Tomsk

Arrived in Tomsk by train. My brother wasn't feeling very well and it was cold so we opted to stay at the Tomsk hotel which was a stone's throw from the station. It wasn't as cheap as a hostel but wasn't too bad. We checked into the old semi-renovated soviet style room complete with soviet showers and chilled out for the rest of the day. The view from our room was pretty nice, good sight of the station obsucred by trees+snow. (Funny enough, it seemed like a more clear view than the picutre recorded) Went out for pizza for dinner and made use of the no megabit restriction pay internet service in the business center.

Next day my brother still wasn't feeling up so I went out to walk around the city on my own. Took the trolley up to an open air market where it had started to snow pretty heavily. Bought a pair of leather gloves for Jon and looked for the Lenin statue. I got lost again of course, traveling in the opposite direction then the one that I was SURE that was the right way.

Finally made it up to the street that the book mentioned was great for examples of the wooden latice work that made Tomsk famous. Tomsk used to be on the Trans-Siberian railroad but when they re-laid the tracks, the new course passed by south of Tomsk and it kind of became less popular for Trans-Siberian travelers and reverted back to just a university town.

It was quiet and a bit uneventful, just some nice sights. Got back to the room and prepared to move on my way.