We only really had a single day in Novosibirsk, after arriving late-ish in the afternoon. I wasn't too upset to be honest.

At dinner we got "sqee'd" at by the waitress who was very excited we spoke English, she then asked where we were from and what we were doing, and more importantly why we were in Novosibirsk (of all places)! She agreed (like all the Russians we have told), Australia is a long way away.

Next morning we had two museums, a cathedral and a few monuments to see. There is a walking tour painted on the ground, but it was a bit crap. We did however meet our companion for the day, Cynthia, a Canadian New Zealander who was doing the train by herself but was only really stopping in places for a night or so. She had come from Vladivostok. It's funny, I thought we would meet or see more trans-sibbers than we have. I know we are going the wrong way, but in the main towns on the route I thought we would bump into more. And more Aussies. I still haven't heard one.

The first museum taught us about the history of Siberia and in particular Novosibirsk, and was very interesting. Novosibirsk was essentially a small town that became a city because of the railway, like so many of the towns and cities on the line. Novosibirsk is now the third biggest city in Russia and the administrative capital of Siberia.

The cathedral was meh, and we think we went to the wrong art museum. There was a museum that was meant to exhibit the works of a Novosibirsk native who had travelled the silk road and into the Himalayas in the 1800s and documented his trip through paintings. We did see some of his work in the museum, and it was quite a naive style, so not quite what we hoped for. It would have been nice to see the places we visited five years ago, as they were 150 years ago.

Anyway we had dinner with Cynthia, and realised we were on the same carriage as her, but we would be changing trains at Tuymen to go to Tobolsk which is off the main Trans-Siberian line, and she would be going on to Ekaterinburg, so we ended up saying goodbye at Tuymen station, the next morning.

It was nice to spend the day with Cynthia, just because it was someone else to talk to, and then talk about afterwards. Always good to have additional content when it is just the two of you.

The overnight train was a new carriage at least, and we shared a carriage with Nonna, a lady who was travelling to Ekaterinburg. My Russian was put to the test quite a lot, as her English was less than my Russian! We got names, where we were from, where we were going, did we have children (Luke proceeded to show her ALL the pictures he has of Monkey on his phone, which is a LOT), she has three cats and a dog and lives near a forest. We managed to do this all with only a little help from Google translate. I am a little annoyed as there were some things she said that I should have known, but I forgot the vocab. Anyway, our first train chat, and another friendly Russian. Generally when we have cabin mates, we say hello and then studiously ignore each other.

The scenery out the window has changed a bit, and rather than seeing pine forests interspersed with silver birch, we are now seeing mainly flat lands with silver birch. Gone are the massive train loads of timber, and more we see trains of gas or petroleum. You really get a feeling for just how huge Russia is, when you can be on a train for hours and not see a village or hamlet.

Next stop Tobolsk - the former capital of Siberia.