East of the Urals

After Moscow, any new city was a welcome encounter with the real Russia and Russians. This was to carry on after the Urals, enterering Asia and then Siberia.

Day 10: Vibrant Ekaterinburg

I was so tired, I hardly noticed the two German girls that shared the living room with me (with whom I gladly swapped the sofa by the inflatable mattress), who left way before I woke up. Neither them, nor Katya (the flat owner), her brother Kostya, and their sister Nastya; I was left home alone, with full trust (I hadn't even paid yet).

Being a really cold day, I went for a lovely hot shower. And then the unexpected happened: just as I was full of shampoo and soap, the hot water was cut. I waited and waited, but it never came back on, by which time I was so cold waiting around naked, that I couldn't just wash it off with cold water any more. So I went to the kitchen, found a few pots, heat up some water, and had an old style, "pour it over yourself" shower. I was really glad no-one came back to the apartment while I was wandering around, wearing nothing but a towel around my waist!

Being finally ready, I went out to explore the city. Once again I prepared a flask of hot coffee, which was really helpful: the late morning was still quite cold, a big difference in temperature from the European side of the country, and I had decided to walk to the centre (the river Iset), which took me a bit over 1h.

The centre of Ekaterinburg is decidedly beautiful, clean, and full of life. The bridges over the river provide lovely viewpoints from which to appreciate the city.

Feeling quite hungry after the walk, I went for lunch in a bar nearby, where I had another bowl of Solyanka, a tasty meaty soup that can keep you going for hours afterwards! Katya came to meet me (and we finally saw each other), to pass me a set of keys so I could go back to the apartment whenever I wanted (so nice of her).

The Angola war... someone left carnations!

The afternoon was spent wandering around, checking out the many beautiful monuments that the city has to offer; a preaching Lenin, a sitting Popov (the real inventor of Radio, according to some - Marconi excluded), and a touching monument to the Afgan war, with extra memoirs of all the Communist wars fought over the years, and recently augmented to praise those fallen on the Chechen war.

From there I went to the military "museum", basically a collection of old tanks and other war vehicles, around the actual military barracks. It used to hold the remains of the U2 plane shot down nearby, during the cold war, but unfortunately it was nowhere to be seen. Still, with T-38s, Katyushas, and Scuds, there was plenty to interest me, and I ended up chatting away about these with one of the soldiers (or at least trying to).

A real Katyusha!

Love it or hate it (or both, in my case at least), the Communists did have a fantastic fascination for powerful and moving imagery. The monument to the Komsomol (the youth wing of the party) was yet another example, set in a beautiful garden.

With the day slowly coming to an end, I still had time to visit the Church of the Blood, erected after the fall of Communism to pay homage to the Romanovs, the Tzar royal family, murdered in that spot. The conflict is still far from over, however: the Orthodox church is seeking to sanctify them, but yet not far from that spot is a statue of Sverdlovsk, the party member that actually ordered the murder (and that was later himself murdered by the white army). In fact, during Communist times, Ekaterinburg used to be called Sverdlovsk (and yes, my train ticket still said Sverdlovsk). Despite the cries to bring the statue down, some people argue that this is all part of history now, and that the Communist bad habit of trying to erase the past should not be repeated.

Sverdlovsk

The beautiful Church of the Blood

In the evening Vera (my pen-pal) came to pick me up at the apartment, and we went for dinner in a lovely Ukrainian restaurant, followed by a cool drive around the city, checking out the monuments lit up at night. It was great to have someone to show me around, thank you so much Vera!

Day 11. A road trip!

Me and lovely Katya

The next morning I said goodbye to Katya (with whom I had chatted away until 0200 the previous night, after coming back to the apartment), who was really happy with the "black sheep" magnet I brought her from Ireland - which deserved a place of honour on her fridge door. The program of the day was great: Vera offered to drive me to the Euro-Asian border (which I had missed when crossing by train).

My good friend Vera

Only a short 1/2 hour drive away, it was nonetheless yet another experience in my travel across Russia. The monument (one of the many along the Euro-Asian border, actually) is interesting: half of it is made with rock from the Westernmost mine in Russia, the other half coming from the Easternmost. Like most "sites of interest" in Russia, young couples come along and place ribbons all around, for good luck.

Back in the city, we had a long, lazy lunch, and just chatted the whole afternoon, always in Russian - at this stage, I was feeling confident enough not to care about my endless errors, and becoming smarter at guessing the meaning of phrases from a few known words. That evening I took the night train to Novosibirsk, thus finally finding my way into Siberia.

Another evening, another night train

Day 12: A long ride to Novosibirsk, and a great welcome

This train ride was a lot quieter; I shared the kupe with two babusky and one dedushka, and no vodka for a change! Slept for hours and hours, I love to be rocked to sleep by the moving train.It was a typical train day - watched a film, read a book, updated my diary, ate, took a nap. The day outside was gorgeous, and I could enjoy my first views of the lovely Siberian landscape.

I arrived to Novosibirsk in the evening. My friend Olga (with whom I've been practising Russian for around 5 years!) came to pick me up at the train station, and we made our way to her place, a taxi ride complete with insanely bad and dangerous driving and Russian cursing, which I hope never to repeat! Olga lives in a typical Soviet times apartment, full of interesting details, like the swivelling bath/sink tap (such a great idea), and the wall socket that only powers state-approved radios, and which doubles as an antenna, for just one radio station (the official state news radio), something I had seen already in Minsk. Olga prepared a lovely dinner, and we stayed up late, chatting away.

Day 13: Trains, trains, trains

After a good night's sleep and a full breakfast, we made our way into the centre. We saw the massive Lenin Square, with yet another Lenin statue, along with other interesting monuments, and also had a look at a lovely little church, in the middle of a large avenue, which marks the geographical centre of Russia.

After lunch, we took a marshutka (a shared taxi) to go to an enormous open-air museum of old steam and electric trains, and also old Soviet cars. I thoroughly enjoyed it, we spent the whole afternoon there. There were all sorts of trains there, including some impressive snow-cleaning engines, corrosive chemical transports, factory people transports, etc.

Back in the city, we visited the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and wandered the streets, just to have a feel for the city, while enjoying the late sun. We had dinner in a great traditional food restaurant, plates and plates of food, complete with a small bottle of vodka shared between us, of course. It was a fantastic day!

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Day 14. Farewell Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk main train station

The last day in Novosibirsk was a lot quieter. After another nice breakfast, I prepared my bags (managing to forget my thermos  in Olga's place), and we caught a bus to the centre, but got stuck in traffic for hours, meaning that we only had time to drink a quick glass of Kvass (the typical fermented drink), go to a market where I bought my lovely shapka, and have some quick lunch, before it was time to catch my train to Krasnoyarsk.

 

I bid farewell to my wonderful friend Olga, who was such a great host, and boarded the "Krasnoyarsk" - trains in Russia are named after the route they serve, and the decoration is complete with custom paint jobs, tailor-made curtains and table cloth, even specific, gorgeously ornamented glass holders. I shared a kupe with Alexei, another programmer, but Russian-speaking only, we shared a beer, had a chat, and just enjoyed the trip, going to bed early.