I left Tobolsk Monday morning and 24 hours later I’m in Novosibirsk.  We changed time zones twice on this trip.  We’re now 12 hours ahead of the midwest.  I grab a taxi to the bus station and waited about two hours to head to Tomsk, about 4 1/2 hours driving time.  Arrived at 2:30.  Get another taxi to my hotel.  It’s a very small place and the taxi drivers didn’t know where it was.  Luckily I had written the address in my notebook.

The two ladies who work the reception desk have been extremely helpful.  With the help of Google Translate, they’ve answered all my questions and got me headed in the right direction.

Tomsk is a university town of nearly 600,000.  I came here to photograph old wooden homes with a “lace” like wood trim.  There are a couple of streets about a 10 minute walk from my hotel where most of them are located.  Many are buckling and in need of restoration but a number of them still have people living in them.

The past and the future.

In Russia, babies are not delivered by the stork.  They are found in cabbage patches.  So, in front of the children’s hospital is a sculpture of a baby in a head of cabbage.

I’m in Tomsk one more day.  Had time to get some laundry done.  Thursday night at midnight I catch a train on my way to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, world’s largest fresh water lake.