Founded in 1586, Tyumen is the oldest settlement in Siberia. Today, is is a youthful, business centre for the vast oil region that stretches all the way up to the Arctic. And you can notice that flow of resource funding - the roads are smooth, the city is clean, the buses are new & modern and there is plenty of sleek new construction. Our intention really was just to break the train journey up, however we were pleasantly surprised.
Not long after waking on the train, we found ourselves in sunny clean Tyumen. Bus number 27 took us into town and deposited us near the apartment building. We stood outside the building where the map indicated the apartment was. There was a restaurant on the ground floor but we couldn't see any signs for accommodation. We found a buzzer on the end of the building and thought this must be it. We rang and when the door released, we walked up the stairs to the first floor. We were greeted by 2 men and it quickly became apparent that this was an office, not a hotel. One guy lost interest and walked off, the other was eager to assist the two foreigners who spoke no Russian, yet had made their way to the middle of Russia. He spoke a tiny bit of English. We had a screen shot of the apartment name and address. He looked it up on his phone and called them. The talking seemed to be going on for a little bit. What was going on? We wondered. After what seemed like forever, he hung up and said 'come with me'. We followed him out of the building and around the block to the back of the same building. It was a residential block. He took us to one of the entrance doors and instructed us to wait 10 minutes and then he was gone. Not too long after, two ladies, possibly mother & daughter arrived with arm-fulls of shopping bags. Again lots of Russian, no English. One of them even pulls an eftpos machine out of a shopping bag to indicate we could pay by card. We were taken upstairs to possibly our best apartment. It was a huge 1 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and lounges. And the godsend for any backpacker - a washing machine. We were grateful that we could check in
at 10.30am and made full use of the facilities before finding a local cafe for lunch. By this point, Steph had an awful headache that immediately subsided with a hit a caffeine. A slave to the potion.
After lunch we took a bus across town to the Trinity Monastery. Gold domes top the striking Troitsky Church with its crisp white exterior. It contrasted beautifully with the blue sky, the green of the trees and the bursts of colour from the well-tendered flower beds. In the other corner of the yard is the Peter & Paul Church, from 1927. We strolled along the western end of the fairly new river promenade to a pedestrian bridge, Lovers Bridge. The river is not that wide, but on the southern bank, the construction work has created an impressive and rather high retaining wall. We got the impression that the river height increases significantly with the seasonal flow of water. We crossed the bridge and explored the neighbourhood, viewing the curiously twisted wooden houses. It really was a wonder that people actually live in some of them and that they survive each winter, under layers of snow.
From here, we headed back to the apartment. We were a little tired from the broken sleep on the train the night before and were ready for a rest. Dinner that night was at a German restaurant close to home. There was so much garlic in the food, we will be safe from vampires for weeks!
The next day, check-out was at the generous time of
1pm. We spent the morning organising ourselves for the next train leg, an epic 50 hours. After leaving the apartment, we set up camp in the cafe from the day before and availed ourselves of their services, including free wifi for the next 2.5 hours. A short bus ride back to the station and we were ready for our longest leg of the whole trip. 50 hours on the rails, destination Irkutsk, stepping stone to Lake Baikal.
