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(Day 41 on the road)The train from Moscow to take Yekaterinburg, and stepping out of the train felt strange somehow. Yekaterinburg (KM 1814 on the Transsib) is in the Ural, and about 200km short of Siberia. It is also the first major city in Asia when you travel on the Transsib. The border between Europe and Asia is at exactly Kilometer 1777, counting from Moscow.
The train-ride itself was great. There are basically three classes on long-distance trains in Russia: SV (first class), Kupeyny (second class), and Platskartny (third class). I had experienced kupe on the train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which was fine - 4 bunk beds in one compartment, one above the other on both sides. Now however, it was time to try platskart, and it is perfect: Imagine a normal-sized train-carriage, but instead oh having seats, the whole carriage is full of bunk-beds. 59 of them, to be exact. Imagine a huge youth hostel dormitory on wheels, and you get the idea. The train was packed, with every single bed taken. During the daytime, the bottom beds serve as seats, so getting an upper bed is much better, because you can go to bed or lie
down whenever you feel like it, whilst on the bottom beds there are always people sitting on your bed. The Russians we met on the train were extremely friendly, and we soon had a lively discussion going, with all available languages spoken (sign-language being the most useful). Alex and me were the only foreigners in the carriage and as thus the big attraction. It was just great, so from now on I will go with platskart all the time, much better than sterile kupe where you don't meet anyone!
Yekaterinburg itself is nothing spacial, just a big grey place. Checking into the hotel however was fun: The young female receptionist heard Alex, my travel companion between Moscow and here, speaking English as we entered the lobby, and the following conversation went like this (I am not kidding!): "Hey, where are you from?" -"Holland and Germany". "Great, where are you going?" -"South to Kazakhstan and East to Baikal". "Perfect, can I come with you?" We were stunned but had a great laugh. She was a real flirt and funny as anything, and it took us about 30 minutes to check in, most of which was spent with chatting with the
receptionist rather than checking in. With a long queue behind us and t6he people getting impatient,, we decided to leave here and go to our room. She gave us piece of paper, which we had to take to the fourth floor, where we collected our key from the grumpy old key lady, and then headed to our room on the third floor. Why they don't give out the key at the reception remains any one's guess.
The only other highlight was the visit at the railway museum. It was completely dark from the outside, and Alex and me were about to turn around thinking it closed, when a middle-aged lady opened the door and waved us in. There were four members of staff (the lady that turned out to be showing us around in a cool mixture on Russian, sign language, and bits and pieces of German and English), a security guy, a cashier, and a cleaner. But no visitors! So we went in, paid 30 Rubles entry fee, they switched on the light, and we got our private tour.
From now on, I will be doing some "overnight-hopping": Spending the day in one place, taking a night train to a new place, spending the day there, then catching another overnight train and so on. The perfect way to cover the vast distances of Siberia whilst at the same time seeing some of the highlights amongst the Transsib!
Next stop: Tobolsk (Russia).
To view my photos, have a look at
pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete
book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).
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