Gate to Eastern Siberia.

Leaving the grey Novosibirsk to Krasnoyarsk I’m also moving from Western part of Siberia to the Eastern one, maybe the most interesting because of its wild nature and peculiarity. A good start is the town of Krasnoyarsk located by the river Yenisey. Region of Krasnoyarsk extends until the Arctic Ocean but part of it is still forbidden to the foreigner. Somewhere on the way to north there is Tunguska, the place where a mysterious explosion occurred in 1908. There are several reasons why visit Krasnoyarsk. The town itself is nice and has a strong character, there are many excursion that can be done to the nearby mountains and of course is perfectly located to break the long trip from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk and the lake Baikal. I spent two days here, the first one going around the town and the second one exploring its beautiful surroundings. Here below a report about most interesting things to see in town and nearby.

A very communist town.

The very first thing that impresses me about Krasnoyarsk are the names of the streets. Beside the quite common Lenin and Marx street, Sign of communismhere there are streets named after the Paris commune, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, do not forgetting a Red Army street and, of course, the street of Communism. Intercession CathedralIn general I think that this is the town with the higher amount of Communist symbols I’ve seen since Tiraspol in Moldova. The centre of the town is quite compact, enclosed by the big river Yenisey and the small stream Kacha. Railways station is about two kilometres far but is well connected by bus. I’m right in the centre, just next to Intercession Cathedral, a nice church with green roof that is of course the first sight I see. The itinerary I drafted in my mind starts from the Yenisey riverside and it ends up with the Chasovnya Chapel located on a hill on the other side of the Kacha stream. River bank in the central part of the town doesn’t seem to me to be developed as it could be. Sv.Nikolay ShipThere is the nice building of the former river station but that is now almost abandoned and there are no quays as someone could expect. Life starts once you reach the Sv.Nikolay ship, a small museum celebrating two notable past passengers: Hanukkiah near the SynagogueLenin on the way to his exile in Shushenskoe and Nikolay II cruising on the Yenisey. Right after it there are a bunch of shashlyk restaurants and a cafe. This area is relatively busier because from here, through a pedestrian bridge is possible to reach the Tatyshev island, the place where the locals sunbath and swim in the huge river. There are a lot of people in spite of the working day. Nearby Karl Marx, Lenin and Mira streets host a lot of beautiful wooden house. Instead, hidden among some big concrete building, there is a small Synagogue. Snack corner in a small shopStreets running close to stream Kacha are unpleasant to walk, being chaotic and with a lot of traffic but is enough to move upward from the foot of the hill to enter in a completely different scenario. Chasovnya ChapelThis quartier is made entirely by wooden house and is very peacefully. The uphill walk to the chapel is hard so, entering in a small shop for buying waters I have the chance to see the snack corner they have. It is made of taps for beer, kvas, lemonade and big boxes of snacks including nuts and dried fish. My goal is very close. However in the end I have to say that the chapel is nothing special. It should have probably some special meaning from the religious point of view because its image is also on the 10 rubles banknote. There are no many other sights in town. Surrounding area, it is said, offers the best.

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