Alexandrovsky Park Hotel Yekaterinburg

Learned ourselves some stuff today! <br><br>Walked into town along the picturesque River Iset. We intended to visit the Musem of Youth which we'd heard was good but after searching and cursing the map for not leading us there discovered it no longer existed so went to the Museum of Local History instead. <br><br>It's a lovely, really well presented little museum in an original Siberian townhouse, which explained the history ...

... a stroll past the massive Ernst and Young headquarters (bloody accountants-can't get away from 'em!), scrumptuous pancakes for lunch, and then an absolutely infuriating 4 hour trek from bank to bank as we attempted to find someone who would do a Western Union transfer for us. It wasn't that they didn't do them, it was just that, like elsewhere in the wonderful Mother Russia, the minute we opened our mouths, the service suddenly became unavailable. Either they weren't available ...

... or some coffee.<br><br>Yes, life on Train #9 was a piece of cake. When I wasn&#8217;t off chatting with people, I would often spend my time playing my ukulele, channeling the spirit of Israel Kamakawi&#8217;ole and the Green Rose Hula. Passing strangers would linger around my cabin enjoying that lovely, laid back Hawaiian. Coincidentally, I even had a Russian man wearing a painfully ugly blue Hawaiian shirt watch me play, his belly ...

... family. I think, asides from the family photographs and telegrams, the most moving thing is a small piece of wallpaper. I actually gasped when I saw it, as I recognized the pattern immediately (it is also placed next to a picture showing the bullet holes in the wall). It isn't much, and there's writing on it. It is from The Room, and in German is written an excerpt from a poem. "And on that very night was Balthasar killed by his ...

... was point at pictures and hope for best when food comes out... had to order twice as first round wasn't enough.. Lol... Found a couple of different bars then which were all dead quiet. Sorted out an ongoing train ticket then no probs which was a relief. Really enjoyed the city and it was much less work to get things and places than Moscow which was strange. Our last day we got our supplies for the next journey and a 36 hour trip awaits and some 2300km along with another 2 poxy time zones

... per capita of anywhere on earth 2. They had the longest running screening of the movie "Titanic" of anywhere in the world, with 5 months! Don't know if it's true but that's what he said... This town is really all about the Romanovs, the family of the last Tsar was assasinated by the Red Army in 1918. There is a newly constructed soon to be Cathedral (when the ...

... che e' quello di farmi dormire per un po'. La mattina scopro con piacere che la colazione e' inclusa nel prezzo, ma dopo una disperata ricerca di qualcosa di commestibile nel buffet il mio sguardo cade su qualcosa che assomiglia ad un croissant. Al primo morso scopro con orrore che e' farcito di carciofi, non proprio l'ideale se accompagnato da un caffe' alle nove del mattino. Dopo questa parentesi disgustosa, e dopo aver lasciato il mio zaino al deposito bagagli della ...

... find Lada's here! Via the touristy Arbat street we walked to the Kremlin, where we walked around for about 2,5 hours: great to be in places you only knew from pictures and television. After the Kremlin we walked around the massive Red Square, truly impressive with all the beautiful buildings surrounding it: the Kremlin, the State History Museum, the GUM shopping centre and of course the fairytale-like St. Basil's Cathedral, you know, the one, with the colourful icecreamcones on top. This ...

... of his journey (very noisily) only waking to have a few more mouthfuls of beer. He told us (we think) that he works on helicoptors in the congo, not sure that I'd like to be in his helicopter though! We had a day and a half just wandering around Ekaterinberg. It is another nice city. We walked back to the station one evening past the lake and it was beautiful, but I was feeling a little nervous about showing the locals my camera and didn't stop ...

A relatively short drive today only 300 km and a rest day to look forward to. The long straight roads of Siberia have ended and the route is quite twisty like Sussex, small hills and lots of greenery. Small villages with wooden dacha line the road every 50 km or so. The road surfaces are bizarre, 50 km of excellent two lane surface degenerates into dirt and then 10 or 15 km of lumpy car ...