russia: a return to krasnoyarsk

The last time I was in Krasnoyarsk (early spring 2019 I think) it was not terribly pretty, and the weather wasn't great. I'd wanted to go back ever since, the chance to do so came up this summer.

I decided to start this two week trip by flying from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, the flight is in the middle of the night. This kind of timing is what I like best, because it allows me to have more time in a place I'm visiting, but I've become far too good at wasting some of the time I give myself by arriving earlier in the morning. Sigh.

The flight to Krasnoyarsk was fine, but the bus ride into the city was not so great. I don't know if it was the driver, the bus itself, the traffic, me being dehydrated and tired, or any combination of all of those. Either way, by the time I got off the bus I was really really motion sick, and not feeling good at all. Unfortunately, I had to ride another bus to get a lot closer to my hostel. I could've walked the entire way, but it wasn't going to be an efficient use of time. (Not that hanging out in my hostel for hours was particularly efficient either, but that's beside the point, hee hee.)

After getting off the marshrutka I still had to walk another 10 minutes. The fresh air felt good, and helped me get over the motion sickness from the bus ride(s).

This trip started the last week of July, there was far less traveling taking place in Russia due to the pandemic. The flight was full, as was the bus, but there only seemed to be one other person in my hostel. The kitchen was huge, and the communal room had plenty of couches, so I knew I wouldn't have to 'share' anything with anyone for the most part.

After relaxing for far too long, I went out for a walk. While I was on the bus the weather was really overcast and cool, and not very motivating to me. After a few hours inside the hostel, the weather improved, which made me happy. My first intended sight was a victory arch at one end of a platz in the city center.

The last time I was in Krasnoyarsk I wanted to see this arch, but it was in the middle of the fan zone of the Universiad winter sports tournament the city was hosting, so I wasn't able to get close. This time it was an easy walk down the street, right up to the arch.

The arch didn't feel very big or magnificent, not nearly as much as some arches in Russia feel. This one felt more like the gate of a park, and not terribly grand. That being said, I still took my photo with the arch :) There was a 2019 sign still on display, I'm guessing it was a holdover from the sports tournament that was taking place during my last visit. I'm not sure why it is still on display, it was obviously WAY out of date. I imagine I'm not the only one who thinks 2020 has been the longest year ever.

After the arch I headed to my second intended sight for the day: a hike in the national park on one side of the city.

Getting there involved another bus ride, but at least this one didn't leave me feeling so woozy, thank goodness.

When I clicked on the national park to take a closer look at trails, I thought I had the whole thing sorted out in terms of where I needed to go to get to the trail head. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I walked through a neighbourhood to get to the trail head, that part of things was totally fine.

When I got to what I thought was the trail head, there was a small fence, with flattened down grass on one side of the fence.

I followed the flattened area, as it made me think I wasn't the first one to walk there, and eventually I would get to a proper trail.

I ended up at the top of the hill/mountain, but I'm still not sure whether I had followed a proper trail or not. I was never in doubt of where I needed to go, but I didn't see anyone else at all, and in a couple places the 'trail' was overgrown.

The national park in which I was hiking is called Stolby Nature Reserve. I think the word stolby translates to pillars, or something along those lines. This makes sense, because there are several areas in the park where stone/rock sticks up out of the surrounding area, like pillars of a sort.

There are a few trails marked on a map, but I had a sneaking suspicion that my walk had not been along any of those trails. Ooops.

The view from where I ended up was absolutely lovely. I could see a couple areas with stolbies (sp?) sticking up, and plenty of green. It was definitely a nice way to make me think "I need to come back here."

Getting back down did not go the way I originally thought it would. I had originally thought I would hike up, then take a cable car back down. When I got to the top of the cable car I discovered it wasn't running.

Argh. I knew I could get back down, I just wasn't sure where I would end up.

It started raining while I was on my way back down the mountain, I was not happy. It even hailed a bit, though the hail wasn't very big. If that had kept up for longer I would've been much happier than dealing with the rain. I was under the trees, so the rain wasn't landing on me exactly, but the trail was SUPER muddy, which was no fun at all.

What made all of this even better was my total lack of liquid or snacks during this entire hike. Whoops. I'd thought it would take about 90 minutes to hike up, but since I had to go round trip, it ended up being closer to 5 hours in total. Big whoops.

Once I got back down I didn't have to wait long for a bus to come along, I took it back into the city center, close to a supermarket. Water and yogurt never tasted so good :) Not surprisingly, I slept like a rock that night, but jet lag meant I woke up later than I normally do.

The next day I got out the door around mid morning. I was able to leave my bag behind at the hostel, after checking out, yay. My first intended sight of the day was a Lenin statue, nowhere near the city center. I took a local bus to get closer, which was easy enough.

City workers near the statue were mowing the grass, they were fascinated with someone taking a photo of Lenin, and another with Lenin. I get the impression most people don't do this, but I don't think I'll ever stop. This particular Lenin statue wasn't very exciting, but most of them aren't.

I took this same bus back toward the city center, getting off when it stopped close to the local/regional history museum.

These local/regional history museums can be hit or miss, so I don't always make an effort to see them.

I wanted to visit this one because of the architecture and exterior paint job, it looks a lot like an Egyptian temple. Unfortunately, it seemed to be closed, so I wasn't able to visit. Pandemic restrictions, I assume.

Across the street I was in a small park area, with giant cubes lined up along the sidewalk. Each cube had a graffiti type mural on each side, I loved the bright colours and designs. There were also nice views across the river from this area. The river freezes in winter I think, which probably makes for great views as well. 

I followed the sidewalk a kilometer or two, as it followed the path of the river. The embankment has been developed nicely, it's a great place for people to hang out, walk as a group, have a picnic, etc... There are a few playgrounds, places where people can get all the way down to the water, and more. All in all a lovely spot in the city.

From there I walked back to the hostel. I guess this second day doesn't sound like I didn't very much, and it's true I didn't, but my train was scheduled to depart before 1700, so I needed to start making my way to the train station.

I walked back and picked up my bag, then hailed a taxi to the train station. Traffic didn't seem any better than the previous morning, so maybe Krasnoyarsk has lousy traffic all the time? Who knows.

I would gladly come back to Krasnoyarsk, if only to go for another hike or two in the surrounding area :)

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.