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Siberian border
Left is still the Ural region with some hills and forest, right starts Siberia and agriculture land. We arrived around 8 PM in this city of 1.5 million inhabitants and considered the third capital of Russia.
Ural mountains are rich in minerals, no wonder that Yekaterinburg is an industrial city with steel, machinery and in Soviet times weapon industries. There is nothing touristic here and this is precisely what is nice, at least we can see and to some extend experience the life of a 'real' Russian city.
This city is however known for some important historical events.
It is here that in 1918, the last Tsar Nicolas II and his family spent their last days and where assassinated. They are now considered martyrs by the Orthodox church and declared saints.
A cathedral was built on the place where they were killed and there are icons with the whole family presented as saints. A bit awkward..
The city is also know for the U-2 affair when an American plane was shot down, the pilot survived, but was parachuted in the middle of the Soviet forces.
Boris Yeltsin who gave the final blow to the Soviet regime was from here as well.
The first evening we went to a typical local Russian restaurant where we had Georgian stew
Agriculture
This almost black earth was typical in that part of Siberia. and some veggies.
The next day, we visited a Siberian village, about 145 Km east of the city.
East of Yekaterinburg, you very quickly arrive at the Siberian 'border'. A small river marks the separation between the Ourals on the West and Siberia on the East. The difference is striking, the Ural site is still hilly with forests, while the Siberian site is almost flat with fields.
On the way, the driver stopped to collect silver birch tree juice. Something that can only be done the very first days of the beginning of the Siberian spring when the trees start preparing to get their new leaves. We drunk it on the way back, it has an herbal taste and is, we were told full of minerals and vitamins.
In the village you can still see the wooden house built by the first settler, it is about 380 years old. We also visited the house he built for one of his sons, it has been occupied by different families until a few years ago.
The village has a kind of museum where some local art crafts are kept and on display. A local group of babushkas welcomed us dressed in their
traditional costumes and performed a few typical songs and dances; at the end we were invited to join in the dances. Needless to say that Robson was at his best...
To be honest we learned a lot. The landscape was impressive and very peaceful. The agricultural aspect of Siberia for example is quite new to me. Also, Siberia was a land of freedom where a more rough and ready system of justice operated. It was a land where escaped serfs could be free, where religious minorities were free from persecution, etc...
Back in town , we booked tickets for a ballet show from the Bolshoi that happened to be touring the country and was in Yekaterinburg for a few days. It was nice to be in that small, but very well decorated theatre surrounded by locals enjoying a night out. We saw Sylfide, a story about love and evil, how strange...
The following day we met Gleb, our guide with who we toured the city and its most interesting features. We very much enjoyed the mineralogy museum, where next to minerals from all over the world, we also saw fossils and some art works based on minerals.
Finally,
Extracting juice
Our driver Constantin is busy extracting the juice from the tree. he will put a small container to collect it and we will drink it on our way back. based on our guides' indications, we fond a hairdresser who was surprised we asked for a 'total' haircut!
We went to bad early on the 13th as out train to Irkutsk was at 04:18 am! We'll tell you more about that next time.
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nicole marrannes
non-member comment
eindelijk eens nieuws van je nichtje
Benoit en Robson,eerst en vooral bedankt voor jullie belevenissen en foto's.het heeft inderdaad lang geduurd maar ik wist niet dat het zo eenvoudig was,deze travelblog van jullie te openen.Gisteren was hilde hier en heeft het gewoon getoond .vandaag ben ik eerst gaan stemmen,voor de beste natuurlijk, en nu ben ik naar jullie gaan kijken en in zoverre dat dit mogelijk was aan luc vertaald.Hij was daar heel blij mee jullie zo te kunnen volgen op jullie wereldreis,dit moet prachtig zijn ,maar wij zouden zo iets niet meer kunnen meemaken,daar wij alletwee een beetje (veel)aan het verouderen zijn .een tripje naar italie of spanje daar zijn we al heel blij mee,of gewoon met de auto naar Frankrijk o.a.normandie en bretangne,daar ligt mijn hartje.Bij jullie moet dat uniek zijn,en ik ben blij dat je er zoveel foto's bij gestoken hebt.vanaf nu zal ik elke keer direct kijken en rapper eens antwoorden.Heel dikke knuffels van mijzelf en mijn lukske.tot heel binnenkort.nicole en lucxxxxxxxxxxxxx