Welcome to Kemerovo

This is the Hotel Kuzbass. I would not have thought that anything could make me long for the opulence of the Rossiya in Moscow. There is a very strange feel to the Kuzbass. The first oddity was the elevators. The doors were literally 30 inches wide. Our rolling suitcases barely rolled in. Once inside, there was room for 4 people - who are on friendly terms. Next we arrive on the landing of our floor, and the protocol is derived from times gone by. We hand a card with our info on it to the Dyezhurnaya (key lady), and she gives us our room key. This woman is like a Conceierge for the floor. She dispenses keys, extra pillows, and reports your commings and goings to the KGB.

Our room is so small. I forgot to pace it off, but it couldn't have been more than 10' x 10'. I found it interesting that when we first got in, I was shocked and dismayed, and felt like we'd been shuttled off to the worst hotel in town. But after a day, it was just home. I actually have fond memories of the place. We had a choice of an Eastern or Western Exposure. We chose Eastern, with the morning sun. We checked in at 9:00 AM, and it was 90 Degrees in the room by 9:30. No air-conditioning. But we had hopes of being cool in the evening.

My favorite aspect of the room was the 'baseboard' in the bathroom. At some point they had painted the baseboards in the room a chocolate brown color. They continued the line into the bathroom - where there was NO baseboard, so they just painted the tiles. Note the swing arm on the faucet which serves both the sink and the tub. The toilet runs non-stop, almost by design. The bathroom door was held closed by a friction fit. There was no mechanism on the door knob, just a piece of leather on the door jamb that wedged the door shut.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the Kuzbass. It was by far the most rustic of our accomodations, but it just fine. If I could be transported back for a weekend visit, I'd jump at the chance.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the "Sunflower" restaraunt - so called because of the plastic sunflower decorations that adorned the patio. It was a delightful place. They had 1 english menu, and we ordered off it. The waitresses were far more pleased by my attempts to speak Russian, and the food and prices were extremely reasonable.

This is the exterior of a small grocery store across from the hotel. Note how plain it is.

And this is a shelf in the interior. All of this was behind the counter. In the center of the store were a few free-standing refridgerated cases you could reach into. But for the most part, some one had to hand you anything your were to purchase.

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