After Ural I had a new challenge - hitchhiking to Siberia. Again 1700km, again predicted three days and again things went faster than expected. This time I didn't travel with trucks. Actually I can say it's quite easy to get picked up by personal car when you hitchhike by the road. But to catch a truck you have to be at some restarea where they stop. Anyway I don't want to be borring with explaining about everyone who picked me up to Novosibirsk. It was just too many of them. But I can mention that I made around 50km with Andrey on russia's very popular UAZ-452. Unofficialy people call it Buhanka - loaf of bread :) What is interesting, is that they're not as old as they look and they still produce them. Interior was much more modern as exterior and somehow just doesn't fit together :) Anyway it was an interesting experience to drive with it...
I was told that the road between Tyumen and Omsk is the most dangerous piece of concrete in Russia. I didn't get such feeling. In general, the roads in western Siberia are quite straight because of flat terrain. Also I wasn't able to find any official data about traffic accidents. But it's true that in one period the road was exactly 666km long. Later they renovated it many times and the route changed, so this curse should be broken by now :)
Novosibirsk is quite a young city. Established something more than hundred years ago as Novonikolayevsk. Of course such name after October revolution was not desirable any more. As a young city, frankly said, it has not much to offer. But it's a true capital of Sibera. Siberia has unfairly bad overtone. When traveling towards russian east I was expecting to find less and less developed world. But it's more vice versa. Roads in Siberia are better than those between Moscow and Ural. People are well educated and somehow friendlier than those on west. You can even find some of them smiling on the streets :)
It's inetersting when you walk the street and suddely see some very historic building between modern ones :)Then you stop and ask yourself: "where did that come from?" :)
It's difficult to say what is the centre of Novosibirsk. City life is somehow turning around three points. First is Lenin square. There is no Russia without Lenin of course :)
Second is Central railway station
By the way, this is how non-central station looks like. Those overwalks are very common at russian railway stations.
And third city "center" is Ob river embankment. There used to be the first railway bridge. When it worn out, they built a new one (on photo below in background on right side). But they kept a part of old one as a memorial.
South of the city they built a large hidro power plant on Ob. Because terrain there is very flat, a big accumulation lake was formed and you get a feeling it's a sea.
I was told, that there are only two seasons in Siberia: white winter and green winter :) Usually the heat wave starts in the beginning of july and lasts till the end of month. June and August are some sort of transitional period. But rest nine moths are cold. I visited Novosibirsk in the middle of May. Temperatures during day were above average (over 25˚C), but they still fell close to zero during nights. It's very strange feeling when you feel hot in T-shirt, but just a couple of hours later you want to freeze in warm jacket :)
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