friedland Gate Museum is located just where its name says it is: in the former Friedland Gate of the city. (Remember that Konigsberg was a walled city when it was part of East Prussia.) I was thrilled because the employees made it clear that I could take as many photos as I wanted, and I didn't have to pay an extra fee to do so. At one point I was even able to set up my tripod and take a photo with me inside the museum! That's not normal, but I loved it. I wish more museums were like this. 

One of the rooms in the museum had regularly scheduled showings of slideshows with pictures of life when the city was still called Konigsberg. I showed up for one of the showings, and realized that nearly every other person in the room was an army soldier. A couple of them fell asleep during the slideshow, hee hee.

After leaving the museum I followed streets that allowed me to see the remains of some of the old city walls. They're falling apart in most areas, but are really photogenic at the same time. (As long as you don't fall into any of the bodies of water nearby.)

I found a war memorial, an obelisk with carvings of Lenin on a couple sides. I always find this fascinating, since Stalin was in charge during WW2, and he most definitely did not like Lenin. Not too far from this obelisk was the Soviet-Polish Friendship monument. Nothing terribly exciting, I was the only person looking at it while I was there.

On the side of living city photography I found a sports court that was vibrantly coloured. I imagine it gets quite busy with kids playing football (soccer,) and/or basketball. 

The juxtaposition of the brightly coloured court next to a gray apartment building was pretty cool.

Next I stumbled upon what I thought was a church. I was wrong, it was actually a concert hall. I was able to wander around a little, and see the area where concerts take place, which was quite nice. The stained glass windows from when it was a church were still there, including in the toilet!!! I don't think I've ever seen such a fancy feeling loo. 

I walked a bit more to get to my next sight: the Brandenburg Gate. Traffic still enters and leaves the city center through this gate. One side of the gate was home to a free, small Marzipan Museum. There were a few marzipan molds, as well as instruments used to carve the stuff. There were some books too, though I don't know if those were about specific people, or the history of marzipan, or something else. My favourites were models of a few important sights in town. I don't like the taste of marzipan at all, but I appreciate the artistry that can be done with it.

Next up was another long-ish walk. I followed one road nearly the entire way, it was a main road on one side of the city, there wasn't much to see. I finally got to the street I really wanted, which is where the former Fort Friedrichsburg is located. The former fort is now a museum; it was a Monday, and a holiday, so it was closed. Darnit.

The fort was really close to the river that flows through the middle of the city, it was easy to cross the river and get to the museum area I mentioned earlier. As the weather was fabulous, and it was a holiday, there were plenty of other people out for a walk along with me.

There are several ships docked on the river, they are now museums. I chose not to go in any of them, partly because I didn't want to pay entrance fees, but also because the weather was nice and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. The next time I go back to Kaliningrad I'll go in at least one of these museums.

From there it was an easy walk back to the hostel. Along the way I passed a giant mosaic on the side of a building, showing the sports culture of the Soviet days. I also stopped in the supermarket to pick up noodles to eat before heading to the airport.

I ate 'dinner' at the hostel, then walked back to the train station. This was the third or fourth time I'd walked to the train station, I didn't have to pull my phone out to check directions at all. The bus station is next to the train station, it was easy to find the bus stop to catch the next bus to the airport. The price was less than $2USD, woo hoo!

Checking in at the airport was easy, the flight was on time, and I got back to my flat in Moscow a little after midnight :)

I'm pretty sure I'll go back to Kaliningrad at least one more time.

russia: omsk

Omsk was my second destination in my New Year's trip. My guidebook doesn't have wonderful things to say about the city, it simply says you're likely to transit through there simply because it is a transport hub in Siberia.

Omsk is the seventh largest city in Russia, 2200 kilometers east of Moscow with a population of over a million people.

Omsk was first established as a wooden fort in 1716, and given official town status in 1782.

During the 19^th century Omsk became a center of Siberian exile, Wikipedia tells me Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian writer probably best known for his novel Crime and Punishment,) served his punishment in the area from 1850-1854.

Wikipedia goes on to say development of the city was catalyzed with the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s that affected significance of Omsk as a logistic hub. Many trade companies established stores and offices in Omsk defining the character of the city center.

British, Dutch, and German consulates were established roughly at the same time in order to represent their commercial interests. The pinnacle of development for pre-revolutionary Omsk was the Siberian Exposition of Agriculture and Industry in 1910. Popularity of the World Fairs contributed to the image of Omsk as the Chicago of Siberia. Conversely, others find the Milwaukee of Siberia to be a more fitting comparison.

After the October Revolution the White Army took control of Omsk and named it the capital of Russia, and put the central bank in charge of securing the gold reserves of the Russian Empire. The people guarding the bank were actually Czech POWs who had gotten stuck in the country after the revolution and WW1 chaos.

The Red Army took control of Omsk in 1919. During WW2 the Soviet government recognized the value of the location, and basically made Omsk the capital in waiting, in case the Germans took control of Moscow.

Regarding the history after WW2, Wikipedia says following the dissolution of the Soviet Union Omsk experienced a period of economic instability and political stagnation. Most of the city's large businesses, which had previously been state owned, were fought over by members of the former party elite, the emerging nouveau riche and fast growing criminal syndicates.

The most notorious cases involved the privatization of Sibneft, a major oil company, which dragged on for several years. 

Until the end of the 1990s, political life in Omsk was defined by an ongoing feud between the oblast and city authorities. The resulting conflict made at least two points of view available to the public and served as the impetus for some improvements to the city's infrastructure and cultural life.

These included the construction of new leisure parks and the renovation of the city's historic center, the establishment of the annual Siberian International Marathon and of the annual City Days Festival. 

Despite this, internal political competition drained the Omsk's resources and served as a major obstacle for smooth government operations and city development.

As much as I love the Russian train system, and sing its praises regularly, I don't love each and every train ride. I sleep best when in a cool/cold environment. It seems to be a Russian thing to keep interiors much warmer than I prefer. Unfortunately, this also goes with trains in the country. Sometimes I get lucky, and a train is relatively cool. 

The train ride from Tyumen to Omsk was not one of those rides. I woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat because it was so hot. (No, I wasn't sick.)

The train ride was around eight hours, but I moved an hour to the east in terms of time zones during the ride. I stayed in the train station for a couple hours charging my phone, then walked outside to walk to my hostel. The first Lenin I got to see in Omsk was right in front of the train station, yay! Nothing unusual about this statue, but I always love seeing a Lenin statue :)

The walk to the hostel was easy, and I may or may not have stopped in a few bakeries along the way. I need to stop this carby habit when traveling.

Finding the entry door to the hostel was a bit of an adventure, mostly because the man who answered the phone when I called did not speak clearly. My Russian skills are not great, but they get even worse when the person with whom I'm speaking mumbles. Argh. Eventually, I figured out where to go and got myself sorted out.

Even though the booking site I'd used said this hostel would have wifi, it didn't. When I mentioned this to the manager he had no idea what I was talking about, and was unable to help me. More argh. I had enough data on my phone plan to deal with this, but it was still annoying.

Eventually I walked out to start exploring. I'd wasted way too much time in both the train station and hostel, but these things happen. Go figure, I walked out the door to blowing wind and snow. It let up sometimes, then started again for the rest of the day, much to my annoyance in taking photos. 

I generally love winter, but I hate trying to keep snowflakes/raindrops off my camera lens.

My first sight was a church, St Nicholas' Cossack Cathedral, partly under renovation. I was still able to go inside, as it was only the back end of the church that was covered in scaffolding. The inside was completely different from anything I've seen before. There were the usual icons all over the place, but there wasn't an iconostasis up front. Instead, it was a large mural of Jesus on the wall.

Not far from the church was the first city sign I got to see in Omsk, this one was all ice. The name of the city spelled out (in Russian,) in blocks of ice. I loved it.

I kept going, finding myself in front of the Omsk State Music Theatre, where the city was in the process of decorating for the holidays. I could see city workers cutting blocks of ice to use in the decorations, which was fun to watch for a couple minutes. They were using a power saw to cut the ice!

Not too far from here was Lenin #2. This one was bigger than the first statue I saw, but otherwise not any different from what I've seen before. He was standing in the middle of Lenin platz, which was actually more of a really big traffic circle. It wasn't super easy to figure out how to get to the platz, in order to take the photos I always take of Lenin, as there were no crosswalks or underpasses to get to this platz. I had to cross the street and hope none of the constant traffic hit me.

Omsk is located where the smaller Om River meets the bigger Irtysh River. To get to my next intended sight I crossed a bridge going over the Om River. Very windy, to say the least. On the other side I walked through Resurrection Square, which was actually more of a park with a few sculptures on display. Not surprising, but it wasn't very green at the time.

I followed the pavement all the way through the park, and along the Irtysh River until I got to what remains of the Omsk Fortress. Almost nothing remains, there is just a big city gate. As it turns out, there are several of these gates around the city, where the walls of the fortress once stood. Though labeled as the fortress on the map, there is nothing but the gate to make you think that.

More walking brought me to a spot where I could see a big WW2 memorial, but again, it wasn't easy to figure out how to get there. I was on one corner of an intersection, but there were fences along the street for quite a while, so I couldn't just run across the intersection. There was no crosswalk in sight, so I ended up walking down my side of the street for a couple blocks, crossing, then doubling back. Even when I was on the right side of the street there was no pavement leading to the war memorial. Omsk is strange.

My last sight of the day was the Cathedral of the Assumption. Very eye catching from the outside, and nice on the inside. Not only is it eye catching on the outside, it sits in the middle of an open area, so there is plenty of space to go all the way around and see the building from lots of angles. There is a tall belltower over the front door. The inside seemed unfinished to me, though there was an iconostasis up front. The rest of the walls were white, which is what makes me think it wasn't finished.

By the time I left the church it was dusk, almost dark. I walked back in the direction from which I came, stopping a few times to take photos as the city lights came on. There is nothing spectacular about Omsk, but I liked the way the night lights and snow made everything look really crisp, if that makes any sense. The snow and wind had finally stopped, though it was still cloudy, which also made the crispness very quiet. 

The next morning I packed up and checked out, taking my bag with me. Since I didn't want to carry my bag with me the whole time I walked back to the train station to put it in bag check for the day. As I walked back into the city center I just happened to stop into the same bakeries as the day before, since I knew I could get tasty treats :)

The day started out gray, but cleared up as the day went along, woo hoo!! Blue skies always help my mood and my photos. My dream weather would be rain all night, and sun all day, with a few snowstorms during the day. 

I found another city sign, this one made of whateva most city signs are made from. This one also spelled out the city name in Russian, which I always like a lot better than English, given that this is Russia.

Park Pobedy (Victory Park,) was a long rectangle, with the end on the Irtysh River. The middle was nothing in particular, but each end had war memorials. The memorial at the end near the river was covered by scaffolding, I think it is normally a three sided obelisk titled "Glory to the Heroes." I wish I'd been able to see it. The end near the street on which I was walking had a giant red star, it stood out quite a bit in an otherwise white world.

I got back on Lenin street and followed it until just after it crossed the Om River, before walking through Resurrection Square again. When I got to the fortress area I walked through the gate and kept going, which brought me to another gate, a church, and plastic flowers clipped onto trees.

The gate wasn't exciting, neither was the church. I don't think you could say the flowers were exciting, but they were clipped onto the trees, which was definitely unique.

A pop of colour when nearly everything else was white or gray.

The cathedral I'd seen the day before looked a whole lot better when I walked by this time, mostly because it was sunny, and a little earlier in the day. Not too far away I found Lenin #3 in Omsk. I wonder if there are any Lenins I missed? Why do some cities have numerous Lenins? This one stood in front of a university building.

At that point I felt as if I'd seen all I wanted to see in Omsk, as it is a city that really doesn't have all that much going on. I made my way to a small cafe I'd found online, this place specialized in various versions of ramyeon. YUM. They had quite a few plugs, so in addition to warming up and eating, I took the chance to charge my phone.

After killing some time in the cafe, I walked back in the general direction of the train station, stopping one last time in the bakery I'd grown to love. YUM.

I don't think there is anything in particular I still need to see in Omsk, but maybe the city looks completely different in summer? I would hope there is a lot more colour everywhere. And I wouldn't mind coming back to that bakery :)