We arrived in the pouring rain and the wet shine on the roads reflected the city lights of Novosibirsk, which after St Petersburg and Moscow is the third biggest city in Russia. At least I can say I have been to Siberia! My stay this time was to be in a private home as a homestay, and one that I was looking forward to enjoying. I love having the guides meet me, although this guy didn’t speak English, the language barrier was not a problem.
We seemed to drive some distance before turning down a dirt road, which reminded me of some of the places I had seen traveling here. We pulled into the front of a property with high metal fences and dogs barking behind it. The guide rang the people on his phone and young lass aged about twenty something met us. The two large and lovely dogs of unknown parentage.
The two girls welcomed me into their home despite the late arrival. It was very cute and homely, something I had imagined most of the homes would be. The outside appearance of a lot of Russian homes give a poor impression of what the inside may be like, as outsides were generally not in good repair.
I came to terms with the fact that the toilet did not have a cistern that worked, and a bucket the means of flushing!
Having had to face that in the past, it did not faze me at all. A large basin /bucket in the bath as a means of washing had no appeal what so ever, so I declined the offer of a shower. With it being so late at night, I was soon asleep on the couch/bed that was mine, until being joined by their beautiful black long haired and very loud purring cat! How ever, we both slept well.
As usual, I was awake before everybody else, but there was breakfast set on the table ready for me to eat. It was very thoughtful of the girls.
Another woman who did speak English picked me up to try to get some antibiotics for an infection that was becoming a problem. It fascinated me that we went to a hospital pharmacy and an antibiotic dispensed immediately, no doctors or PC nonsense! After doing this, she dropped me off at the station for the onward journey to Kazakhstan. Finding a luggage locker saved me from hauling bags all around the city.
Leaving bags there, I spent the morning just taking in some of the sights of the city.
The opera house certainly worth seeing backed the huge Lenin square. Not a beautiful city in my opinion, but a very pleasant working one. Given that Novosibirsk came about because of the Trans Siberian, train made it memorable for me. The remainder of the day spent waiting and looking for some sign of the platform number of the train, I was catching to go to Almaty.
It was very frustrating, despite asking several people directions. With just over half an hour until departure I tried again, I think they might have also been getting a little frustrated with me. This time a young man offered to help me down to the train, and in doing so, he also carried my bags up and down stairs. It seems unless there is more than four flights of stairs the Russians and Chinese do not believe in escalators or lifts!
It escapes me the reason for having both Moscow time and the local times shown for train departures, but hey, it is Russia! I know the Russian rail system runs on Moscow times but it does get very confusing. The total lack of any English or any translation is something that needs work on certainly and possibly the use of an English speaker somewhere in the station.
Getting down to the train at last, it had obviously been there waiting! This suggested that had I known the platform number I could have taken myself there, but then again no one would have carried my bags!
The compartment I shared with two older gentleman, an older lady and a small 3 year old boy. I have been lucky in getting the bottom bunk on all the trains so far, long may it last, there is no way I could cope with getting up to the top bunk. None of my companions spoke English, so for the next couple of days it was going to be sign language.