We boarded our nice first class night train to Krasnoyarsk, the city that sits on the edge of east and west Siberia we realised:
• It would be our last first class night train;
• It was the only night train so far without a border crossing in the middle of the night; and
• Both the Chinese and Mongolians do better first class sleepers (even though we did get a free meal on the Russian train).

This train wouldn't get us into Krasnoyarsk until about 4pm, so we had plenty of time to enjoy our little bit of "luxury".

The train station at Krasnoyarsk is pretty spectacular (like a lot of these stations), the buses proved a little challenging when we kept being told that we weren't allowed to board the bus number we wanted, only to watch it leave... it happened three times before our second choice bus turned up and allowed us on.

We stayed in another hostel, which was much nicer than the one in Irkutsk.

The Lonely Planet suggested a modern museum as a top pick. It mentioned that the museum had a collection of communist era memorabilia and some modern art. Well, the weird surrealness struck us as soon as we walked in the door as the old guy behind the counter, got to rock out his English (which he then explained in Russian to some other Russians that he had learned at school and he had an amazing teacher - which I could mostly understand), it was great, but he spoke at top volume and was a bit of a space invader. When we told him we were from Australia the volume increased and he asked questions like: how many kilometres is it to Sydney, had we seen any kangaroos recently...

Anyway, the Lenin bit was weird and had a video reenactment of him dying, the communist era stuff looked like someone had gone to an opp shop, and had a creepy lady who appeared out of nowhere in what might have been era appropriate clothing, or she might just be out of date, I don't know. There was a bit on modern war and soldiers from Krasnoyarsk who had lost their lives in modern conflicts and then a whole load of strange modern stuff e.g. a green papier mache Easter Island head with rotating spiral eyes that a lady turned on for us (there were lots of ladies lurking around exhibits)... anyway weird and we wondered how much they paid Lonely Planet for the star.

Part of the reason for coming to Krasnoyarsk was to go for a bit of a walk in the hills which overlook the town. Unfortunately because of the fires burning in the region we found out that the park was closed, unless you wanted to go on a guided tour. Sitting in the hostel chatting with a couple of Swiss girls and a Slovak/British couple we thought we could go as a group (the joys of hostels), however there wasn't a tour going that day, and we were leaving the next morning.

We therefore took ourselves off for a walk to a chapel which overlooks the town, and watched the noon gun go off, and then schlepped around town until we stumbled upon an amazing restaurant for lunch. We were massively under dressed, but we were able to get a set lunch for the equivalent of AUD11, which was entree, main, dessert, bread, and a soft drink. It was good!

At this point I should mention that the temperature in Krasnoyarsk was 34 degrees and walking around we were literally (to borrow an expression), sweating out our eyeballs. We therefore decided to catch a bus to the ski lift on the edge of town that takes you up to the closed park.

Things that didn't go to plan:
• Buying a ticket. We saw a queue, we joined it. After about 15 mins of not moving and standing in 34 degrees, I rocked out Google translate and was told we were in the wrong line!
• I think we went up the wrong chairlift, we went to the short one that didn't show us a great deal. Mind you I am not sure the big chairlift was working.
We did however get to go up a chairlift and we did get to go on another luge to go down hill which was fun.

After dinner we met the same couples in the hostel and swapped travel brags (sorry) stories, and stories about Mongolia, where the Swiss had been and where the other couple were going. We even got us all in trouble for getting out our Russian vodka for a shot.

Up nice and early to catch out trains to Tomsk, we suffered an almost three hour delay.

We also found out that just outside Krasnoyarsk, we passed a marker (which we didn't see) that marked the half way point between Beijing and Moscow on the Trans-Siberian.

We made up some time and the three hour delay turned into a two and a half hours and meant that we were only at our transfer station, Yashkino, for about an hour and a half.

We were the only people to get off the train at Yashkino - we were the only people there. Thankfully there was a mini-mart near the station so we could buy some bread for dinner.

I had one of those wonderful experiences when walking into the mini-mart, where the place goes silent, and continues that way until I had ordered the bread and got water and left. I wonder whether the tale of strange foreigners at the store will be spoken of at market day.

Anyway, we realised with about 10 mins to go that the train was possibly not going to pull into the platform we thought it would, and after checking with a random local we had to cross the largest footbridge and some train tracks, with some locals also waiting for the train watching our every movement (I get the feeling that a lot of Russians can't understand why we are here). Anyway we got on our train safe and sound and off to Tomsk, which is off the main Trans-sib route.

We had issues with the buses again, and managed to get on the right bus, going the wrong way, and then the wrong bus, the finally the right bus, all at 10pm... We didn't get to the hotel until 11pm, but all's well that ends well.

What can I say about Tomsk:

• The coffee is the best we have had in Russia to date, and they do flat whites (phonetically spelled out);
• It is a pretty university town with a population of about 500k with nice examples of the wooden buildings Siberia is famous for; and
• I misjudged some of our museum/attractions choices (Luke says I can't say they were shit).

The museum that I misjudged was a Slovak Heritage museum, which was essentially a bunch of hippy paintings (that weren't even very good) that you would expect to find in a shop that sells crystals and incense, with some bland text about the mythical figure they represented all to the sound of whale song... and to add insult to injury it cost us $15!

The other misjudgment was the botanical gardens where we joined a Russian speaking tour of what was essentially plants and tree we see in Sydney, and quite a few in my parents garden! Also cost $15!

We also went to a viewing platform, some churches and the former headquarters of the NKVB (KGB predecessors), and from where a number of city notables, including a lot of academics who were sentenced to hard labour (or worse) in the gulags (we are in Siberia). The text was in Russian, but with Google translate saving the day again, we could read quite a lot.

Sobering that something like that was just sitting in the main street.

We also wandered round and appreciated (I think for the last time) the decorated wooden houses that Siberia is well known for. One thing that we did see on our way round was a mosque that until the soviets had taken power enabled the muslim tartars to worship. Rather than knocking the building down during the soviet era, they decided to use it as a vodka factory! of all the things, a mosque into a vodka production plant!!!

For those wondering about Russian food, well we had burgers (well I had a sloppy joe, which Google translate said was a "slut joe"), wraps, nachos and empanadas... and for drinks Luke had some nice craft beers, and I had what Google translate said (initially) was "drink bullshit" or "beverage of a baby" or at a third attempt "drinks of the clinic", but actually turned out to be lingonberry drink... I think Google translate is developing a potty mouth!

Next stop, back on the main route to Novosibirsk, and an overnight train I am dreading a bit (we both have top bunks).