Tomsk wasn’t as exciting as I thought it was going to be. The journey there was spent with a lawyer from Abakan, who I was pretty sure was getting bored with answering my questions towards the end of the journey. Tomsk itself was -6C, a 7C difference with Perm, with was 1C. Therefore, after trudging around in the snow for several hours and eventually finding the hostel, I spent the rest of the day finding somewhere to eat and buying a hat. Day 2 (really day 0.75) was spent walking around Tomsk in the few hours I had there until I had to get on another train to Irkutsk. As the Russian trains from Perm to Tomsk run on odd days and the trains from Tomsk to Irkutsk run on even days, either I had just over a day to explore Tomsk, or I had 3 days. I made the right choice.

Tomsk itself was un-inspiring, being mainly flat, cold and utilitarian in places, but I did get to see the river Tom and was also shown around the botainical gardens on a day that they were supposedly closed. Other activities included eating Siberian pancakes (one of) and watching someone else feed a red squirrel in the university grounds. These are all things you should do, according to the free Tomsk tourist map, by the way.