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Ekaterinburg - Capital Of The Urals

…And doesn’t the name say it all. In fact, how the hell do you say the name!!!

This city surprised me because it’s foundation is in industry such as forestry and mining, and militia, so to see a city (that is basically famous for the assassination of the last Tsar) have fantastic theatres and cathedrals was fantastic.

The first morning spent in Ekaterinburg was spent in a walking tour of the city, seeing the main sights and filling us with information such as it being the city with the shortest subway route in Russia. The entire metro system only has five stops and no-one uses it because the trolley buses, buses and trams do a better job of covering the city. Passing monuments to World War II heroes and the obligatory monuments to Lenin, we were able to see military museums and gem stone museums, as well as find some history of the place. The main feature is the Cathedral dedicated to all the saints that was built in 2000 on the site of the assassination of the Tsar, Nicholas II, and his family and retainers.

An interesting city, but overshadowed by the fact we were now only 26 hours from Moscow, leaving for the station the next morning and crossing the imaginary line running down the East side of the Ural Mountains that separates Asia from Europe.

Some things I should probably impart on you by now.... If your going to do the Trans-Mongolian then I suggest you do it in the same direction I have. This is because of a number of things.
1) The journey begins a little rough round the edges but the carriages get better the further you go. I'd hate it if we ended with the carriages we started with,
2) You gain time to see the surroundings pass you by because of the direction your travelling, and
3) By the time you get to the major centres of Russia you will already have a good grounding of both the customs and the alphabet. This helps when using public transport especially.
Also, if I could do it again in my own time, I wouldn't use a tour group as the carriages are booked in bulk for tourists and you don't get too much interaction with locals as well as it being enormously more expensive. I would also increase the time stayed in Beijing by a day, the Ger Camp by a day, stay night in Irkutsk, and remove a day from Ulaan Bataar.
Just my opinion.... take it or leave it, up to you.

“When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” - Clifton Fadiman

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Comments

[bek]

those woods look very blair witch like...i wouldn't be going in there