My bagages are back from Cancun!

Very very good news. My bagages made it back to Novosibirsk after 10 days at the Moscow airport. Aeroflot must have thought that after all, they did not need the detailed list of my luggage content with an estimated value of each article that they asked me when I called them last week, because the list was still being translated in Russian at my office when my assistant called Aeroflot who said that they just sent the luggages to Novosibirsk. And the best thing is that my luggages are almost intact: I am only missing my laser pointer (all new: the box was still in the suitcase), a torchlight, a pen and my leather gloves. As for the dirty dust that was all spread all over my clothes, it is probably me who must have dumped the vacuum bag over the suitcase and forgot about it. Anyway, I forgive the guy who took my little gadgets and scratched his dandruffs over my clothes in exchange of sending my luggage back to me.

Winter sport season has started... yoohoo!

This is what Akademgorodok looks like now. A little piece of heaven wrapped in a layer of immaculate snow. And on the right, this is one of the numerous cross country skiing tracks that are litterally at a walking distance from my place. I said "walking", because apparently, you don't want to ski in the city... I don't know why, but when I mention we could use skis, locals look at me like I am a total weirdo. Anyway, there is nothing like a good walk home by minus 15C after 2 hours of skiing at the same temperature.


I had a lot of fun this week end: on Friday night, I went to a rock climbing gym, which is litterally at a walking distance from my place. There, I could appreciate how my forearms shrunk in size in the last 3 years where I did not go climbing. Then on Saturday, I went to the all new shopping mall, called MEGA CENTER. And well, if you think the Russians have anything to learn from the westerners for building shopping malls, you are totally wrong: there are IKEA, AUCHAN, Leroy Merlin, Benetton, Nike, Reebok, Puma, Apple retailer, Zara, and even Subway... (and much more). I forgot how great it was to shop in a noisy and crowded mall, with the good ol' junk food smell. And, of course, there is the standard ice rink in the middle (you would have thought they'd come up with something more original than an ice rink for Russia, like maybe snorkeling or fly fishing).
On our way back from the mall, we drove by the Ob Sea. It looks much more fun in winter than in summer: the trash is covered with white snow, and there are wind sailers (on skates) and kite surfers (on some type of skates as well). I guess it is advisable to learn kite surfing in water before going on ice, but that looks like a lot of fun! And there are also ice fishers.
In brief, the whole city is like a giant winter sport resort. It's getting fun.

Where would you rather be?

In this serie, guess which picture was not taken in Mexico, but from work on my way to the airport... Watch out! It is a trick question.
So, I am back in Akademgorodok after a week in Cancun and a brain cell damaging stop-over in Moscow. Let's skip the boring part in Cancun (for the sake of being consistent with the title of the blog). I am now back in Russia, so no more COCO BONGO for me... Anyway, Moscow has other perks than just the Red Square. One of them is called... TAMOUGA! It is a drink that consists in setting fire to a glass of absinthe, and then put another glass upside down on top of it to cut oxygen from the fire. Then, this latter glass is put upside down on a straw: you first drink the absinthe and then breath in from the straw... That would warm up a dead body. The only issue is that you can't drink more than 2 of those after you had 5 vodkas because it gives a headache. Since it gets hard to count all the way up to 2 after 5 vodkas, both Sonia and me had a serious headache the day after. So we only went for a quick walk in Moscow, but that was enough for me since my luggage had been lost on the way from Cancun so I was freezing my butt, even in Eddie's coat.
For the people interested in having fun on Moscow, the bar we went to is called the Art Garbage. Very cool place, but don't stay in the restrooms for too long when you go there: there was a guy in front of me who got beaten up because he stayed too long in the bathrooms according to another client who slapped him in the face when he got out. I must have done pretty good on time when I got there, because nobody slapped me in the face when I got out. My trick was to save on time by not washing hands.
Thanks for reading my blog while I was away. Da Svidania everybody.

Too cold... I am going

Today, it started with a nice warm and liquid rain. And then, it got cold and it started snowing...and it is going to be really cold this week end. So I am leaving.... and going to Cancun for the week. Arrrrrrriba!

The Ob sea

Hi everyone. This morning, the weather was nice and warm, and I thought I would go down to the lake by Akademgorodok to make nice pictures for the blog. The name of the lake is the Ob Sea (yes, only "ob", like in "oben merde alors"). I only put on 4 layers of clothes and rode my bike (on which I have put winter tires with little metallic studs) down to the lake. I got my camera out and... no memory card. I had left it at my place. So no picture from the actual lake for you, but a picture of the Ob river downstream of the lake which I took a few days earlier.

The Ob Sea is actually the Novosibirsk reservoir. It is the largest artificial lake in Novosibirsk Oblast and Altai Krai created by a dam on the Ob River near Novosibirsk. The reservoir is 200 km long and up to 20 km wide. The power of hydroelectric power is 400 MW. During the summer, it is one of the most popular destinations for Novosibirsk residents with many yachts and boats dotting the surface of the lake, and the beaches teaming with people (thanks Wikipedia... now my turn). In November, the beaches are very empty except for a few stray dogs and empty beer cans.
I don't know if I will go back there before a while (probably not before the lake is totally frozen, and litters covered with a layer of pure white snow). It is almost depressing in November. However, on my way back, I got lost in the woods by the botanical garden, and I had a lot of fun on my bicycle. The place is really quite good for mountain biking.
More pictures of the Ob Sea are available at this link.