International Music Festival - Jazz Jeans

For all Jazz fans and non, next week will see 3 full days of Jazz music with 4 different bands and different international guests playing. From October 22nd through 24th at DK Stroiteli* in Novosibirsk 3 groups will animate the Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Starting with Big Band a great jazz band that has already many times performed in the House of Scientists supported by 3 special guests, one from the States and 2 from germany.

On Friday, 23 the, DK Stroiteli will host 3 different bands: the Siberian Diksilend with Roy Young from the States, the Quartet with Igor Dimitrieva and Billy Evans as special guest for the Trio of Alex Nakimovski.

And if you still want to go with the jazz flow there are two different events to listen to jazz music on Saturday, 24th. Again at DK Stroiteli 2 special guests from the States who will complete the ''International Band'' in the final night of Jazz Jeans festival.

At Izum (the club founded by Ibrahim Ivanovich) not far from the city centre Jim Shein will perform starting from 9pm.

For more information please call: 333 36 82. For Izum related info only, please call: 217 48 17

Tickets are between 600r and 1500r

*at DK Stroiteli music will start at 7pm and at Izum it will start at 9pm

Welcoming the Golden Autumn (hopefully without rain)

Summer is definetely at an end and autumn is opening in front of us, if the weather decides to give us a couple more sunny week ends there are few activities that I would recommend to try. In the city at the underground stop ЗАЭЛЬЦОВКА (zaeltzovka) a nice, wide park has been open with roller blades routes, place for skate boarders, runners, play grounds for kids surrounded by green which always helpw and it is much needed in Novosibirsk. A good attraction in this park and from this park is also the fact that you can get the train from there and get off directly at the Novosibirsk Zoo Park, another place definetely worth a visit with lots of attractions, well kept and pretty impressive.

For something a bit different Экосапиенс (here is the link with some info details http://akbeli.ru/about.html) a group of people who organizes outdorr activities is inviting everybody who would like to play, spend some time outside, try some wood land challenges in a beautiful part of the forest not far from Morozovo, this saturday for a ''Golden Autumn'' event. Entry fee is 350r for adults and free for children. I would highly recommend this place and to get in touch with them, they can organize team building events, birthday parties anything will be with a bit of adventure. If you can't manage to go there this saturday, they are open all year round just need to book the place as it can get pretty booked up.

I also want to recommend a couple of events ''indoor'' just in case the weather turns out to be pretty bad.
At the Opera&Ballet Theatre this Friday, September 18 a great premiere ПРЕМЬЕРА!
Князь Игорь А. Бородин from 18:30 - 22:10 (we have to highlight that in the coir one one of the foreign expats will be singing!!! and we have an interview with him coming up soon)
To give you a bit more time to get ready for it on October, 27 also at the Opera&Ballet Theatre will take place a concert called ''Solisti from Moscow'' playing with Stradivari violins on a program that includes Bach, Mozart, Brahams and more....

Half Marathon in Novosibirsk sees 3 foreigners running

Yesterday, 12 September as part of the Interra Forum 2009, Novosibirsk hosted the yearly Half Marathon event. After few problems with registration (you can read more on Bruce Lenorf blog) myself, my husband Jonathan Abbott and Bruno Lecerf managed to get to the start line of the Novosibirsk Half Marathon and complete it successfully.

The event saw few runners participating (not sure how jogging or running is popular here, I think Russian prefer hockey or figure skating) running up and down Krasni Prospect, exactly 6 times.

The run started sharply at 10am for the women ( a bunch of 75 of them) and at 10.10am for the man (almost 350 of them). The organization wasn't bad at all, there was quite a lot going on around the race and even if I couldn't see much as I was running, it sounded like the non-runners were having some fun.

The foreigners didn't do too badly. Bruno, with good training in his legs managed to achieve a good result with 1h39min. Jonathan Abbott after a business trip, a week fighting a bad cough and only few weeks of training in his legs finished at 1h.55min

And what about me??? Well... few older women beat me and that wasn't great but I completed the race in 2h.5min and thanks to my elegant and fast finish I got also a little interview at the end but I was almost too tired to speak.

My impressions: the half marathon route was kind of boring considering you had to go down and up the same way for 6 times, the up part especially... I didn't enjoy!!!!

They had one water station which was much appreciated and quite a lot of photographers... I think a couple of them got a good one of me!

Overall I was a bit sad that so little people actually run it, if I compare it with other runs I have done this had the least amount of runners involved and effected the atmosphere around. Myself and the other foreigner runners thought that there could be a nicer route in Akademgorodok and the run could be a bit more interesting.... well this is a suggestion to take in for next year.

Pictures and results on http://www.marafon.nsk.ru/

A special thank you to the support team: Nicolas Droger, Nadine Skale and Natasha Eltzova (they delivered water, took pictures and videos and most of all got up very early on Saturday morning to be with us from the very beginning!!!!)

Young Californian Dancers looking for hospitality in Novosibirsk

A group of 43 young artists who are part of a Californian Dance Company will be flying to Novosibirsk week commencing September 20th for a Dance Festival for children.

They will train and perform during this week 3 days in Akademgorodok at the theatre Ynost and 3 days at the Globe Circus in Novosibirsk and they are looking for hospitality.

Each of them need a place to live during those 3 days in Akademgorodok and 3 days in the city and they are looking for free accomodation as from what I understood they are young and poor and the company doesn't pay for hotels but only for their trip.

So if you are interested in hosting them, providing breakfast and dinner for them for free, you might get a ticket to their performance in exchange, let me know and I will get in contact with them.

Exploring Russia with a foreigner's touch - tips on destinations

Traveling through Russia with the eyes of a foreigner. See what Nadine from the German Consulate in Novosibirsk can recommend and has done for her smmer holiday in Russia. Few nice tips on how to spend your free time in SIberia...

Where did you go to for your holidays in Russia?
- I love travelling and I want to see as much as possible of Russia during my three years in Novosibirsk. My latest trip I took was together with my parents. We went to Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.

Why did you choose this place?
- My mother really wanted to go there. She had watched a lot of shown on German TV about Siberia and Lake Baikal and its beauty. So she wanted to take the chance to go there while she and my dad were here in Novosibirsk. Lake Baikal was also on top of my travel list. It is the world’s deepest lake and famous for its beauty an rich flora and fauna.

Did you organize everything yourself or did you do it through an agency? - Tell us a little bit about the logistic of the organization of the trip and the trip itself
We organized everything ourselves. At first, I contacted an agency via email. However, they did not reply. Fortunately, my colleagues recommended us a good hotel in Irkutsk which I booked with the help of a Russian colleague. The train ticket I bought myself through a travel agency close to the place where I work in the city. I also booked the flights myself via internet. Trips and excursions in Irkutsk and to Lake Baikal we organized straight after our arrival at the hotel which cooperates with some travel agencies in Irkutsk.

Our hotel “Delta” in Irkutsk called the agency and they made a special program for us covering three days and including a German-speaking tour guide and a taxi. Within a couple of hours we received a very good and detailed program. Everything was well organized and I enjoyed our excursions – sightseeing in Irkutsk, trip to Listvyanka including the open-air museum “Tol’zy” and another tour on the old track of the Transsiberian railway, the Circumbaikal Railway.

Do they usually work with foreigners?
- The travel agency works with Russian as well as with foreign tourist. The majority of the foreign tourists speak English.

How long did you travel for? Did you go by train, car, boat?
- Our trip took six days in total. To Irkutsk we took the train which took us 30 hours. We were then staying in Irkutsk for four days and went back to Novosibirsk by plane.

What was the best part of the trip? ...and the worse?
- The hotel in Irkutsk was great. Also the food was very good. I loved our excursions – especially the one with the Circumbaikal Railway. This was just amazing and I can really recommend it to others.
The train trip wasn’t really nice. I only bought three tickets. So we had to share our compartment – Kupe – with one other guy who was not really friendly. Moreover he was snoring the whole night… So next time I will definitely by all four tickets for a kupe when travelling in a group of four people.

What was the impression of the people who were travelling with you?
- Usually, it is really nice to travel by train and to talk to the people travelling with you. However, this time we weren’t lucky. In Irkutsk it was only my parents and I. Our tour guide and the drivers were really nice and I liked the trips around Irkutsk and to Lake Baikal a lot.

Was this your first trip within Russia? Would you recommend it?
-No, it wasn’t my first trip in Russia. I’ve already been several times to Moscow and to other Russian cities like Saint Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tomsk, Omsk, Barnaul. In April I went by trainon my own from Novosibirsk to Yekaterinburg, Moscow and Kiev.
I would definitely recommend a trip to Lake Baikal. If you want to stay in a comfy hotel the better choice is definitely staying in Irkutsk and taking tours from there. However, Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal is supposed to be great spot, too. Accommodation is said to be a little “simpler” there. That's why I didn't go there with my parents. Yet, I hope that I’ll make it to go there as well during the next two years.

Where else are you planning to go this summer?
- In August I’m going to Krasnoyarsk for a weekend with two friends of mine visiting from Germany. We’ll go there by train. Moreover, we’ll spend four days in Altai. I’m already looking forward to it.

Any tips for those who would like to try the same?
- When you speak Russian travelling around Russia is quite easy. It’s worth to consider buying tickets for a whole compartment when you want to make a 100% sure to travel without people who like to spend the night with snoring. On the other hand, it is really interesting to travel with Russians and to have a little chat with them. Most of the times travelling by train alone I was qute lucky. Well, I think it all depends on which type of traveller you are and how much adventure you want. Russia is a fascinating country and I love to discover as much of it as possible.
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