Premier Hotel Ekaterinburg Yekaterinburg

... departure for Irkutsk. We find a nice restaurant but it turns out to be self-service. And no bi-lingual menus. Neither of us is a fussy eater so we just point to what takes our fancy and wait to see what we end up with. The soup is delicious and so are the stuffed cabbage leaves. Even if they are not the stuffed pancakes I am expecting! We then find the VIP lounge with comfy sofas to while away the remaining hours. Worth every ruble!

... to the others present, and closed my eyes to enjoy half an hour of vocal harmony.



The rest of my tour of the city was led by Tania, local couch-surfing member, doctor and mum, who showed me around some of the sights, took me to a cheap eatery to sample 'Uralski pelmeni', delicious local-style dumplings filled with wild mushrooms and cream, and then did me the massive service of taking me home to her flat to use her shower ...

... les tarifs pratiques sont donc variables en fonction des trains. Sur le notre ils sont tres abordables.
Comptez 50 roubles pour un the ou un cafe, 70 pour une biere, 100 pour un paquet de chips et 300 pour une assiette repas.
Le vrai souci vient du fait que les cartes sont unique,ent en russe. Pour ce qui est de la biere ca ne pose pas de prb, nous sauront tjrs nous faire comprendre. En revanche ...

... Now, I could rumble on about how the train was actually far nicer than I had been anticipating (maybe I'd been stuck in the ****** carriage on the way to Irkutsk because this was nice), or how the scenary was beautiful (although I do admit to losing count after the 5830397396 birch tree), or even how the weather was strange (we had hail). However, why would do that? I was riding second class, so not with the muzhiks in third class or the Abramoviches ...

... and generous to us that we didn't want to leave :P Versione italiana Un altra sorpresa di questo paese e' che i treni in tutta la Russia viaggiano con l'orario di Mosca che in totale ha ben 9 fusorari! Dunque questa mattina pensando di arrivare ad un orario un po' piu' decente ci siamo ritrovate in questa citta' alle 4 di mattina!! Un altra cosa che ho notato e' che nella maggior parte delle abitazioni, a quell'ora, c'era gia' la luce accesa ...

... during soviet times), the site of the murder of the Nicholas II Romanov and his family (the last tsars of Russia) marked by an iron cross, and several churches. When we finished the walking tour we had some supper and a couple of beer before heading home. Finding our way home was a mini adventure similar to Moscow, although it was not quite as late. First we got on Bus 15, and asked the conductor lady if the bus would go to our street (all the busses and trams have a conductor who ...

... of the square sat the former government building (including the old office of Boris Yeltsin when he was the governor). In 1998, the small Chapel of St Catherine was built near the fountain and on the other side, in the same year, a statue of the city's founders Tatishchev and de Gennin was erected. Andrew loved the statue since these two men hated each other and would never have stood together and further while there was a huge height difference between them, the ...

... due posti, la seconda "kupe" nella quale viaggio io ha scompartimenti a 4 posti, mentre la terza non ha scompartimenti ma vagoni "aperti". I treni piu' belli fermano solo nelle stazioni piu' importanti, vale a dire tre/quattro volte al giorno, per circa 15-20 minuti giusto il tempo di scendere a fare due passi e comprare qualcosa dalle bancarelle sparse sulle piattaforme accanto ai binari. C'e' anche un vagone ristorante, ma non l'ho ancora provato quindi non so' ne ...

... and thereafter collected our bags and got to the train station. From here a train took us in about three hours to Nizhny Novgorod, where we arrived at about 11 o'clock in the evening. We tried to change our ticket another time, but also unsuccessfully this time. This meant we had to stay up until about 6 o'clock in the morning to get our train to Yekaterinburg where we arrived this morning at 3h30. Luckily we were able to get a little sleep in a nice and quiet waiting hall in the Nizhny ...

... Irish pub we entered and, without even thinking, Pamela and I impulsively bought beers. After discovering they tasted surprisingly good our appetite for alcohol soon returned and we were only tempted not to continue investing in these wonderful ales by the fact that we were already well over budget. The next day we escorted Kate and Peter to the train station and said our goodbyes. In a truly romantic fashion Pamela insisted on running ...