Nowosibirsk - Новосибирск

Waiting, waiting, waiting... After checking out in Yekaterinburg, we had no opportunity to store or lock our luggage and big shopping for the upcoming train journey. So, we sat in a Russian bistro for six hours and waited for our train to Mongolia. On the train, we stumbled upon Sergej and Borsch, two big and burly guys who both served in the army, which matched their aggressive and cold appearance. But after a handshake, it turned out that they were kind-hearted Russian bears and we quickly got along well. As customary, we brought out the vodka from under the pillow to drink before sleeping (and otherwise) and quickly hid it again, as public drinking on the street or in public places is prohibited in Russia. Sometimes, the vodka is transferred to plastic bottles and consumed inconspicuously instead of water. Tom and I didn't take the alcohol ban in public areas particularly seriously until we were scolded in Russian by policemen on the train, to which we naturally played the surprised tourist who doesn't understand Russian, and the policemen closed the compartment door grumbling after our introduction. The two bears, Sergej and Borsch, gladly helped us communicate with the train staff and constantly gave us 'water', cookies, and whatever else was free on the train.

In the course of the conversation with Sergej, who only spoke Russian and came from Novosibirsk, we asked him what one can do or see in Novosibirsk, our next destination. Sergej had to think about this question for an hour and a half and finally answered: we have a zoo.

I don't want to bother describing Novosibirsk, I would rather let Sergej's reaction speak for itself, because even after consulting with a newly arrived Russian (who also lives in Novosibirsk), neither of them could give us a better tip than to go have a beer - which wasn't too far off for us.

When we arrived in Novosibirsk, we entered a train station building that was painted in a green-turquoise color that the Russians seem to love - personally, I associate this color more with hospital gowns. From there, Sergej escorted us to the metro, but we took the bus instead and went to Schanna (or translated as "Janna"), a nice Russian lady in her retirement age (according to German standards), who was to be our host for the next few days. When we arrived there, there was initially some confusion because the room we had booked did not have two beds as shown in the pictures and was used only by us, but instead had three bunk beds and was used by several people. After initially hearing about two other girls our age who were supposed to live there, their father and a Mongolian couple soon joined.

In the evening, we got to know Schanna's dog, cats, and other roommates (humans). Afterwards, since it was my birthday, Schanna treated us to a few shots of vodka and a bowl of borsch, a typical Russian soup. Later, we moved on to celebrate my birthday and our journey and ended the day - or rather the night - with a few glasses of beer.

In the following days, we mostly had breakfast and dinner at Schanna's, who prepared it for us for 100 rubles (about 1.4€) per meal - typical Russian food and very delicious.

In the end, Novosibirsk was not as boring as initially assumed. While the city was not particularly worth seeing apart from the theater building, it had some good restaurants and bars. We visited the aforementioned zoo, which was five times the size of Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg and impressed us with its variety of species (especially those on the red list). On the last day in Novosibirsk, we left the city and spent the day at the Oka beach, bathing in the sun and the river at 34 degrees. Since the bus we were supposed to take back to the city (unlike all other buses so far) only accepted cash and not cards, we asked at a gas station for the nearest ATM, to which a nuclear physicist who had just refueled offered to take us to the next town. We gratefully accepted this offer and thus obtained cash and ultimately returned home.