Flying Solo: Food, Water, Beer and Opera

(Saturday 17th September 2011 written up same day)

What a fantastic day! I have literally walked miles, on a self-conducted tour of Novosibirsk. I've held (simple) conversations with people, bought things and been to the opera!

It's my day off! Except it isn't! I had to fly solo for the first time. If I hadn't been able to speak, I wouldn't have been able to eat, or drink. Apart from "enjoying the experience", I set myself the objectives of:

• Buying a decent meal in somewhere new,
• Buying something in a shop, and
• Buying a beer in a bar.

I "exceeded requirements" on all objectives.

My tour started by looking down one of the side-streets near my home.Wooden houses are typical of Siberia and of Novosibirsk. When this place started out in the late 19th Century, it was a construction site. The most readily available material was lumber. Here are a few photos of some old houses I noticed:

• Wooden house dated 1906
• Another wooden house dated 1906
• Yet another, but I don't know how old it is

I walked North into town. When I got to "The Centre of Russia", I noticed a wedding party. I paused for a look and realised that couples come there to have their photos taken. Some seem to have arranged for a blessing as well. It was a Saturday, and the sun was shining brightly. A great day for a wedding. Winter is coming too. I passed the church several times during the day and saw several parties. Here are a couple of photos (Two Weddings and Another Wedding). Apparently the church is not that old. The original was demolished during the Soviet era and this replica was built only a few years ago. It seems that God and maybe tradition are stronger than governments.

I was looking for a place to have lunch. This is it "Sunny Bake": salad and a cutlet and green tea and bliny. If you get the opportunity, you must try Russian blini. They are pancakes or crepes. Excellent! Mine was served with melted butter and smetana (sour cream) but there are a wide range of fillings both sweet and savoury, including smoked salmon, mushrooms, sugar and chocolate (not all at the same time, I hope). I ordered it all with words, not just point and shoot.

After lunch I went for a walk in "Central Park" (in Novosibirsk, not New York!). It's a really attractive place, with fairground attractions, rides for the kids, a stage for bands. From this view along one of the paths, you can see how sunny it was. It was warm but you can also see the leaves are changing colour for Autumn, and they have started fall.

Next stop was "Novosibirsk Glavniy" (Novosibirsk Main) Station. This is on the Transiberian railway, half way between Moscow and Vladivostok. From Vladivostock you can get a ferry to Japan, via Korea. There is an enormous paved area in front of the station. The station clock and another one nearby said that the temperature was over 20 degrees C. I was thirsty. Russian street vendors were selling cold kvass (weak beer) from little tankers. How civilised! I bought a half-litre from a street vendor (17 rubles= 0.42 eur). It was excellent! The lady asked if I was German. I told her I was English. We both laughed. My Father would be horrified, but it's easier to say that than bring in another two countries. Kvass is very weak beer, they say it is "brewed from bread". I don't quite understand that. It is so weak you would give it to your children, like bottled shandy. It has a slightly acid, almost lemony taste. Good for a hot day. Just off the square, I went into a shop and bought a litre bottle of mineral water (as in "Perrier" or "Evian" 35 roubles = 0.88 eur).

I walked back from the station by a different route. On the way I saw this restored church, which is right next to the Circus. I'm not sure if if there is something a little odd going on here, because in Russian the two words are very similar: Circus = "Tsirk" and Church = "Tsirkov". Then I went along Gogol Street to join Krasny Prospect. I passed a Russian bar. I would have stopped for a beer, but I already had a plan. It would have been cheaper if I'd had the beer in the Russian bar.

Close to the school is a bar called "Old Irish", which I had already found on the internet. I popped in there for a drink. The bar is nice enough, but the price (290 rub = 7 Euro)! The price of 1 pint was more than all my other purchases. I won't be spending much time in there, but I will probably have a pint of Guinness on "Arthur's Day" (sometimes I'm a mug for advertising). It just shows that prices can vary a lot and you have to be careful in foreign countries. I just put it down to experience.

On the way home I couldn't resist taking a picture of these fountains. The building in the background is the museum on Lenin Square I visited on Wednesday.

I got home, bumped into my landlady, and just had enough time to post pictures onto Facebook before it was time to go to the theatre. The school had booked me a ticket so I felt obliged to go.

The Novosibirsk Ballet Opera is the largest in Russia. It's not the sort of place I would normally go to, but I'm glad I did. I have some pictures of the inside on my phone. It is a magnificent building. I'll post them when doing so won't cost me an unreasonable amount of money. The opera was "Iolanta" (by Pyotr Tchiakovsky, which is unrelated to "Iolanthe" by Gilbert and Sullivan. That had me confused too.). The opera was entirely in Russian, with no "titles". Strangely, I started off hearing only music or babble, but by the end I was hearing words. I didn't understand it, but I probably wouldn't have understood it in English either. It was a magnificent spectacle, and the staging was really interesting, making use of backlighting and projections. At one point I really thought it was raining on stage.

After the show I went home to Dinner. It was good. Vegetable stew, with pureed veg and ratatouille, served with dark brown bread and green tea. My landlady probably thinks I'm mad about food. I'm not, but it is easy to talk about: "I like this", "this is sweet", "what is this?" etc. I've found some interesting problems eg they have one word for both vegetable marrow and aubergine! I've also been served three entirely different things, all called "Kasha" (porridge) for breakfast. One of them was rice pudding! Good job I'm a true omnivore.

The landlady had some music on while she was doing the ironing. I thought I recognised it and checked. I was right. It was "Enigma". Some things travel well.

Writing done, I'm going to post this.

And so to bed!
(Blog Post updated to include pictures directly, rather than as links. 17th November 2015)