Novosibirsk, 3rd city of Russia
Sibir [Sleeping Land] from the Tartary
In the middle of Novosibirsk stands the small, pretty and deeply revered St Nicholas Chapel, the exact geographical center of Russia, which gives it double weight! Since Putin has been in charge, religions are free again, and he himself occasionally allows himself to be filmed in an Orthodox church. All the churches and monasteries we visited were well attended at any given time by believers and, judging by outward appearances, devotees. Icons and pictures are kissed, genuflections and crucifixions every 5 seconds. We have never dared to take a picture.
St. Nicolaï, the geographical center of Russia
The traditional and the modern reflect each other
Novosibirsk, March 2, 2020Yesterday, all the museums were closed, as they were throughout the country. Even on Tuesdays, not much happens; we knocked in vain at the doors of two museums. We walked along the Ob, which flows through the city (about the size of the Rhine), and were able to take beautiful pictures. It is only partially frozen.Bridge over the Ob
Bridge across the Ob river
The practice of attaching locks for lovers seems to exist worldwide.
A few impressions of the city
It seems you've shared an image link, but I can't view images. If you have text or a description related to the image that you would like translated, please provide that, and I'll be happy to help!It seems you've included an image file name, but there is no text to translate. If you have any text or specific content you'd like translated, please share it!It seems you've shared a file name, but there is no text to translate. If you have any text or message you'd like me to translate, please provide it!A few impressions of the city*
Finally, we found the Nicolas Roerig (Nikolai Rerikh) Museum open. I didn't know him, but he seems to have a large following with a big museum in New York. One must imagine a kind of Rudolf Steiner, theosophist, artist, philosopher, traveler, writer..., who envisioned a spiritual theocracy, equivalent to the Islamic state, and saw himself as a successor to the Dalai Lama. He came across to us as a very cerebral figure, and the museum is a pure hagiography. His pictures? Well, they are infused with an almost childlike spiritual radiance, the purity of the Himalayas as a transcendent imaginary. This is what I liked the most.
Nicolas Roerig Painting
Novosibirsk March 3, 2020We are suffering from a lack of ideas for exploring, there is not much going on here, even the residents of Novo say. Of course, there are many cafes and bars branché like ours in
Western Europe. We even wonder who copied from whom. We wanted to go to a museum again that should have been officially open, but because of the winter (we didn't quite understand)
it is still closed. Back to the beautiful Nikolai Chapel and to an 'Organic Coffee', great coffee, Buddha Bowl with salmon, like ours. Siberia is 15% larger than Europe (up to the
Urals) and 2x larger than Australia. Of course it is still sparsely populated if you look at inhabitants per km2, but the cities are all modern and large with western comfort and
standard of living. It was never deserted, Tartars, Evenks and Buriats settled here after the Ice Age. The Tsar commissioned the Cossacks to conquer the wild East, which they did.
Tomsk was originally the frontier post of civilization, from which one could advance as far as Vladivostok.
Central Park in Novosibirsk
People always expect to see beautiful Russian and Mongolian women who could all be models. But that's not the case, or we're going to the wrong places. [Politically incorrect] After 30, women tend to be faded, quite corpulent and marked by everyday life. Apparently, the beautiful women are all in Western Europe.
Street scenes in Novosibirsk
Farewell without tears to Novosibirsk. Here is the station hall.
Even after Putin's anti-alcohol campaign, drinking is not entirely healthy