russia: krasnoyarsk

The next morning my train arrived exactly on time in Krasnoyarsk.

Krasnoyarsk has more than a million people, and is the third largest city in Siberia, after Novosibirsk and Omsk.

The city was founded in August 1628, as a Russian border fort, I think it was originally called Krasny Yar, as was the village that developed around the fort. The name officially became Krasnoyarsk in 1822. The city currently has a fair amount of science and industry to create its economy.

When you exit your train in Krasnoyarsk you don't go through the station. I always want to go inside train stations, so I circled around and went back in through the front. It wasn't all that impressive, at least not as impressive as I felt it should be. From what I could see, Krasnoyarsk was hosting the World University Games, basically the version of the Olympics for university students? I'd never heard of it, but that doesn't mean anything. There was plenty of signage and a few new looking souvenir shops in the station, so there were definitely plenty of people in town for the competition.

Upon exiting the station I found a tall column with a lion on top, I think the lion is the symbol of the city. That was directly in front of the station. Off to the side was a building with an interesting Lenin mosaic all over the side. The photo I took of this mosaic and the people standing under it leading regular lives is one of my favourite regular life photos.

When I booked my accomodation I clearly didn't look at the distance it was from the train station. The walk was easy, but long: over two hours. Whoops. Oh well, walking is only bad if it's raining.

Along the way I passed a Lenin statue, he was on one side of Lenin Square. In the middle of Lenin Square was a giant Christmas tree! Now, I know some people leave holiday decorations up for a long time, and I know Orthodox Christmas is two weeks after western Christmas, but this seemed a bit ridiculous, as it was almost the middle of March.

Checking into my accomodation was easy, though the lady wasn't thrilled with the number of pages she would have to copy from my passport in order to do my registration. Hee hee. 

My bunk had two plugs and a privacy curtain, I was thrilled.

After walking back out of my hostel, my first sight was a statue near three flags. I don't remember who the statue was, but I remember that all three flags were flown at the same height. One of them was the Russian flag, I'm guessing the others were an oblast and a city flag? I don't really know.

It took me a while, but eventually I got to my next sight, only to be disappointed. I wanted to see the victory arch in Krasnoyarsk, but was gutted to see that it was in the middle of the fenced in fan zone. Darnit. 

I didn't want to pay to go in just to see the arch, so I didn't.

Another thing I didn't enter was the museum with a giant building and great set of stairs not far from the riverbanks. I do love a good set of stairs, whether indoors or outside.

I walked along both Lenin and Marx streets, as they tend to be the main streets in most Russian cities. It was no different here. Lots of people out walking, going about their daily lives. And those in town for the Universiade were obvious, they were all wearing snowsports gear.

I found another Lenin monument, this one had him sitting in a giant chair. Why are there often multiple Lenin statues in a single city?

I did go in the next museum I saw, an art museum. Entry was 350 rubles, which is rather steep for a city in the middle of Russia, especially as the museum wasn't all that big. Still, I enjoyed it, and took plenty of photos of various pieces on display.

My last intended sight of the day was called Big Ben. A tall clocktower built to look just like the one in London. I don't know what connection Krasnoyarsk has to London (if any,) but I had fun seeing it. 

As far as I could tell, I was the only one looking at the tower, everyone else went right past it.

Not far from Big Ben was a festival, I think it was part of the set up for the Universiade. As I got close I was able to watch dance performances of a couple different groups. One was much more modern, and made up of teenage girls. The other was slightly older, doing more traditional Russian dances. Fun. On the wall behind them was a slogan: Krasnoyarsk is the soul and energy of Siberia. I'm not sure I agree with that, but hey, who cares.

Walking home took a while, but again, was easy enough.

The next morning I packed up and checked out, but did not leave my bag behind for the day. The hostel was not going to be on my way to the train station later in the day. Instead, I carried it with me all day, not fun.

My first stop of the day was the Victory Memorial Museum. There is a cemetery behind it, thought I don't think they're associated. There is a smaller series of graves off to the side of the front, I think these are military graves. 

Near this set of graves is a tank, all of it overlooks the river that runs through the middle of the city.

The museum was small, but really well done. One section had a mosaic that went all the way around a circle, showing the different official hero cities of WW2. Another section was filled with photos and items of interest from the soldiers who fought. There were also maps and other bits of information throughout.

On the small platz in front of the museum were soldiers standing at guard, I got to see a changing of the guard ceremony purely by lucky timing. Small, but very well done.

More walking brought me to my next sight: a house museum. This museum showed the life and times of the Surikov family, who had Vasily Surikov, a Russian realist painter. Vasily was born to a Cossack family, whose father was a postmaster.

There were two floors to the house. One of them showed more city history, the other showed more family history.

Along my way to the Lenin statue I'd first seen the day before, I stopped for hot chocolate. Krasnoyarsk doesn't seem to have much of it, or at least coffee shops are less obvious than in other cities I've visited. I was still surprised by the giant Christmas tree on display. If it hadn't been taken down yet, when will it come down?

Not too far from Lenin I spotted a church. There was a statue of a religious guy outside, which was nice. I loved the interior, especially as light was streaming in a side window while I was there and it was very quiet. I love the moments I have for introspection.

My last sight in the city was a random statue called Uncle Bob. He was clearly drunk, leaning against a lightpole. So I leaned against the other side.

Hopping on the train that night was a little scary. I was booked into wagon #8, which didn't roll up until just five minutes before scheduled departure. 

I was worried, of course, but there were other people standing around who clearly were in the same situation as me, so I figured it would get sorted, and it did. We departed 13 minutes late though, which is practically unheard of for the Russian train system.

I don't think I need to come back to Krasnoyarsk, except maybe in summer. Though there is a national park relatively close by, which would be nice to explore. Hmmm.