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 :)

russia: tyumen

I did not plan my New Year's holidays very far in advance. Despite having a three week break, I stayed in Russia for the first couple weeks, because there is so much to see and do in the country. I didn't get the first week and some sorted out until just a couple weeks ahead of time, whoops!

My first destination was Tyumen. Almost 2150 kilometers east of Moscow, Tyumen is a rapidly growing city. Though the 2010 census had just over 580,000 residents, Wikipedia tells me the current estimate is just short of 770,000 residents.

Tyumen became part of the Tsardom of Russia in 1585, when a Cossack leader annexed the area from the Siberian Khanate. Sometime after this the city was completely destroyed, along with a city called Sibir. While Tyumen was later rebuilt, Sibir wasn't. Sibir ended up being the name for the entire region instead.

Wikipedia goes on to say By the beginning of the 18th century Tyumen had developed into an important center of trade between Siberia and China in the east and Central Russia in the west.

Tyumen had also become an important industrial center, known for leatherworkers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen. In 1763, 7,000 people were recorded as living in the town.

By the end of the 19th century Tyumen's population exceeded 30,000, surpassing that of its northern rival Tobolsk (which I visited later on during this trip,) and beginning a process whereby Tyumen gradually eclipsed the former regional capital. The growth of Tyumen culminated on August 14, 1944 when the city finally became the administrative center of the extensive Tyumen Oblast.

World War II saw rapid growth and development in the city. In the winter of 1941, twenty-two major industrial enterprises evacuated to Tyumen from the European part of the Soviet Union. These enterprises went into operation the following spring. Additionally, war-time Tyumen became a "hospital city", where thousands of wounded soldiers were treated.

Possibly the most interesting part of the recent history of Tyumen is what happened during WW2 in 1941. The body of Lenin was secretly moved from Moscow to a secret tomb in what is now the Tyumen State Agriculture Academy. 

I don't know why his head wasn't moved as well. As far as I know, locals had no idea this happened until well after the war was over.

Regarding the current economy of Tyumen, Wikipedia says Tyumen is an important service center for the gas and oil industries in Russia. Due to its advantageous location at the crossing of the motor, rail, water and air ways and its moderate climate Tyumen was an ideal base town for servicing the oil and gas industry of the West Siberia. 

As a result, today Tyumen is a center of industry, science, culture, education and medicine. Many large oil and gas companies such as Gazprom, LUKoil, Gazpromneft and Shell have their representative offices in Tyumen.

There are numerous factories, engineering companies, oil industry service companies (KCA DEUTAG and Schlumberger,) design institutes, shipyard and other oil servicing companies located in Tyumen. Schwank, market leader for industrial heaters, has its subsidiary, SibSchwank, in Tyumen, holding market shares of about 25%. UTair is also based in Tyumen.

As Tyumen is not an easy train ride from Tyumen, (the train would be direct, but it would take 35 hours,) I chose to fly instead. My flight landed in the early morning, which is acually my preferred time to arrive somewhere new.

As Moscow has had a very warm winter this year, I knew I would be in for temperature shock as soon as I set food outside the airport, and that's exactly what happened. I went from temperatures above freezing, to -20C or so that morning. Big difference, to say the least. It was easy to catch a public bus into the city center, then walk about 15 minutes to get to my hostel. 

I wasn't able to check in straightaway, but I was able to leave my pack, which was enough for the time being. After leaving my pack the first thing I did was find a supermarket to pick up snacks and drinks. Am I the only weirdo who wants ice cream even when it is quite cold outside?

One of the few things that is no fun about traveling in the cold is related to photography. Camera batteries don't last nearly as long in this kind of cold. You can keep the batteries in your gloves or pockets, but that means you can't set up your camera nearly as quickly every time you want to take a photo. 

The cold also makes touching your camera not so fun, as the metal picks up the cold and holds in. Same goes for the tripod. Argh.

I walked along one of the main streets in the city, seeing a whole lot of holiday decorations. There were quite a few snowflake decorations, which I suppose makes sense in terms of the weather. My first official sight had nothing to do with anything, it was a quirky monument, dedicated to janitors.

Not far away I found a WW2 memorial. There was an eternal flame, named engraved on plaques, and fake flowers. 

Part of the memorial was also a giant sculpture that I think was supposed to be a torch with a flame on top.

I kept going along the main street, eventually coming to a statue of Lenin. Big statue, on a big pedestal, nothing different from what I've seen previously. He stood in front of the government building that holds the administration for the oblast. This government building also had holiday decorations.

After walking another couple blocks, I followed another street for a quick detour, to find a church. 

The outside was a boring white, but the inside was nicely painted with frescoes and a great rotunda. I am always a sucker for a church with a rotunda that is painted on the interior side.

Eventually this main street followed the lines of the Tura River, which runs through the city. I wanted to take a whole lot of photos of the pedestrian bridge that goes over the river at this point, but it was just too cold and windy to keep it up for long. Almost directly across the street from the bridge was another war memorial, this one also had an eternal flame.

After looking at the memorial for a minute or two, I knew I had to get inside for a bit to warm up. Thankfully there was a church visible not too far away, so I headed in that direction. It felt so good to step inside the church, and I appreciated the lovely gold iconostasis in front.

After getting feeling back in my fingers, I walked home. All the way home, with three stops. The first was to take nighttime photos of the giant bear decorations set up in a central park area. The other stop was in a donut shop, for dessert after the dinner I hadn't yet eaten. I stopped for the third time in the same supermarket as the morning, to pick up dinner (salad,) supplies.

The next morning was my normal routine of waking up early but not getting moving as fast as I should. That being said, this was also the shortest day of the year, meaning sunrise comes later. It was also hard to get up because my body was still mostly on Moscow time, making it feel like the middle of the night.

The weather my first day in Tyumen was cold, but completely sunny. Not so much on my second day in the city. It was just as cold, windy, and snowy for much of the second day. Not nearly as much fun in terms of randomly walking around the city.

I walked to the train station from my hostel, which wasn't a short walk, but gave me a chance to see the non touristy parts of the city. I found luggage storage and left my pack there for the day, then walked out again. On the other side of the parkplatz in front of the station was a large Soviet style mosaic mural, honouring the science cities in the area.

Walking straight up the street in front of the train station brought me back to the bears I'd seen the night before. They weren't nearly as interesting in daylight, but I took my photos anywho.

From there I went back to the main street I'd walked the day before, walking even further than I had the day before. I walked all the way to a monastery marked on the map, and listed as a sight worth seeing. The holy trinity monastery ended up not being all that impressive, mostly because the main church within the walls was under renovation. I was only able to visit the smaller church, which wasn't nearly as interesting aesthetically, though I think it did have the more interesting history.

After leaving the walls of the monastery, I walked back in the direction from which I'd come. 

This took me past the second war memorial I'd seen the day before. Less than a block away was the city museum, which seemed like a good place to visit.

Joy of joys, another Russian museum with multiple ticket options. Argh. And shoe covers, which I really don't like. I chose a couple ticket options that had to do with Soviet times, and WW2. Neither area was particularly large, but oh well.

On my way into the area about WW2 I slipped and fell on the stone steps, as they'd been worn smooth and my shoe covers made them even more slippery. If you put those shoe covers on while your shoes have any water with them (snow, ice, stuck to the bottom of your shoes,) they don't do much. The covers are pretty cheaply made, meaning holes come along quickly, and before you know it you're still bringing water/dirt all over the building you're in.

Anywho, after falling down the stairs I took off the shoe covers and refused to put them back on. I really don't like those things.

By the time I left the city museum it was dark outside, so the powers that be had already turned on all the lights. Street lights, lights on the pedestrian bridge, holiday lights, etc. By that point it had (finally) stopped snowing, so I could see everything clearly and it was lovely.

After that I killed several hours by stopping in three food places. First a cafe for dessert and a drink. Then a pizza place for dinner. Then the donut place again for second desserts. YUM all the way around.

From there I walked back to the train station, picking up my bag plenty of time ahead of my train. I only had to wait about thirty minutes to board, and as expected, the train left exactly on time.

I'd like to come back to Tyumen in late spring or summer, just to see how the city looks, as I'm sure it would be completely different.

russia: moscow: chinese lantern festival

This post is just an excuse to post pretty pictures.

I met up with my friend Svetlana at Sokolniki park, to attend a festival.

The chinese lantern festival was scheduled to be in the park for three months, but I wanted to see it almost as soon as I heard about it.

The sign at the front of the festival said there were 40 something lanterns set up, though I'm not sure how they counted.

It was a cold night, but it was still worth wandering around for an hour or more, just to see all the different lanterns.

Some of the lanterns were more 'Chinese' while others were just there.

The entry fee was pretty steep, 700 rubles. That's as much as I've paid for big museums like the Hermitage!

I hope there is another festival like this one next year, I'd gladly go again.

russia: mosow holiday decorations

I think I've mentioned in previous Moscow related posts that GUM, the huge state mall on one side of Red Square changes decorations for various holidays and seasons.

I love visiting the mall to see what the decorations look like, and to figure out what the theme is.

This year the New Year's theme seemed to be space, somehow combined with Christmas.

I saw multiple giant Christmas trees decorated with space ornaments. I saw multiple satellites hanging from the ceiling. I saw multiple stars hanging from the ceilings and balconies.

All the employees in the mall were wearing traditional Russian costumes, I'm not sure how happy they were to be doing so.

The next day was Tuesday, so I decided to make use of my afternoon off.

My first stop was the Museum of Moscow. I'd never heard of it before, so I'm not sure how important it is in the grand scheme of all the Moscow museums.

I walked all the way to the museum, just because I could. There were three buildings making up this museum, it wasn't immediately obvious where I should enter.

When I found an entrance I was presented with the conundrum I hate: multiple ticket options, none of which covers everything. I ended up choosing the option that let me see the history of Moscow exhibit.

Considering Moscow is nearly 1000 years old, I was less than impressed because there was only one floor's worth of items displayed. There was a path to follow through the museum, which made it slightly more convenient.

There were some religious stone carvings. There were some displays of jewelry from I don't know who. There was an old map showing Moscow as a fortified city. There were a few old books, with gold on the edges of the pages.

There was also an extra exhibit, talking about the waters of Moscow.

It started with the 20^th century, and continued through the 22^nd century. Neat to see how someone things the waters of Moscow might be in another 100 years.

After leaving the museum I walked to the House of Photography, free entrance on the day I visited. I didn't know why and hadn't known about that ahead of time, but it was a nice surprise.

Probably because of the free entry, this photography/art gallery was pretty crowded. The architecture of the interior is very modern, and easy to walk through.

As always happens with art, I liked some of the pieces, didn't like others, and had no reaction to some. 

As always happens in a gallery/museum, some people pay attention to the other visitors, others do not.