Tomsk

We spent more time in Tomsk than anywhere else: 5 days. Locals were very surprised to see us, since Tomsk is not considered a tourist destination. I enjoyed it--its meandering streets feel much more cozy and inviting than the gigantic palaces and cathedrals and monuments of European Russia. Plus it was 20 C and sunny the whole time we were there.

Tomsk is a city of half a million, a few hours from the Trans-Siberian main line. It is too far from it to get any economic benefit, so it is mainly a university city. This lack of prosperity meant that old buildings were not demolished, so there was a strange and appealing juxtaposition of tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet architecture. Lenin Square, the centre of town, is a staring match between a Lenin statue, a bland orchestra hall, an ugly concrete theatre, and a crop of gleaming fashion stores.

As a university city, Tomsk has many young people. As well, about 10% of the population had Chinese or Korean features, although they invariably spoke Russian. Another 5% or so were central Asians (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek).

There is no real tourist attraction in Tomsk. Resurrection Hill, the centre of old Tomsk, had disintegrating cobblestone streets, a large church, and precariously tilting cottages. Like all Russian cities, Tomsk has many galleries and museums. We tried once again to get tickets to a ballet or concert, but the only thing we found was a series of children's concerts. I never figured out how to find upcoming events except by reading the sign at a given venue.

Tomsk is completely un-gentrified. During our walks we saw a huge variety of districts. Most were poor, but at least they all had personality. One day, as we walked through the central park, we found ourselves in an ancient but active amusement park. A few rides were rusted through and overrun by tall grasses, but even so there was a large crowd of families and young people using the independently-operated hot dog stands, bumper cars, balloon castles, etc.

Tomsk had some of the best wooden-lace buildings we've seen. Here are the highlights:

Here's an example of a newer building.

Here is a random church.

On the south side of Tomsk is a hill which overlooks the beautiful Tom river valley. At the crest of the hill is this stirring World War 2 memorial. Many thousands of names were engraved in the stones on either side of the hill. You can't really see them here. There was also patriotic music playing quietly through speakers along the (birch) forest path.

We stayed at Hotel Sputnik. (In Russian, Sputnik means a companion on a long trip.) I expected a non-tourist city to have cheap hotels, but our room was $100/night. The room included hot breakfast but a shared washroom and shared fridge. Twice, a hotel workman was welding something right under our window until past 10pm, with loud noise and blue smoke coming into our room. I had to complain at the reception desk.

My father had a bad cough, so we bought cough suppressant and later antibiotics at one of the many pharmacists (~$8). Reading medical instructions in Russian was kind of a challenge.


"Graft Casino." We thought that was pretty funny until we discovered we needed to buy an airline ticket from "Graft Tourism" (there was also an electronics shop and restaurant). The train to Irkutsk was sold out, so we needed to fly. Actually, Graft Tourism doesn't sell airline tickets (!) . Everything worked out in the end: I found an aviakassa nearby, a bureau that sells airline and train tickets.

We didn't actually leave Tomsk for Irkutsk. We flew out from one of Novosibirsk's two airports. There was a bus from Tomsk straight to our airport, but it was sold out, so we went to downtown Novosibirsk instead (not recommended). The Novosibirsk "bus station" is simply a giant parking lot, and no-one knew any bus going to our airport. We took a taxi to the train station and got a shuttle bus from there.