Tomich

As I sat on the train in Krasnoyarsk awaiting my imminent departure to Tomsk, I started to reminisce about my time in the beautiful central Siberian city. I thought about Krasnoyark’s own Red Square with its huge red column and then started thinking about the giant Lenin statue on Revolution Square in the middle of town with his hand out pointing to God only knows where! Supposedly he is pointing forward to the future, but my Russian Language 401 professor, Zoya, claimed he was actually pointing toward prisons. 

  

Just as I was in the final countdown to leaving my phone rang……….who could be calling??? Only taxi drivers who are pissed off at me because I’m not in the right place are the ones who called me. I hadn’t ordered a taxi and it couldn’t be any of my friends in Moscow. I picked up the phone and it was Tolya, my guide for my day in the mountains outside the city. He wanted to come by and say goodbye in person and wish me a pleasant trip. But the problem was the train was leaving in ten minutes (and Russian trains leave right on the dot) and he was still in the city. I waited and waited, but unfortunately Tolya was too late, arriving just at the very moment the train pulled away from the station. Oh well…..yet another reason to come back to Krasnoyarsk………..that and a chance to get to know the front desk girl at my hotel, Galina better!! Galina if you’re reading this, you’re beautiful and I’d make the perfect match ;) !!

My next stop would be Tomsk, probably the most famous of all Russian college towns due to its numerous universities and beautiful wooden architecture. Unlike most of my destinations, which were direct routes, Tomsk was about 100 miles off the mainline making it necessary for me to make a three-hour stopover in the small town of Taiga. Eventually I’d pick up the “Tomich” train from Moscow. Because it was a short overnight train I did not get much sleep having to get up at around 5 am. The train would only stop there for two minutes meaning I had little time to spare and needed to be right there at the carriage exit with all my stuff ready to jump off the moment the train came to a stop. Otherwise I’d be going onto Russia’s third largest city, Novosibirsk about three hours down the line, which would really blow up my plans.

Taiga served as an important stop for Western Siberian trains as it served not only Tomsk, but also other cities throughout the region. I entered the station and like all stations the interior was gorgeous with beautiful chandeliers and incredible decorations. I was rather surprised at how crowded the waiting hall was. It seemed a lot of people were waiting for trains to Tomsk and beyond. I found a nice place right in front of a sleeping soldier and put down my stuff and made myself at home. About an hour went by and most people cleared out. So, I put my feet up on the seats and curled up to try and get some sort of sleep. Within seconds I heard this loud mumbling next to me. I thought it was just another waiting passenger talking to another. But when I opened my eyes it was the security guard mumbling at me sternly to get my feet off the seats!! Never mind that everyone else in the station was doing this, but I was low hanging fruit and easy picking since I was an иностранец (inostranits) or foreigner.

At that point I figured there was no use sticking around the station and decided to go to luggage storage to store my stuff. Unlike in other stations where they have big lockers and you just buy a pass from a kiosk, this was a bit more complicated. I had to hand over my passport, my onward ticket and have the woman record all my info, which then subsequently led us to a small coat closet near the entry where I would store my luggage. She gave me a token to retrieve my things and now that I was free from my stuff I was ready to get out and explore Taiga. To “explore” is a generous word for Taiga, more like exit the station, go a few blocks, look at Soviet era block apartments, see some socialist realism artwork on the sides of the buildings, take a few pictures of the beautiful station from the outside, look at the giant stationary locomotive that stands outside every Russian station and go back in and try to find something to eat before finally retrieving my stuff.

The Taiga security guard

After three long hours the train finally came! I hardly remember much about the two-hour ride up due to my extreme fatigue. The only real recollection I have was a brief conversation with one of the server girls, who will play a crucial role in future blog entries, about what I would have for breakfast.

Finally I arrived in Tomsk and my long night and morning was over! But, once again there was drama with the taxi I ordered! I ordered the taxi and instructed them to pick me up at the main entrance. A few seconds later I got a phone call from an angry taxi driver wanting to know where I was. I really didn’t understand what was so hard about finding me at the main entrance…….after all I was standing right at the entrance below the sign that said ТОМСК (TOMSK). Luckily after a lot of drama my Maxim driver and me were at long last united!!