New Siberia

Just finished brushing my teeth with "highly carbonated" seltzer water. Seems like a typical sort of thing to do in this part of the world. We left Yekaterinburg last night on the famous "Sibiryak" train bound for Novosibirsk. Having only good luck, we arrived 10 minutes before departure but managed to negotiate a reasonable fare for the overnight journey from the conductor. There were whole train cars full of foreigners - many from the Spanish Canary Islands and elsewhere. Dustin and I enjoyed practicing our Spanish with them - but I found myself slipping Russian words into every sentence. With so many interesting people to speak with - I postponed sleeping until sunrise in lieu of interesting conversation. Luckily managed to get in a nap later in the day as we made our way from Omsk to Novosibirsk. Again out of luck, we managed to arrange a home-stay with a great couple with an apartment on the Ob River. Our hosts, Simon & Valentina, had an amazing meal prepared for us which was exactly what I was hoping Dustin could experience. Fresh food prepared in a very Russian way. For dessert we had ice-cream (from a bag) with a bunch of home-made jams from local Siberian berries and hot "piroshki" which are similar to pastries, containing apricot, raspberry, and black current filling. Even had some fresh mint tea, slightly sweetened... perfect Russian meal. Afterwards, we trotted down to the Ob River and took a dip in the light rain. Water was plenty clean.... well... clean enough in the dim light. Our hosts showed us photos of their recent excursion into Central Asia - a route Dustin and I are considering for our return to Europe in a few months. Tomorrow we'll coordinate with a pile of other foreigners, photographers, local astronomers, German physicists, Austrian astrophysicists... in order to best view the eclipse.
Photos Here