Siberian Rain

Omsk

Woke up on the train this morning in Siberia and shortly afterwards rolled into this city, the second biggest in the region. Well, I say 'region', but Siberia covers one-twelfth of the world's land space, so maybe 'monstrous carbuncle' would be a better phrase.

If there's one word you'd use to describe Omsk it might be 'unlovely' although it could just as easily be 'shithole'. It's probably not at its best in the relentless driving rain but I've not got anything else to measure it by so I'm afraid my judgement's going to be a bit harsh. Dostoevsky was exiled here for four years' hard labour and it's not too difficult to see why. There's a bit of a military background to the city, during the civil war Admiral Kolchak made this the capital of the White Army until the Communists seized it in November 1919. I took a look round the military museum just now where I was heavily outnumbered (2 to 1) by staff. My enjoyment of it was hampered slightly by the old woman who insisted on following me round, turning on the lights as I went into a room and turning them off in the room I'd just left.

Before I left Yekaterinburg I had the pleasure of my first brush with the law. A policeman pulled me over in a metro station, said something to me in Russian, waved a big stick about, then told me to follow him. He opened a hidden door into a dark corridor that led into a small dimly-lit room. Taking a look at the grotty cell in the corner I decided I didn't much fancy it, but the inevitable fat bloke with a moustache behind the desk wasn't too bad. After the bombing in Moscow last week I think they really just wanted to look through my bag, although they did spend ages scanning my passport. In the end the fact I had a rail ticket to Omsk probably saved me (not a sentence I ever thought I'd write) and they didn't even try to scam me out of any money, which was a shame because while all this was going on I was going through my phrasebook trying to work out what "I demand to be taken to the British Consul" is in Russian. I'm sure it'll come in handy one day.