26 1/2 hours later...

Trip Start Jun 09, 2003

169

Trip End Jun 02, 2007

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Flag of Russia Ekaterinburg, Russia
Friday, June 13, 2003

Twenty six and a half hours and 1100 miles after leaving Moscow I finally arrived in Ekaterinburg, just east of the Ural Mountains, at 8.30pm local time last night. I was immediately met and taken to my family stay. A nice flat in a really dodgy looking area of town. I had supper, which was salad and rice with meat, I can't remember the Russian names. I will need to ask Elena (my host) to write down the Russian names so I know what to ask for when I'm in restaurants (as the menus are always in Russian). I then had a bath and went to bed as I was so tired.

This morning I got up and for breakfast I had left over salad from last night, a huge bowl of Russian porridge which was lovely and more bread and cheese than I could possibly eat. It's now 4.00pm and I'm still not hungry.

This morning I had a tour of Ekaterinburg which was very interesting. We visited lots of Cathedrals which had been knocked down and re-built. This seems to be a bit of a trend in Russia. A lot of cathedrals and other buildings were knocked down at the beginning of the last century when Stalin was in power

Ekaterinburg

. They've all just been rebuilt during the 90's more or less exactly as they were. We also visited the site where the Romanov family were killed in 1917. It's right in the middle of a huge big building site. On one side they are building a huge Cathedral in honour of the family and on the other side some other building (not sure what). Apparently Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder are visiting Ekaterinburg next month when the cathedral is being opened, so they are trying to get it all finished in time. We then visited a geology collection, which was amazing, lots of precious stones from the Urals, other parts of Russia and other countries around the world. It was quite impressive, especially considering it was a private collection.

I then spent a few hours walking around Ekaterinburg myself. I got some money changed and then decided to brave the post office again. I went to the post office in Moscow and there were about 25 counters - I had no idea which counter to go to so I gave up in the end (for anyone travelling to Moscow in the future I've since found out it's Window 24 for stamps).

It's very difficult to communicate when I can't speak Russian and no one seems to speak any English. I bought a bottle of pepsi from a road side kiosk and the woman in the kiosk started yelling at me in Russian. I tried to tell her I couldn't understand, but she kept shouting. After about 5 minutes she let me buy the pepsi, but I've no idea what she was yelling at.

Well I suppose I should tell you all about the train

The new church.

. It was pretty much just trees for 1100 miles. I spent 25 minutes walking from one end of the train to the other. Ten hours sleeping. An hour and a half in the restaurant car trying to figure out what the menu was and trying to communicate with a russian man who could speak a little german. That conversation didn't go very far at all. I spent the other 14 hours or so watching the passing scenery and talking to the other people on the train. I also got eaten alive by a mosquito or something. My feet, hands, bottom of my arms and my face are all covered. The only bits of me that weren't covered by a sheet while I was sleeping! I sprayed lots of insect repellant before going to bed last night!! One of the most exciting parts of the journey was when the train stopped and all the locals came to sell their wares. We all got off the train because we were hungry and needed some food. Could we find anyone selling food? There were plenty of chandeliers, vases of every size and design imaginable, stuffed foxes and otters, stuffed teddy bears that sang in russian, fibre optic flowers and much more tat. We eventually managed to find someone selling pastries - yum! It was quite a relief to get off the train after so long - the next part of the journey is 50 hours so that should be fun!

Tomorrow I am going river rafting and then on a 12km hike. After walking for miles today, my legs are killing me so I'm not sure what state I'll be in tomorrow. After the hike tomorrow we're taken to a nightclub before going to catch the train at 4.00am, so I imagine I'll be pretty tired by then, although I will have 50 hours to sleep it off which is how long it takes the train to get to Lake Baikal.

I'm off just now, as I'm going to see the Nutcracker Ballet tonight. It's the first time I've ever been to the Ballet so it should be good. Not bad for 15 US Dollars and a car to take me home afterwards.

I'm not sure when my next update will be, I'll need to see if I can find an Internet Cafe at Lake Baikal. Apparently in Ulan Ude there is only one computer with internet access in the whole town. In China Internet Cafes are illegal. Anyway I'll try and update again when I can.

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Hilary

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