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I came to Izhevsk at five o’clock in the morning. It is not the best time, of course; I thought they had a different time zone, but it turned out the same as in Moscow, so my margin of two hours did not apply. The city was absolutely empty, I walked the streets to the centre alone. I might have taken a commuter train directly to Yanaul (it departed about 10 minutes after my arrival) and be at home sooner, but of course I opted for Izhevsk sightseeing, despite the fact that transportation was more complicated in this case. I made the mistake of leaving my luggage at the train station – but I headed to the bus station to find its location and learn more about buses to Sarapul.
Izhevsk is a large economic, transport, trade and cultural centre (in the Republic of Udmurtia) of the country, renowned for its defence, machine building and metallurgical industries. I have plans to visit Russian cities of importance, subjecting them to a number of selection factors; Izhevsk quite met my demands (also it is close to my native town).
I switched on GPS navigation on my phone and walked rather fast
because of cold – and now and then saw buses and trams passing, and in a while I boarded a random one and reached the bus station much sooner. The road off-centre was in a poor state, with litter here and there and the only feeling evoked in that district being close to gloom.
I checked the bus schedule to Sarapul and bought a map, and the 120-minute sightseeing began. The bus station was actually near the centre, and I headed to the cathedral, taking random shoots of the city. It was such bliss – virtually no cars and very few pedestrians, gradually growing in number as minutes passed by, and sunny weather. However, the trams were full with people even at such an early hour. Unfortunately, I did not visit the hoped-for museum of arms and the regional museum, but I can easily squeeze them in during my next inter-regional movements.
From the hill where the Saint Michael’s Cathedral stands (it does not seem old, is made of red brick, but is rather majestic to look at both from afar and closer), I saw the spire of another cathedral and rushed there. Gusts of wind were almost
unbearable, especially to my head and ears, but I wore a light coat because when I left Petersburg the weather was excellent, if not hot.
I saw Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (it is a type of religious architecture quite different from the older constructions you see in Pskov, Novgorod, etc), the arms hall (the city’s oldest building), monument to Izhevsk gun-makers, and a view on the man-made Izhevsk Pond still under ice.
The city was already living in full, and I took a tram back to the train station, got my things, took the same tram back to the bus station, bought a ticket to Sarapul, and enjoyed the short ride (about an hour, 62 kilometers). The road was really awful in places, but that’s all right with me.
There was absolutely no need to visit Sarapul for sightseeing, because it has very little to offer, but I had about one and a half hour to wait till the train, and so run through the city as quickly as possible. One of the notable sights was the fire watchtower, 1887, one of the few remaining in the Ural Region. On my way back, given the very long distance
to the station, I took a ‘wrong’ bus, taking me to the station in a roundabout way – I even worried and asked the
My finishing route was Sarapul to Yanaul by train (58 minutes), and finally, in Yanaul, I took the final bus to my hometown.
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