The sky was a suffocating shade of black when we arrived in Novosibirsk.  It was early morning and the city had yet to rise for the day – there weren’t even taxis outside the train station yet.

After walking for 20 minutes, we stopped at the only open business, People’s Restaurant (basically a 24-hour TGI Friday type place).  Our waitress was a bubbly University student named Katie, from Krasnoyarsk (our next stop), who was ecstatic to have real Californian customers!

Though she was shy about her broken English she was eager to talk to us and above all else had one question…”What you doing here?” She was concerned for us as “Siberia very cold now.” We had a great chat with her and found her shyness to be endearing.

What were we doing in Novosibirsk?  Other than breaking up the countless hours on the train, Conor actually had a friend, Oleg, who was from Novo.  We contacted him for things to do and see, but all he could think of of note was the City Center and his uncle’s house.

After breakfast we wandered the City Center and LOVED it!

There was diverse architecture, beautiful parks, and monuments, sculptures and churches seemed to be on every block.

One park was littered with amusement rides, although not a single one would have passed US safety standards.

There was a massive network of underground pedestrian walkways that also acted a mall of sorts with tunnels fanning out in every direction.  You could buy pretty much anything down there, including lingerie (because that’s normal).

In the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral we got to sit in on a baptism.

At the State Art Museum we were fortunate enough to catch the Best of Russia Photo Project – designed to show life throughout the country over the course of one year and broken into categories like style, architecture, nature, people, everyday, and events.  I was impressed and loved seeing images from every region of the country.

After trolling the museums, we spotted a basement restaurant called Mexico and couldn’t resist.  Sure, our first encounterwith Russian-interpreted Mexican food wasn’t great, but as West Coasters we were starting to go through withdrawal.

Though we weren’t able to confirm, I believe the owners/operators of Mexico actual hail from the country. Everything was spot on – the decor, the music and most of all, the food.  Seasoned perfectly, authentic ingredients, delicious.  I was on cloud nine and savored every bite of my tortilla soup and enchilada.

Back at the train station, we took our time to look around; its known as the Trans-Siberian Temple because its enormous and beautifully kept.

We’d read (and kept hearing) about a memorial statue on Platform 1 commemorating families sending men off to war in WWII, but were underwhelmed when we finally saw it.

We grabbed our bags from storage and decided to splurge and sit in the VIP lounge so we could have access to outlets (you have to pay to use electricity in most train stations).  The lounge gave us free wifi, recharging stations, leather couches and dubbed Sex and the City as entertainment.

Just before 10pm, we boarded the train and settled in as we snaked deeper into Siberia.