Nasha Russia

I’m sitting in Vnukovo, the smallest of Moscow’s three airports (which has “only” 160 or so registration desks, still making Kyiv Boryspil’s 40 seem like Podunkville). In the first week of this trip, I flew in to or out of each of Moscow’s three airports, and also had the pleasure of experiencing regional airports in Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Kazan. You expect strong security in Moscow, especially after the bombing in January. Twice now, though, I’ve not been prevented from taking a full bottle of water through security. Perhaps Russia is easing the war on liquids to focus on more serious threats, like shoes? Well, not so much in Novosibirsk. They’ve actuallt expanded the war and added empty bottles to list of Public Enemies. When I asked what Novobirsk has against empty bottles, the security personnel assured me it’s the polcy and procedure throughout Russia. *Sigh*

On the whole, though, it’s been one of the more interesting and productive trips I’ve had in Russia in the last few years. Even being nearly delirious with fever half the time (or perhaps because of it?), I enjoyed the trip. I’m looking forward to visiting Kazan again, and hopefully will be healthy enough next time to actually leave the hotel and explore the fascinating city, which doesn’t look anyting like your typical Russian town.

Looking forward to being home in a few hours. Missed my fabulous hubby so much!

Welcome to Siberia!

After a glorious 7 weeks in a row at home with my fabulous hubby (the longest stretch of time at home since I started this job nearly 3 years ago!), I’m back on the road again.

I flew into Moscow earlier this week, spent one night there, and then we took an overnight flight to Tomsk, in Siberia. It’s the farthest east I’ve ever been – nearly 3000 km east of Moscow (1800 miles) – the time here is 11 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Daylight Time. We flew over the Ural mountains to get here, but it was night flight and I couldn’t see them, unfortunately.

We arrived at 6am, and it was +3C – just above freezing! But the clear skies and crisp, clean air were a relief after the hot and stuffy airplane. And it warmed up quite nicely during the day, to a high of nearly 20C.

After our meetings, our hosts offered to take us a quick city tour. Of course we couldn’t refuse! Tomsk is a lovely city, especially in spring when everything is green and the flowers are blooming. Our hosts said in another few weeks, the mosquitoes will take over and it will be really unpleasant to be outside, so we lucked out that we came just at the best time of year!

There are lots of old wooden houses throughout the city center.

One of the most beautiful is the Russian-German House. Unfortunately, it was closed for the day, but the view from the street was stunning.

From the top of the Tomsk City Museum tower, we had a wonderful view of the river Tom, the city and surrounding countryside.

It doesn’t show up in my photos, but we could just make out the nuclear plant at the nearby city of Seversk, a closed city. One of our hosts, Olga, is from Seversk. No one is allowed in to the city without special permission. She showed us her resident’s card, which she has to show the guards in order to enter the city.

Tonight we are off to Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia, and third largest city in the Russian Federation. We’re driving there, and I’m looking forward to the scenery along the way.