Chapter 8 Krasnoyarsk, Russia. September 2019.

Monique in front of the statue of Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Krasnoyarsk.

Monique and Pasha looking out on Krasnoyarsk.

We boarded our train in Novosibirsk at 9 pm for Krasnoyarsk. This meant another night on the very uneven and rather unpleasant shaking train. It is not a steady click-click one would like to hear on the train. The track is obviously very old and very out of line. The result is that the train gets up to a maximum of 80km or 50 miles per hour. Every now and then, the whole train seems to hesitate and lurch forward. We are in first-class which means we have two lower bunks and do not share the cabin with others. But the bunks are hard and narrow and frankly not comfortable to lie in. Having colds makes it all the less enjoyable. Without saying so aloud, both of us are starting to question why we were going through this voluntarily. Between the rock and rolling train ride and the schlep of getting our bags through old stations with no elevators and on to the train cars which are 5 feet off the ground from the platforms, this is not a walk in the park. I do hope by the end of the trip we will be able to look back and see that this is a unique journey.

You can see pictures taken in Krasnoyarsk at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PBQmnkS7kF9rcJHb7

In the morning at 8 am, our new guide Pasha picked us up from the train Krasnoyarsk. The station has 5 sets of stairs up and down which made carrying our bags a real task. Luckily, our guides meet the train platforms each time and help to get through these stations built in Stalin times. The rail station Krasnoyarsk is a beautiful building which was recently repainted. But no effort was made to install elevators or moving steps to help passengers leaving or arriving. We met the driver in the parking lot and went to the hotel. We are still feeling poorly from our colds. Monique gets very little sleep on the train. I decided that it was important that we get rest so I had the guide delay our touring until noon so we could use the morning to rest up in a quiet hotel room. That did us both a lot of good. This was the first time our travel agency arranged for a room to be available to us after arriving in the early morning. Until now we had to wait till after 2 pm which we found totally silly. How can they expect us to go charging off to visit a place after spending the night on a train?

We headed up to the top of the hills surrounding this city spectacular city. The view is absolutely beautiful as the city sits on both sides of a huge river and sits in a valley with high mountains on each side. This is the first city so far which is not as flat as a pancake except Kazan which has a few little hills.

After viewing the city in all directions and getting a history lesson from our guide Pascha, we headed to where Monique's favorite singer, Dimitry Khorostovsky is buried. We learned that the statue at his burial site had been inaugurated the day before our arrival. The statue stands in the wings outside of the Music Institute of Krasnoyarsk which has been renamed, the Khorostovsky Music Institute. It is an imposing bronze statue standing 15 feet and is a very good representation of the singer. We spent several minutes there and then turned to return to our car.

On the way out of the site, Monique saw and an elderly couple walking towards us and Monique recognized that these were the parents of Dimitri. She had seen a video of his burial ceremony and the faces remained in her memory. We followed the couple back to the memorial where they sat together on one of the benches in front of the statue. Monique and our guide went up to them and asked whether they were the parents and the old mother smiled and said yes. It was such an emotional moment that we both held back tears. We asked if we could take a picture of them with us and they agreed. The old father looks so much like his son Dimitri. We then said our condolences and left them in peace. This may be the highlight of our trip.

Standing with parents of Dmitry Hvorostovsky in front of his
statue in Krasnoyarsk, where he was born.

You can see how emotional Monique was at this meeting with tears in her eyes as we stand behind the parents of Dimitri who agreed to these photos.

We then went to lunch and afterward visited the local Opera and Ballet concert hall which has also been renamed for Dimitri.

We then crossed the beautiful bridge to the other side of the river and proceeded to a very modern ski area only 20 minutes our of the city. We boarded the 4 person chair lift to the top of the mountain and were rewarded with wonderful views of the mountains in full autumn colors surrounding's and down onto the city. The name of city Krasnoyarsk comes from the Russian Kokoe Krasivny Yarsk, meaning what beautiful mountains. The city certainly deserves its name.

The sign says beware of Bears.

The ski center has the most modern equipment with 10 downhill runs and must have cost a lot of money. Yet the 10-minute lift costs only US$4! The city must be paying through its nose to maintain the facility. But it was in impeccable shape and certainly gave us a good sense of the nature of this area. In fact, looking at the forests of pine and birch, I felt we could be in Canada near our house on the lake in Labelle.

We returned to the hotel for a quiet evening in our Stalin style hotel but with a huge room which was pleasant. We had dinner in the dining room of our Soft hotel. We were served by the only waitress and we were the only guests. Smiling is not a habit of Russians and many of the staff of these hotels seem to prefer acting like robots rather than humans as they are unable to smile. Service is still a growth industry in this country. I guess old habits from Communist times do not go away quickly.

The next morning I walked with Pasha to the Museum of Natural and local history which gave an interesting insight into the past of this city with lots of pictures and stuffed animals.

Pasha took us to the station and we boarded our train at 1.30 pm for Irkutsk.

Krasnoyarsk is by far the prettiest city we have seen so far on our trip. Like many other Russian cities, it is built on both sides of a large river. Interestingly, rivers to the east of the Ural mountains run north and many are large and navigable up to the arctic ocean in the summer months. Krasnoyarsk has long promenades along the banks of its rivers with huge hills on both sides of the river. It has a modern ski area which is 20 minutes from downtown and which is in the middle of an immense nature reserve. It has theatres, a ballet and opera house and has a fresh and clean feel. It has huge eyesores dating back to the Soviet past but has managed either to hide them or tear them down. This is a city one could consider visiting again. However not in winter when it can be minus 45 nor summer when it can be +40...