16th March

woke up very late (again) - our sleepiong pattern here in Novosibirsk is in a bad way as there's really not a lot to do here during the day so we've become almost nocternal.

Max (our friend from Rock City) and his friend Jane came round in the evening and took us to their friend John's house. They are all incredibly helpfull, constantly going out of their way to help us out and show us a good time here in Novosibirsk.

John, who has a russian bear living in his house who he feeds vodka to, also has a banya in his garden, so wearing nothing but towels, and carrying many bottles of strong beer and many packets of crisps and other munchies, we proceeded inside.

John's Banya is amazing, consisting of 3 rooms; one with a sofa, coffee table and Max's laptop with loads of music (Max knows more about DnB than Oli and has an astonishing collection), one with buckets of cold water used for splashing about in and the banya room itself, which is a beast. It was even better than the banya in Yekaterinburg, as we were able to regulate the temperature ourselves, and there was loads of beer, food and music (re-hydrating yourself with 10% dark russian beer after loosing litres of sweat can be quite lethal).

Then John, a Professional banya opperator, gave me a good thrashing with birch branches in what must've been at least 85-90° heat for several minutes, then we ran outside into the snow, which must've been at most -8--10° and rolled about. a drop in temperature of 100° is exhilerating and shocking at the same time.

Then, all feeling quite merry, we went to bed in John's attic and awoke in the morning to meet John's parents. John's father insisted we drink vodka with him, so he made a concoction of Ethanol (96%alc) and water (real russian vodka!) and we had a couple of shots with him. it was all quite an experience.

Jane drove us back to D+N's at around lunchtime where we met with Ed, who'd been at the internet cafe the previous evening and got some more sleep.

17th March

Another typical day in novosibirsk. in the evening we went with Dara to a very friendly old couple's house in the suburbs, who made us a lovely tea and welcomed us very much into their home. then, later in the evening, we went with Max and Jane to a tattooist and I got another tattoo. It is impossible to get ultra-violet tattoos in the UK so I got one of those. a picture is up on photobucket.