My Trip to Siberia

I just returned from a quick trip to Novosibirsk and Moscow.  I spent about a week in Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia and the "capital" of Siberia and just over a day in Moscow. (Moscow is, of course, the capital of Russia and the world's northernmost metropolitan area of over 10 million people.)  Fortunately I visited Russia and Siberia during a warm part of the year and temperatures were into the low-90s Fahrenheit. My initial impressions of Novosibirsk and Moscow are quite positive:

• At 55 degrees north, Novosibirsk is the northernmost city I've spent significant time in. While Moscow is about 0 degrees, 45 minutes north of Novosibirsk, I was getting used to the late sunset (about 11 p.m.) and early sunrise (about 4 a.m.) throughout my time there. With the late sunset, the temperatures remained quite warm throughout the night.
• The combination of Soviet-era and modern architecture in both cities was outstanding and created a stunning city appearance. In addition, Moscow's pre-Soviet architecture, especially the onion-domed Eastern Orthodox churches, add to the great beauty of the city.
• The sheer size of Russia, as the world's largest country, is amazing. The Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Moscow to the Pacific Ocean, is nearly twice the length of Interstate 80 from San Francisco to New Jersey.
• I have not experienced such dense tall forests so close to the city limits as I have in Russia. The height of the birch and pine trees that surrounded our hotel just outside the CBD of Novosibirsk were stunning.
• I was surprised by the extent to which Soviet imagery persists in Russia. In the plaza outside of Nobosibirsk's opera house, a large statue of Vladimir Lenin and friends still stands. Hammers and sickles still adore governmental buildings. The hammer and sickle remains part of the logo of Aeroflot and thus flight attendants had adorned with the icon of the USSR.
• Despite severe weather, the major streets of Moscow and Novosibirsk are nicely paved and lack potholes, much unlike the major streets of Los Angeles. Additionally, very little graffiti or trash is to be found along the streets.
• I visited the Fallen Monument Park in Moscow and, based on how much I'd heard of it, I was surprised to see so few statues. Only one or two of the former Soviet leaders' statues were vandalized during the 1991-1992 era.
• From my youth, I remember media accounts and stories of long lines at the Gum department store in Red Square. Today Gum serves as a very upscale shopping mall with a plethora of Western stores.

The above photo is of a chapel in central Novosibirsk, which was reputedly the geographic center of Russia (in an earlier era when Russia's boundaries were much different. Today, the geographic center of Russia is quite north of Novosibirsk.)