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Published: August 6th 2011
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After my disastrous foray to the Yekaterinburg hinterland, the next day I actually went around the city and was pleasantly surprised. A man I met in Olkhon Island told me they really enjoyed sightseeing in Yekaterinburga nd he was right! It is well worth the trip, for one day anyway.
OK, back to that crummy, noisy, cardboard basement hotel I booked into after midnight. I didn't sleep much with all the noise overheard and I was wrecked the next day. But there was a lovely young woman of about 22 years-of-age who was working as a housekeeper in the hotel and she very kindly made a cooked breakfast for me. I borrowed the hotel’s adaptor extension for my Netbook and explained to her that I had bought the adaptor the day before but I couldn’t get the extension piece (for deep sockets).
When I was ready to leave she had her jacket on over her uniform and told me she would take me to a shop to try and get the adaptor piece. She brought the piece to show the staff in the shop. It wasn’t far to the shop but, alas, they didn’t have it and didn’t know where
historic mural, Railway Station
there are about 12 around the waiting room upstairs - check them out I could get one. I repeated to her that I had been given the same answer the day before. Well then, she said there was nothing for it but to give me the hotel’s adaptor extension! I gave her double the cost of it, to pay the hotel.
I urged her to get back to work but she insisted on taking me across the highway to wait for the bus into town. When it came she climbed on and explained to the driver where I was going. I didn’t see but I later realised that she paid for me as well. Luckily I had given her a 100rouble tip as she was leaving, but I thought that was amazing. She gave me a big hug, wished me luck and hopped off the bus.
I had all my stuff with me but my train wasn’t until 23:30 so I headed straight to the train station. It was a second pleasant surprise for the day when I found that they had a 24-hour left-luggage service. I thought they were all closed with 9/11. Great, now I was free to explore the city with just my schoolbag. First things first, I
in front of the train station
I never know who these people are, but I love the style! went on a one-hour city tour in a mini-bus.
I had asked a young woman with good English where the Czar Nicholas II & family, the Romanovs, were assassinated and she told me, “I always thought it was somewhere at a distance from the city.” So I had accepted that. However I gather that the big Orthodox Cathedral-on-the-Blood we visited was built on the site of the assassination. It is set in beautiful grounds sloping down toward the river. It was very annoying that the young woman group leader responded to my simplest query with “Ne panamayoo (I don’t understand you).” I had thought the site of the assassination was down a side street and that the Communists had refused to allow a fuss to be made about the Romanovs. But the guide spent a long time talking about one room downstairs in the church. I gathered that the family were all buried behind marble plaques in the adjoining hall. So I presumed that was the site of the assassination. Upstairs, next to the altar was a large framed painting of the family with halos like saints. Outside the family are figures around a large crucifix. You’ll see it in
outside the Railway Museum
there are greata bronze caricature sculptures outside this Museum, next to the Train Staion/Vauxall. the photos. I had heard that many Russians are campaigning to have the Romanovs canonised, which strikes me as very strange. I would have been more impressed if there was a memorial to all the people the Czar had killed on his whim. What next? Caucescu claimed that he was following good Catholic principles in banning birth control and abortion, as Romanian orphanages overflowed with unwanted babies. Anyway, the other big tourist attraction is the cemetery where they were buried and the nearby monastery, but others say that the remains were reburied in St. Petersburg. So what are those marble plaques in the church for? I’ll have to go and take the tour again when my Russian improves.
I missed most of what was on the tour because we were inside the mini-bus and I couldn’t understand what she was saying. None of the other 10 passengers could speak English. But we did stop briefly at a fancy building fronted by a statue of local boy Boris Yeltsin. The man next to me said proudly, “Our first freely elected President.” OK, if you say so.
At the end of the tour I took off on my own and walked back
Church of the Blood
love it or hate it - you gotta see it! to the centre of town, Lenin Street and the bridge across the Iset River. I must say that it was all quite impressive and I really enjoyed seeing the sights on foot. They have done great work with promenades along the river banks.
You can see it in the photos but I have to say that if I hadn’t had the tour and those hours of walking I would have left Yekaterinburg believing what I had been told by someone who was on the Trans-Siberian Railway recently, that it is just another dull Soviet city. With all its up and downs it was well worth a visit – even if I’m still not quite sure what the Urals are.
OK, I did the Wikepedia for you:
"Ekaterinburg (Yekaterinburg), the capital city of the Urals, was founded in 1723 by Tzar Peter the Great (and named after his wife, Catherine). The city witnessed the death of monarchy in Russia, as it was there that the last Russian czar Nicolas II with his family was assassinated, in Ipatiev house by the Bolsheviks on July 16, 1918. You can visit an excursion devoted to these dramatic events.
Another dramatic episode in the area
the Romanovs as martyrs
the family members are clustered around this cruscifix outide the huge Church took place on May 1, 1960 when American U2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was hit by a missile launched from the local military base. The city was closed to the outside world until 1990 because of its strategic defense industries.
The city is associated with another famous political figure, Boris Yeltsin, who was born in the village of Butka not far from Ekaterinburg. Under Yeltsin's orders, the house where the Tzar and his family were killed was destroyed; a wooden cross and a chapel were been installed later. This place has been recognized by the Russian Orthodoxal church as a sacred and now Cathedral-on-the-Blood is constructed exactly where Ipatiev house once stood.
Tourists discover a city surprisingly rich in pre-Soviet churches and other architecture of an earlier era. The Europe-Asia Obelisk which is a about 25 miles west of the city, marking the border between the two continents, is an especially interesting place to visit."
That man I met on Olkhon Island told me that in the early 1990s the city was the site of a Mafia gang war. Because the murdered young people were rich, albeit from nefarious sources, their families were able to erect unique
Romanov family original crypt
the remains have since been moved to St. Peterburg tombstones in the Marshural cemetery. Check th Sheilaem out on “Russia mafia tombstones”.
This is a long train ride to St. Petersburg but I'll be there in the morning. Bye, Sheila
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anonymous
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This is the monument to the solders of Ural Volunteer Tank Division. They were know by Germans as "Schwarzmesser Panzer-Division" and got they "Guard" title hight combat skill.