Siberia

Not to be arrogant, but I'm pretty sure that right now I can say that I've been somewhere that nobody reading this has ever been. I'm in Yekaterinburg Russia, on the Asian side of the Ural mountains. I left Moscow two days ago, late in the afternoon, and arrived in Yekaterinburg last night. Before I go any further, I'd like to give you my top 5 list of the most boring places on earth.

1) Yekaterinburg, Russia
2) TBA
3) TBA
4) Detroit, MI (sorry Dave)
5) TBA

I'm exagerating a bit, and I'm actually having a lovely time here. There's not a lot in Yekaterinburg, but then again this is Siberia and I should probably have known better than to expect a whole lot.

We arrived at our hotel last night after walking from the train station (right across the street) and everyone desperately wanted a shower. Despite the traditional image of Siberia, temperatures have consistently been in the 90's and the A/C in the trains can be a bit dodgy. What did we arrive to find? No hot water. Not just in our hotel, but in the whole town. Apparently, hot water isn't a home grown utility like it is in the US - needless to say I wasn't too happy. I was reassured there would be hot water in the morning.

there wasn't. I always pictured my descent into insanity as being an experience where I was far from home, exhausted, dirty and really really smelly, eating a breakfast of completely foreign foods with a TV playing bad Russian MTV in the background. I'm suprised I made it through.

After an incredibly cold shower a couple of us headed into town and found the church where the Romanov's were murdered. The house that was the actual murder scene is long gone, and the church is pretty new. Afterwards we set off for the second sight Yekaterinburg has to offer - the military museum where the wreckage of Gary Power's U-2 plane is on display. For 30 roubles ($1) I gained admission to the museum which chronicles (in Russian) several hundred years of Russian Military tradition. On the top floor, sure enough, were a few small pieces of the plane and the pressure suit that Gary Powers wore during his flight. Also on display were pictures of his survival kit which included some gold rings, Russian money, and a poisoned tip needle (survival kit, eh?).

Tomorrow evening we board the train for a 52 hour journey to Irkutsk, in the heart of Siberia. There I'll be staying with a Russian family in the small village of Litsvyanka and will have the opportunity to enjoy a traditional sauna complete with a beating from a birch branch (gotta do something to keep yourself entertained out here).

До свидания!
Andrew