Our first job in Tomsk was to get a ticket out - guess that sums up the place. I used my best Russian on the ticket lady who pointed me at the information lady who spoke good English. That made the process quite painless. The weather is grim - wet and cold. After a taxi to our hotel, we manage to check in early and get breakfast - a dubious looking omelette. We then decided on a shower and a quick snooze before moving off to do email and have a look at Tomsk. The internet café was confusing but we got most of it done. The town is not the most exciting - and it looks even worse in the rain. We go for an early dinner - Mexican - not bad and cheaper than Moscow & St Petersburg. Next day, we got up and the sun was shinning - even Siberia looks better in the sun. We had a domestic morning - catching upon emails etc. It was then off round town to look at the highlight of Tomsk - it's wooden houses. They are quite pretty but not worth going too far out of your way for. After some shopping for the train, we adjourned for a long lunch. It was in a Russian pub type place and was quite pleasant - the food was hot. We finished our tour of the town and then wait for tonight's train - we have a 90 minute train ride to catch our connection at Tayga - the trip from Tayga to Irkutsk taking 26