Richard Bannister

We had intended to spend the penultimate morning of our trip exploring the three parks in Samara, but managed to tick them off a day early due to our detour around poor weather. That made it possible to add in a bonus stop at Gorky Park (Парк Горького) in Syzran (Сызрань), a city of 175,000 located on the bank of the Volga river. We were stopped by traffic police on the way out of the city, albeit only briefly; they took one look at our foreign passports before sending us on our way.

The park was a place of contrasts. The main entrance and central area was pleasantly landscaped, but the rides were scattered around the facility and it was necessary to walk across uneven ground to get to them. We paid ₽150 (~€2.04) per person for a six lap cycle on Asteroid (#2812), a locally-built production model double helix coaster that felt very much like the Yamasakutalab machines found all over eastern Europe. The layout was forceful throughout, but particularly so at the highest point of the track where a directional change threw me from one side of the car to the other.

When I first sat down to plan a trip to Russia I included a stop at Funny Park in Tolyatti (Тольятти), a family park which was supposed to have both a Big Apple and a Zyklon. Both attractions were missing from satellite imagery when I made a final check of our routing in late August, but I decided that it was still worth visiting as we would be driving past it regardless and there was always a chance that something else had been installed in the interim. The sole coaster turned out be Indianapolis, an amusing if not hilarious powered oval from SBF that cost us ₽150 (~€2.04) per person for a cycle of at least twenty laps. There was no issue at all with adults riding, though we did get laughed at.

Central Park (Центральный Парк) was a late change to our trip added after a friend of ours spotted what he deemed to be a travelling fair operating within its bounds. There was a definite air of permanence about the installations today, however; proper footpaths had been laid to the attractions, supports had been concreted into place, and power was coming from buried cables rather than generators. We paid ₽100 (~€1.36) apiece for an eight lap cycle on the Roller Coaster (#2813), a standard oval. Readers should be aware that the staff at this park were very unhappy with photos being taken. We were able to deflect this with a "we do not speak Russian" but there was a very uncomfortable atmosphere even still, and given that we decided that it was best to make a rapid exit.