29 | July | 2012 | Birka Adventure Riders

Archive for July 29th, 2012

Barnaul to Omsk…..

Posted in Uncategorized on 29/07/2012| Leave a Comment »

Hi again. New update. Left Barnaul and drove to Novosibirsk. 250 kilometers about. Not very far. Odd smell in the air when we got closer to Novosibirsk and it started to fog up as we got closer. We learned why the following day. There are forest fires going on up north in Siberia. Big ones. We just spent the night in Novosibirsk and honestly didm´t see much of the city but several people said that it´s not much to see. Left early the next day to ride the 700 kilometers from Novosibirsk to Omsk. LONG day on the bikes and we rode in fog/smog/smoke the whole day because of the forest fires. Odd experience. No problems breathing or anything but one could smell the fire. Especially after being inside for awhile. When we got outside again we could feel the smell but didm´t think much about it while on the bikes. Was a bit hard to see cars heading our way during times tho. Arrived to Omsk rather late and was dead tired. LONG day on the bikes indeed. Muscle hurt. Decided to stay one extra night in Omsk since the ride to Tyumen tomorrow is as long as the one to Omsk. Almost 700 kilometers on Russian roads…..

There was a wedding party going on at the hotel when we arrived and they´ve turned the restaurant into a disco. Played music so loud that it was impossible to hear what we said in the hotel lobby and people was dreadfully drunk. One guy was a pain in the old arse and bothered us a great bit. Saw him again this morning. Either had he bothered other less friendly folks than me and Eva or if he had fallen down the stairs but he was horribly bruised up with wounds and a BIG swelling on the forehead. Looked like someone had smashed him up good and not very surprising if so considering how annoying he was the night before. Or if he had fallen down the stairs…… Never saw any stairs at the hotel tho. Only a couple of elevators….. Anyway…… We went for a walk around the city today (sunday) and everything was closed up. Not much going on except some religious parade down the main street. Don´t know what it was about but the news channel was there to film and the police had closed some roads down for traffic. We went back to the hotel after the walk. But we found a irish pub during our stroll around the city and it was located more or less next to our hotel! So we went there for supper and it was EXCELLENT indeed! VERY good food. Best we´ve had on this trip. And they had Kilkenny! I had two pints. 🙂

We´ll leave for Tyumen early tomorrow morning. Another long ride. The roads are not too bad here but it´s still not at all the same to ride 700 k´s in Sweden as here. So we´ll be tired and probably not arrive in Tyumen until late tomorrow. Not much going on between Omsk and Tyumen so not much to see. Will be better when we´re getting close to the Ural mountains and further west in Russia. Still rather deserted countryside. Some pics…..

Barnaul. They like monuments here in Russia.

The hotel in Barnaul. Hotel Barnaul it was called. Good name.

I think one could consider this as a monument too…..

Eva found a new rear tire for her bike…..

This boat was for sale at a car sales company heading into Novosibirsk.

Leaving Novosibirsk and one can see how foggy it is.

This guy seems to be moving his “staff”……

The river in Omsk.

Lots of arts on the streets in Omsk.

I liked this one….

What is Eva looking at…..?

Oh….. The religious parade…..

After that the religious parade had passed……

Don´t know what this sign is saying but it might be that you can´t park your wheelchair on the street……

Cute…..

Eva and a Siberian bear with the religious parade in the back ground.

The religious leaders at the parade walked aboard a rented bus and left after awhile. All all the others that had participated also went home. But they had to walk.

We´ve seen this many times before in other cities. It seems like it´s very common here in Russia that people engrave padlocks with their names and lock them at specific places when they get married. Nice custom.

A sail boat in the fog on the river…..

Nice flower box holder, or what to call it……

Some monument in Omsk.

A closer shot.

The irish pub!! Indeed a great place! GREAT food and they have Kilkenny! I´m a happy camper! 🙂 But we got abit suspicious at first. They had a snow mobile in the lobby and some of the signs inside the pub was not really spelled correctly so we thought for awhile that this should be a reprise from our experience in Orgii…….