Altai

The first winter day

Overnight drop 15 degrees to -19 C. However I am mislead by the weather forecast on tv. The lady tells me it will be -5 during the day, and I put my jeans on as normal. Only when I get out I feel that it can’t be -5. I walk the 5 minutes to the university and discover the actual temperature. I hardy believe it, is it really that cold? Only my legs feel a bit bitten.
Everyone at uni talks about ‘the first winter day’. Inside everything as before, women in dresses, skirts and high heels, the heating system definitely works here!
At the end of the day I do decide to go for a walk, since the snow started falling some weeks ago I have gone for walks in the neighbourhood, discovering older buildings and small yards.
With two hats, several layers and a little excitement I get out. I dressed warm enough and only my cheeks get caught by the cold. I walk into the direction of my favourite yard and then I hear something that didn’t hear before, the snow crisping under my feet.
My walk continues, standing still is not advisable, and I imagine that this is what Siberian winter feels like. Nothing to be scared off J

En svensk kännsla i Siberien

Äntligen har det börjat snöa, äntligen är det vitt på gatorna. Det kändes som vi fick vänta länge. Redan den 17e september kom första snön. Sedan forsvann den och fick vi mest regn. Allt smutsigt och tråkigt med regnet. Därför växte längtan efter vita gator, vita träd. Nu har den kommit, och förmodligen för att stanna tills april, maj kan det även bli har några sagt. Visst hör snö till när man tänker på Sibirien!? Klart!Vad hör mer till när man tänker på ett land, ett område, så otänkbart stort, så långt borta från Europa? Skog, vatten, och mycket, mycket plats. Och jag kan säga nu, efter knappt 3 månader, allt det finns, för det mesta väldigt mycket plats.Här i Novosibirks finns det också nästan 2 miljoner människor, 2 miljoner olika hattar och sjalar. En njutning att sitta på tunnelbannan eller på bussen och betrakta alla olika former och färger. Vad som saknas är tanken på miljön, fler och fler billar i stan, utan filter, och snart kommer snön bli grå. Men inte idag, för idag är det söndag och då är de flesta hemma, så jag ska ut och ta en promenad och låtsas att jag är i Sverige, eller 2 år tillbaka, i Uppsala, på en vinterdag, med mycket snö...Hemma igen, med rosa kinder tänker jag på glögg och pepparkakor. Undrar om IKEA har dem här, kanske borde åka förbi...Sverige är inte så långt borta från Siberien ändå!!

11 Candles

It is Marina’s birthday, a happy day. I ring the bell and get through the first door to the flat. Someone unlocks the door to the apartment, I already want to say hello to the unlocked door but remember that I have to wait until I get over the trench. “Never say hello before you enter the house!" the Russian teacher has told us from the first day, "Never!”
So I get inside and am welcomed by Marina and her parents. I haven’t seen her father since the first week of my arrival and our ‘potato-picking day’ and he greets me in German. But soon he notices my improvement in Russian and the German becomes unnecessary.
It is still early in the evening and I help to prepare the table and some of the dishes.
Rasped carrot shortly fried with fried onions.
Stuffed chicken with bacon, onion and mushrooms.
Chinese cabbage with ‘tworag’ (cottage cheese), dill, walnuts and garlic.
Clown-apples
Rasped cheese with garlic and mayonnaise.
Sandwiches with butter and ikra = red caviar
Homemade pickled cucumber
Potato mouse from real/personal picked potatoes
Salted tomatos
Some members of the family are still missing while the guests start.
We toast with Champaign, first on Marina, later on the parents, and then something else, cannot remember, though you always toast on something. Za……
Aunt Natasha has made two wonderful cakes, a pink one and a white one.
Marina blows all the 11 (there are a few missing though ;)) in one go and we continue the dinner with tea, cake and sweets…

Ballerina

I had to come to Russia to understand why so many little girls want to become ballerina’s.
Last week I suddenly got it and almost wished I was a little girl, taking ballet lessons, in a tutu, on ‘pointe shoes’. Fascinating and very relaxing to watch.
I got hooked and went to buy tickets this Sunday for other performances. Tickets are generally cheap (in comparison to Holland), some not more than 3 euro’s.
The theatre has performances, either Opera or Ballet, several times a week and they all start at 19.30. So directly out of work/university and back at home by ten, perfect.
I might actually fulfil my wish to go to one performance every week.
As for practicing this art, I guess I would have to become a little girl again, so I keep it to my laps on the running track and let walking on ‘pointe shoes' to real ballerina’s.

Mirror mirror

In every public buildig I have entered so far I have been greeted by my own image, through a mirror. There are mirrors everywhere.
I never and nowhere before experienced people having such a relationship with mirrors as here.
There is always someone standing close to the glas, adjusting something, checking make-up.

The winter has arrived, or at least that is what I call it, -10 during the night, -5 degrees during the day. It is a joy now to sit in the metro and observe all the different colours, forms and sizes of hats..., taken off in front of the mirror...maybe that is why they were put there in the first place?!

Only 30 hours...

Hadn’t imagined that a train trip of 30 hours could go so fast. 30 hours is nothing when you consider the size of the whole country. The famous Transiberian express can carry one in days and 7 nights from Moscow to Vladivostok (vostok means east). Somewhere in the middle is Novosibirsk, Siberia’s capital since the middle of the 1920s. The city is only a 115 years old, new and modern in its architecture. Certainly when you compare it to Irkutsk, Siberia’s former capital. Irkutsk shows a ‘typical Siberian’ style, many wooden houses, classical coloured buildings and old orthodox churches (who are much lighter from the inside than the once I visited in Romania).
An hour ‘marchroetka’-drive from Irkutsk lies Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, and a shore of 650 km long (from Amsterdam to Paris and a bit further). The lake divides hills with trees that are rapidly loosing there leaves and mountains covered by snow. The sun is shining and the temperature rises to 15 degrees. Perfect autumn weather. Boats make their tours on the lake, though without any know destination, everyone seems to deny that (tourist) boats still run during off-season. The lake and the area is rich of minerals and fish. The villages around the lake give a friendly and peaceful impression. The barking dogs don’t bite when we pass the many gates and coloured wooden houses. A lost squirrel is preparing itself for the winter next to the local church, other than that there is very little wildlife. No dear, no foxes, no (Siberian) tiger, no bears….this country is so huge, why would these animals hang around people while there is so much space?
After another 30 hours through the steps and plains of Siberia, going through areas with 5 cm of snow, stopping at stations where small lobsters are offered next to the usual homemade breads, pancakes, the sausages, the beer, cigarettes and instant noodles we get back in chaotic and modern Novosibirsk, the chilly wind blows in my face and it almost feels like coming home…