Tomsk!

I Love Tomsk!

Besides hitting a few snafus along the road like being told by a hotel in the small city of Tynda that they don’t accept foreigners, overall my trip had been pretty stable. But when I booked a European like hotel in the center of Tomsk called The Hotel Bonaparte all I could think of was Napoleon and Waterloo. I was hoping that Tomsk would not be my Waterloo! For a moment it looked as if that “Waterloo” I’d been talking about was about to come true when upon presenting my passport to the front desk girl she promptly wanted to see all evidence of where I’d been staying since April 9^th, my date of entry.

I had learned my lesson to keep registration papers in order after a horrible situation six years ago while trying to leave Kazakhstan where I was denied leaving due to a small piece of paper I did not receive upon entering the nation. In Kazakhstan everyone who flies in is given a piece of paper that gives them seven days registration free, except I had come by train. So luckily I had all the papers in order and handed them over. When you arrive at hotels in Russia they make a copy of your visa and passport front page and at the end of your stay issue you a small piece of paper noting your full name, how long you’ve been there, passport info, visa number and an official stamp from the hotel with the manager’s signature.

I’ve been to college towns and actually lived in one, but no town could quite compare to the mammoth scale of Tomsk!! Tomsk is home to nine plus universities, all of which are quite large, not exactly a one-university town. By far one of the best things about Tomsk being a university town was the knock out gorgeous women! Sure Russia is full of beautiful women, but Tomsk women were in a special realm of their own! Maybe it was because everyone was young or maybe it’s those harsh Siberian winters? Who knows….all I know is how amazing Russian women are! Every moment, no matter how mundane is a chance to look beautiful down to even taking out the trash. This is in sharp contrast to Seattle where women dress down for everything and anything!

After settling into my room I figured I better hit the pavement running, as I had no time to rest since I was only in Tomsk for about three days. Besides the plentiful amount of universities and beautiful women, Tomsk was famous for another thing, their unique Russian wooden architecture! Each wooden building I would see was like a person with its own unique color, personality and character. The only place I’ve seen where architecture can come close to touching Tomsk is St. Petersburg, which in my opinion and a lot of others serves as the gold standard for not only Russia but also the world!

The House with Dragons

However unlike in St. Petersburg where the architectural highlights are concentrated basically in and around the immediate center, Tomsk’s beauty was scattered throughout the city. This is where my awesome friend, Natasha, from my Meetup.com Eastside Russian Language and Culture group came in handy. Natasha is a native Tomsk resident. Upon learning of my plans to visit Tomsk, she was kind enough to create two very, very thorough walking tours on Google maps of her city, making sure to include all the important sights and beauty of Tomsk! I am incredibly grateful to her for putting together these maps as without them I would’ve been stumbling around and only seen at most half of what I saw. So….THANK YOU Natasha! Оргомное спасибо!

The House with Firebirds

With my smartphone and Google maps in hand I set out to take in the sights of Tomsk. Many of the beautiful wooden buildings were churches, individual houses, and businesses. The houses were amazing in their color and shape! I’ve never witnessed such incredible beauty in houses. Even better were some of the names like: House with Firebirds, House with Dragons and House with Pavilion otherwise known as The German-Russian House. Although I had a lot of favorites, The German-Russian House was either my number one favorite or tied for first. The colors were a light blue and white pastel with light pastel blue being the predominant color.

The German-Russian House

Luckily these houses were registered on the national registry of historic buildings but I’m not sure that brings them much more than a nice name and recognition. It is my absolute hope that the government or whomever will maintain these beautiful works of arts for Russians and guests of Tomsk to see for decades to come! They are too precious to let rot away!!

At the end of the day I’d walked nearly ten miles and was exhausted. A friend of Natasha’s, Dmitry was kind enough to invite me to meet him for a round of beer at a local restaurant. However, I politely declined due to my utter fatigue from my near 10-mile walk that day and inability to even walk outside my hotel. So instead I settled for the local cafeteria restaurant on the bottom floor of The Bonaparte. I glanced over the menu and saw peperoni pizza, yes I thought……..comfort food, just what I needed.

 
I anxiously awaited my “peperoni pizza” and finally after a wait it came. But wait………….this wasn’t peperoni pizza this was pepper pizza…. NO, I told the girl I ordered peperoni pizza, not pepper pizza. She said this was peperoni. I remembered from past experiences in Russia and in Germany that peperoni pizza meant pizza with peppers not the peperoni sausage meat we are used to in America. I ate a few slices and decided I didn’t want to invest the calories so I went next door and had a good ole juicy steak dinner.

Many people stick to the beaten path of Moscow, St. Petersburg and anything and everything in between. But, if you have the chance to get off that path, I highly recommend Tomsk, it is a unique city even amongst its Siberian peers! The daily train, “The Tomich” runs from Moscow and takes 2.5 days. So, what are you waiting for, skip that next tropical sands vacation and head to Tomsk, Siberia! You won’t be sorry!!!!!!!!!!!