Yekaterinburg
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2007
1
3
43
Trip End
Feb 26, 2008
Yekaterinburg,
Russia
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Well, after a 25 hour train ride across the Siberian wastelands (nice forests - doesn't seem that bad), we arrived in Yekaterinburg. The guide book said there was no reason to stop, but we were determined to prove them wrong. Against all odds, we did. Yekaterinburg has very little to offer a tourist - a tourist that speaks no English even less!
We had the greatest of luck in finding an old lady called Tatiana, who took us under her wing, and gave us a real Russian home stay experience. We got off the train in Yekaterinburg, at 10pm, with no accommodation arranged! This is not a good idea in Russia!! Thankfully as we were ascending the steps of one of the very few (and very crap) hotels, an old lady (the afore mentioned Tatiana), leapt out of the darkness and offered us accommodation. Well, perhaps she offered many other things, but as she could only speak Russian and we only English/Afrikaans/Spanish/French there was limited negotiation, and a room was settled on. As it turned out this was the real deal. We were only 5 minutes from the Romanov Churchy thing (more on that later), and not much further into town - sweet. The negative was enduring evening debates with Tatiana about the merits of communism vs socialism vs democracy - all in Russian! She seemed enthusiastic in her beliefs, steadfast in her ideals, but sadly I could not understand anything she said.
The Romanovs (5 kids and 2 adults) were killed in a basement in Yekaterinburg by the Bolsheviks (Lenin's mob) in 1918. The bodies were then taken to a forest not too far out of town for disposal. There they were burnt (but not very well, as once the Bolshys realised that it would take at least 2 days to complete the job they gave up), then doused in acid (which mostly just dripped into the sand) then thrown down a mine shaft and covered up. The remains were recently exhumed and DNA matching proved that the bones were those of the Romanovs.
We visited the basement (now church) where they were killed, as well as the forest where they were burned/dissolved/thrown down mine shaft (now monastery).
The next phase of out journey was the big 50 hour train ride from Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk. Again many highlights, again vodka played more than a small part (I am going off Vodka fast!!) and another great experience. We saw our first small scattering of snow, and had our first Siberian sub zero experience.
Comments
burned/dissolved/thrown
HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!! you guys should write for a living!