One of the reasons „many“ tourist come to Tomsk are the numerous wooden houses in different states of construction and reconstruction.
I read somewhere in the internet that Tomsk recently is overflowing with Tourist. Wherever they are, they were not in our Hostel. Unfortunately they didn’t had a map of Tomsk and a not working WiFi, so we headed out into the streets of Tomsk to find the tourist office by chance. We walked along the lively Lenina Street and up the popular Resurrection hill, but no Info to be seen. So we asked a passenger and got a surprisingly „Do you speak English? Yes, a little“. Unfortunately he neither know whether there was a Tourist information in Tomsk (We did not find it until the end of our stay.) He gave us some good recommendations what to see and the next day we enjoyed a relaxed stroll through the city including a ride in a very shaky Tram (nearly jumping off the tracks in each corner) and a overfilled Gas-Bus (equipped with six huge Gasbottles being able two blow away the bus including it’s 50 passengers).
Public transport in Tomsk. At least the reduce a little the air pollution in this city.
Enjoyed pelmenis (the Russian tortellini) and tschebrenok (the same stuff in a different shape, but fried), blinis (pane cakes) filled with meat and fish or caramelised milk (very delicious), and the typical „light beer“. That’s actually not light in alcohol but light in treatment, meaning it was neither filtered nor pasteurized. Very good.
Whenever you are in Russia and find taps in a supermarket go for it, the beer is really good.
The next day we headed out to explore Tomsk behind its city boarders. We hoped for some Taiga like nature (it looked very green in google maps).
We hoped to see a lot of this (the picture behind us was not nearly as scenic.)
We found indeed a green area that was also extensively used by the Tomichi for recreation. Many people were building dachas, biking, fishing and swimming in the Tom and playing loud electric music.
Tomichi fishing in the Tom, while people on the other side of the river were playing loud electronic music.
Aside from that we found the people living here exceptional friendly and helpful. Despite the fact, that we could only communicate on a substantive level with the staff in our hostel they really made us make welcome and feel us at home, people in the streets helped us finding our way and they try to make the environment looking nicely also with limited tools.
Little garden in front of a concrete tower-block.
Many of the older people still wear the traditional clothing that we expect from russian grandmas.
Tomichis obviously do not only love the city but also each other, even though they overdue it sometimes a little.
