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Yekaterinburg, Russia
After a fun filled day in Moscow spent with friends on the beach (who knew there were beaches in Moscow?!) Jamie and I set off to catch our late night train. We arrived a little early but after some hanging around in the station, finally, our train arrived. Our first leg of the train journey is Moscow to Yekaterinburg, 2 nights and 1 day, seeing as it is a "short" journey we have booked third class... The train is full, but we find our places and settle in for the night. Third class on the train is compact but surprisingly comfortable, the only thing that upsets me is the shelf above my bed meaning I can't sit up on my bed and I feel a bit claustrophobic. We pass the time by reading, napping and playing cards and, after what feels like a week, we arrive in Yekaterinburg.
Yekaterinburg upon first impression seems like there is not a lot going on, indeed, the suggested list of things to do includes the local water tower. None the less we are just glad to be off the train and able to walk around without bumping in to people, beds or bags. We spend our first afternoon there walking around, exploring the shops and end up in a pub having a few glasses of wine and a cocktail.
Our first full day in the city we decided to take ourselves on a self guided tour around, stopping at all of the landmarks from the map. We stop for lunch and somehow manage to book ourselves on to a tour that takes us to the boarder between Europe and Asia for that afternoon. We meet Louba by our hostel entrance and she takes us round to her drivers' car. Our first stop at the boarder is fairly unmarked, she explains to us how the boarder came to be where it is and while most people say Yekaterinburg is Eurasia it is officially Asia. The boarder runs through the Ural Mountains, and the vegetation is clearly different on each side, as is the wildlife, so it is somewhat a natural boarder that was officially decreed by Peter the Great.
We stop at a memorial site and the sheer number of names is astounding. Louba explains that the memorial stands on a burial site made by the KGB. The remains of over 18000 human bodies were discovered here and, due to the KGB's extensive record keeping, they were able to put a name to every single one. The people buried in this particular site were all killed in a two year span of 1937- 1938. That's an average of 25 bodies per day. It is suspected that there are similar burial sites around that have not yet been discovered.
Louba tells us how people from Moscow and St. Petersburg were often banished in to Siberia and, before the train was built, made to walk the whole way, stopping for the night in prisons and then continuing on their journey the next day. It has taken us long enough by train and it is almost unthinkable that people could have walked it. I cannot fathom how long it would take and the physical stress they would have been put under. Many people died making the journey, to be honest, I am more surprised that some people didn't!
We stop at a woodland area covered in brightly coloured ribbons, Louba tells us of a Russian tradition of tying a ribbon round a tree for good luck, it makes for a wonderfully aesthetic visual. We take some photos and carry on round the corner where we find a wall made of champagne bottles and sticks, we are told a story of how the future empower Alexander || came to the boarder and stopped to drink champagne, thus setting a tradition in motion. Newly weds now often stop to tie a ribbon and drink champagne on the boarder, they then leave there bottle behind, often with a wish sealed inside, and it is made a part of the wall. We then reach a monument made to symbolise the Union of Europe and Asia, it include a line making it possible to stand in both continents at the same time, of course we oblige and take the mandatory photos. A quick walk through the woods leads us to an obelisk, again for Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, where we open our own champagne and have a toast in the rain.
Of course we couldn't come to Yekaterinburg without talking about the Romanovs, we go to the Church on the Blood, where at one time the Ipatiev House stood, in the basement of which the Romanov Dynasty met its end. Louba tells us stories of Nicholas || and his family, including how they met, and how his family had not wanted him to marry Alexandra and how many people thought the family to be cursed. We make a trip to Ganina Yama, which in 1918 was an abandoned mine where the killers tried to hide the bodies of the Romanovs. There is now a monastery in its place which consists of 7 churches, the same number as there were murdered members of the royal family. That evening I make Jamie-lee watch the movie Anastasia with me at the hostel.
The next day we set of bright and early to meet Louba again, this time we are headed further out of town to an old pottery village. Predictably, I fall asleep in the car on the way there and have no idea how long we drove for. Before we get to the pottery village we stop at a big church,we go inside and Louba tells us how the church was rebuilt after being knocked down in soviet times. The church is lovely but it's not what we are here to see, behind the church is the Nevyansk Leaning Tower. It is 57.5 metres tall and has a vertical deviation of 2.2 meters to the south-west. Strangely enough after extensive studies of the building and its foundations, it appears to have been built leaning, rather than to have fallen in time, though the reason for this is unknown. We head up the tower and find secret rooms , whilst being told of a rumoured illegal mint that was in the tower and we get sea sick from the wonky floors. We get to. The whispering room and try it out, Jamie stands in one corner and I in another and we are both shocked to hear the walls pass on our quiet messages quite loudly and clearly, it's a little bit creepy...
After enough Tom foolery we get some delicious pastries and set off to the pottery village. The pottery village is cute and quaint, we make our own pottery pig, which I seem to have abandoned at the train station, and have a turn at spinning a vase, no where near as easy as the potter makes it look! Mine vaguely resembles something you could perhaps put flowers in, though it is very wonky, Jamie's is slightly worse for wear and could perhaps be used as a paper weight.... I think we will leave that to the professionals!
We say good bye to Louba later that evening and pack up our things at the hostel. Time for us to get back on the train! Joy.
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