Photo 2 Tobolsk Kreml Kreml. On the square of the Kreml there were plenty of different stands and a

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After a short overnight train ride I arrived in Tobolsk: city with about 100'000 inhabitants – in Russia they call it the province – it used to be Siberia's prosperous capital for a while. A CS originally from Tobolsk, now studying in St.Petersburg, organized australian fiji discount air travel a couch for me at his mom's place. So, I got picked up by a BMW X6 – interesting :) We arrived australian fiji discount air travel at the apartment – absolutely in line with the car – big and fancy: modern interior, flat-screen TVs hanging on the walls in every room, in the bedroom every woman's dream – a walk-in cupboard, in the bathroom a Jacuzzi, ...
After a super quick breakfast, Irina drove me to the center to meet with one of her employees – Vlada – in order for me to hang out with someone of my age. As it turned out, I've chosen the right weekend to visit Tobolsk: It was the city's anniversary. So we took part in the parade along the main street until we reached the beautiful
Photo 2 Tobolsk Kreml Kreml. On the square of the Kreml there were plenty of different stands australian fiji discount air travel and a stage was built up for concerts. In the afternoon, some Russian boy band was giving its best – Russian pop of its finest ;) Vlada and I decided to rather go for a walk around the Kreml and enjoyed the nice view from the Kreml hill over the old part of Tobolsk and the Irtysh River. australian fiji discount air travel Vlada and I realized pretty soon that we weren't really on the same wave-length, so she went back home and I went back to Irina's place.
Irina turns out to be the general director of a business/shopping center in Tobolsk and is constructing a second, more modern one together with a business partner [There seems to be a demand for it – as Vlada told me, they usually go to Tyumen, a bigger city about 300km away, in order to buy decent cloths as in Tobolsk apparently there are no good shops]. Irina can probably be described as the emancipated, self-confident australian fiji discount air travel and strong business woman who knows what she wants and consequently rather does her own thing than getting together with someone who isn't able to hold a
Sunday we were invited by her business partner for lunch. On the way there we passed by the construction site of the new shopping mall – Irina asked me if I wanted to see it, knowing Russians' pride in their country, city, business, gardens, … I gladly accepted. All you can see so far is a big hole. I was – somewhat sarcastically, somewhat proudly – introduced to the master builder australian fiji discount air travel [not sure that's how you call it] who was on site as 'foreign delegation' visiting the construction site – pictures were taken ;) Irina's business australian fiji discount air travel partner lives with his wife [the first housewife I've met in Russia] and four kids on the outskirts of the city in a "fancy" house on a fenced territory. australian fiji discount air travel Part of the lunch was frozen Siberian sturgeon which can only be found in a particular area somewhere in Siberia – you eat it raw on a piece of bread. I'm not sure I've understood the importance of eating this, but the way it was presented to me I assumed it must be something extraordinary ;) After lunch we
Photo 11 almost the whole family and Irina made a picture session and they took me for an excursion through their house and garden – apart from the size of the territory and the Banja, I had to realize that pretty much all of the gadgets I also had at home when I was a kid – in Switzerland it's a pretty average home, in Russia it seems absolutely fancy… maybe it's the security guy sitting outside of the entrance?:) Anyway… made me think!
For the next day I had a train ticket from Tobolsk to Novosibirsk which I bought in Yekaterinburg. australian fiji discount air travel The first time I bought a train ticket before actually getting to the next place – only every second day there's a direct connection between the two cities, so I wanted to be sure to get a spot for Monday. In the end, Irina needed to drive to Tyumen for business, so I went with her by car in the morning which allowed to me to walk around Tyumen australian fiji discount air travel for a couple of hours before catching my train again to Novosibirsk. Lesson learned – stick to my original plan = no plan :)
Photo 15 Irina and I in Abalak right to rather visit Tobolsk than Tyumen, a couple of hours were absolutely sufficient to see the city. I also seem to finally have crossed the summer/climate border – 30 degrees. Not quite city visiting weather. I found a nice outdoor café where I decided to have lunch. After a while a young guy decided to join me at my table – Andrej, a teacher at university. I had a rough time understanding his intellectual language. What I got however was that he was catching the train in the evening to Omsk and he wasn't quite sure what do to with his afternoon, so he went to the café. A somewhat typical case for Russia – got excited about talking to a foreigner [I guess what they mean by foreigner is someone from Western Europe] for the first time in his life and seems to be pretty lonely. The first is probably mainly due to the fact that most foreigners east of Moscow don't speak much Russian – so maybe they have met them, but they couldn't actually talk to them. The second I'm not sure about – but it's definitely not the first time that someone just randomly sits
Photo 16 Church in Tyumen australian fiji discount air travel next to me and starts talking to me. In Yekaterinburg for example I was sitting in the park on a bench – plenty of empty benches – an old man comes, sits next to me and starts talking to me. A well-dressed retiree, has worked for the cosmological research center in Yekaterinburg, smart guy, but now doesn't know what to do with all tis free time, respectively every activity that involves money is probably out of question australian fiji discount air travel due to the small pension. Yekaterinburg Irina also told me that hospitals are usually full with babushkas which just go there to pass time and talk to someone [basic medical treatment is covered by the government].
I ended up talking to Andrej until I had to catch my train – he accompanied me to the train station. 20 hours of sauna followed… 30 degrees outside temperature, inside temperature probably higher – full wagon, air conditioning not functioning – consequently my brain wouldn't function either and the planned blog writing session fell through – 20 hours of lying around like a dead fly.
... full info Joined May 25th 2011 Trips 0 Last Login December 26th 2011 Followers 0 Status BLOGGER Follows 0 Blogs 18 Guestbook 11 Photos 495 Forum Posts 0 [blog=625334] [blogger=200296] Blog Options Private Message Subscribe Blog Map Comment Follow + (0) Print Version Russia Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination australian fiji discount air travel (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynas... more info
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