On the border of Europe and Asia in Yekaterinburg

Ah, Yekaterinburg, you feel so European, people here are happier and the hotel we are staying at, the Checkhov, is by far and away the best hotel we have stayed at on our entire journey.

The Checkhov has all you need, free wi-fi, a comfy bed, quality TV, strong shower pressure, hot dogs for breakfast, friendly staff and a boutique hotel feel.  To top it off a great 24 hour Italian restaurant is over the road, handy for late night train arrivals.

This morning we met our guide, Olga and we were promptly taken to a Volkswagen van, ushered into the back and promptly on our way to the village of Koptelovo, where we would see a performance of singing, eat a traditional Russian lunch and visit some traditional Siberian Izba houses.

Our luck with the weather had run out at this stage and the heavens opened up, and remained open for pretty much the rest of the day.  Given that our rain gear consists of a bunch of emergency ponchos, which are little more than large plastic shopping bags, with holes for heads and arms, plus the free raincoats given to us by our Beijing based tour company, this was not good news.

Yekaterinburg is on the border of Europe and Asia.  The food is European, the people look and act more European, but the driving is firmly rooted in Asia.  It’s pouring with rain, do we moderate our driving in any way?  No!  It’s raining harder and we are now driving on a dirt forest road, do we continue to tailgate and flick our lights off and on?  Totally!  Visibility is down to about 5 metres due to heavy rain and wind, do we continue to overtake on a two lane road?  Absolutely!

Upon arrival at the village we saw the village spring, where a church had been built over the top of it, making the spring holy.  It contained the clearest and cleanest water I think I have ever seen, second only to Lake Baical.

We then visited the traditional Izba house, which was also ver interesting, we learned about all of the work that the women had to do, making rugs, cooking porridge, fetching and carrying water, chopping wood, bearing children, making beer, cooking, washing, cleaning and numerous other tasks that explain why many Russian women were as tall as they are wide, especially in olden times.  I’m pretty sure that the men had it tough as well, felling trees, plowing fields, fighting off wolves with their bare hands and having to go outside to work in the Russian winters.  Unfortunately no one lived in the house anymore, it is now a museum.

After this we were met by a horse and cart and a very cute foal that was still so young it was following it’s mother around.  For the slower learners, the mother, it’s called the mare was pulling the cart.  All of this would have been fine and dandy, had it not taken place in an icy cold torrential downpour.  Cheap Chinese made raincoats don’t cope too well in a torrential downpour, and the heatwave here is well and truly over.  Bythe time we got to the museum, we were soaked to the skin, miserable and cold.

We were a mere 6 Russian folk songs away from a few shots of vodka and some hearty Russian fare.  During the songfest our guide would turn to us and ask “Can you guess the meaning”?  ”Everyones happy they have exceeded their wheat harvesting quota and will not be put in a GULAG” was my best guess, but it was wrong.  One of the songs outlined a young flaxen haired maiden who was so taken by the sight of a strapping young man that she could not decided to kiss him or eat nuts, either way, said maan would have walked away a happy customer.

Finally, after a traditional dance number where we all had to get involved in surrounding and punching an old woman, it was time for lunch.

Lunch, was fabulous, cold egg and bacon salad, real mayonnaise, fresh baked bread, salad, dumplings, vegetable soup and shot after shot of Kaptelovo.  Kaptelovo is a rose coloured spirit, made in Koptelovo village, strong enough to give you a warm glowing warming glow in the pit of your stomach, yet surprisingly smooth and damn tasty.  So good I bought 3 litres of the stuff, that was proudly delivered in two used soft drink bottles.  After drying off, being stuffed full of food and walking away slightly loaded, I was ready for the olde timey farmy equipment museum, which was coming up after lunch.

We saw farm equipment, a traditional blacksmiths shop and numerous other exhibits.  The highlight of our afternoon was playing with scythes and pretending to be the grim reaper, re-enacting the famous salmon mousse incident.  After this we braved more tailgating, speeding and generally eratic driving to make it back to Yekaterinburg for a bit of a look see at the city.

Once we were back the rain cleared and we basked in beautiful warm sunlight.  We watched as old Communist era trams went up and down the main street, we heard stories about the secret space and arms factories that used to be all over the city and we were also told that most of the workers were forbidden to travel outside the city, lest they fall into the hands of the CIA.  It was all sounding very interesting and then we went to the Stone museum.  I wont write much, but suffice to say it was one room full of rocks from all over the Ural Mountains an a few other countries.  I was happy to whip through in five minutes, Tanya is much too polite, yes it was as boring as it sounds.

After this, we went to the far more interesting Church on the Blood, which was built on the site where the Bolsheviks executed Czar Nicholas II, and his entire family.  The entire Romanov family are now Saints in Russian Othodoxy.

After this, it was around 9:30pm, still daylight, but we were totally shagged, so we ate at the Italian place near the hotel, again.