Moscow & Novosibirsk - here I come!

Mo:

Almost packed.

I leave this afternoon for Moscow and Novosibirsk. I´ll be teaching spinning in both cities and then I´m doing 4 yoga classes in Novosibirsk at a convention next weekend.

I´ll be back Monday 20 October.

Please forgive me if I don´t find any good internet connection where I´m staying. I´m bringing my camera of course, and I´ll promise to give you a full report when I come back if nothing else.

Temperature in Siberia at the moment: 3.8 degrees Celsius.


Facts Novosibirsk:

Population:	1,400,000
Ethnic Groups:	Russian
Founded:	1893
Industry:	Machinery Manufacturing, Metallurgy

Novosibirsk is a city that prides itself on size: it is the third-largest city in Russia (the biggest city east of the Urals), has the biggest railway station along the trans-Siberian route, the biggest library in Siberia, and the biggest opera/ballet theater in all of Russia - even bigger than Moscow's Bolshoy. The red-brick Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, while not the biggest, is considered one of the finest existing examples of pure Russian Orthodox architecture.

Siberia is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the U.S.S.R from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century. Geographically, it includes a large part of the Eurasian Steppe and extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins, and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the national borders of both Mongolia and China. It makes up about 77% of Russia's territory (13.1 million square km), but only 30% of Russia's population (42.2 million people).

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