Best Eastern Ural Hotel Yekaterinburg

Learned ourselves some stuff today!

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.

It's a lovely, really well presented little museum in an original Siberian townhouse, which explained the history ...

... in its place now stands a gargantuan Baroque Chruch with the most expensive icon ever commissioned in Russia (again with the guilt!). Another head scarf and skirt job, the church was quite beautiful, and the icon exceedingly ostentatious, although we're still not sure if it makes up for murder via firing squad, the attempted burning of the bodies, dousing in acid, and the dumping in an abandoned mine in the middle of nowhere. Try harder, Russia.

After a quick trip to the ...

Just as we thought we'd hit the pinnacle of the Russian train system with the well trodden and prestigious Moscow/St. Petersburg route we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Train 16 was even better again. We settled into our four bed cabin with our big bag of food, water and the can of Baltika that Ritchie had managed to smuggle onboard (past Jie) and awaited our companions, who turned out to be Grumpy Sleeping Lady ...

... their saddest stories and deepest secrets. It's true, maybe because you know you will never see these people again. They aren't likely to judge you, and they're an easy ear.

TIMUR:

When I arrived on the train, there was already a young guy in the bunk above me, and another one got on at Irkutsk. While I was thankful that they didn't appear to be soldiers, I thought that young guys are more likely to be drunk, and I really didn't want to ...

... stops (10-20 mins to stretch your legs on the platform, some dozing, reading, and lots of sharing of food which was really nice- in fact I got off the train with as much food as I took on because they all pushed food on me to take away for my next stretch (Damn - I was hoping for a lighter bag!). I arrived in Yekaterinburg early in the morning (almost 6.30 local time) and was glad I was with Damian to find our way to the hostel by trolleybus - on this we each had to pay for ...

... in the other direction. We have determined now that finding your way home in Russia is easy ... you just need to ask the friendly locals (knowing a smidge of the Cyrillic Alphabet helps), especially the old ladies and you'll have no problems. I'm sure glad we know the word Spasiba (thank you), because we used it a lot today. Today we have lined up an excursion to the border of Europe and Asia (14 km west of Yekaterinburg), and to Ganina Yama (the place where the last tsar Nicholas ...

... There is a tradition where lovers come to the bridge and attach a padlock to the bars with their names engraved or painted on it. There were a lot of padlocks and we thought it was very sweet. As we looked towards the dam we saw huge dark clouds sitting over the city beyond and lightning flickered in the sky. In the opposite direction, in clear sky, was a massive concrete tower. This, said Andrew, was the perfect example of Communism. In the 1960s, the local ...

...On the way to Yekaterinburg we were lucky enough to share our cabin with a couple of very friendly English-Speaking Russians. This is a rarity, but was very welcome indeed. When we arrived in Yekaterinburg, our cabin-mate (Viktor) directed us to the trolley bus and we were on our way. For those of you unacquainted with Yekaterinburg, a city straddling the Europe-Asia continental divide and home to approx 1.5 million people, it is ...

... and clapped-out industry. Autumn evidently starts quite a bit earlier here, as many of the trees (the non-coniferous ones, that is) are already showing red and orange foliage. The air was crisp and clear too, which made for a rather photogenic journey in. Too bad I packed my camera in the bottom of my bag, which was inaccessibly stuffed beneath a fellow passenger's bunk. D'oh! Yekaterinburg is one of three overnight stops on my journey across Siberia ...

... we were able to get tickets to the local philharmonic orchestra. While they played excellently, I spent most of my time during the first session of the performance trying to stay awake; after a long day the music was putting me to sleep. I did however; perk up during the second session when a master pianist started playing with the orchestra. With every new musical note he would throw his head around contorting his face and I took great ...