It's a Long Way to St Petersburg

Richard writes:

We departed Irkurtsk with five nights of train travel ahead of us before arriving In St Petersburg. These five nights were to be spent on three different trains, interspersed with a day each in the beautiful cities of Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod.

The journey between Irkutsk and Yekaterinburg flew by, even though it lasted for over 50 hours. Our company was mixed to say the least. We had a posh elderly woman who couldn't bring herself to look at us, let alone communicate with us. We had a very elderly Belorussian man, who smelt a bit funny and made a series of horrific bodily noises including some very loud snoring. Despite these issues he was clearly a fascinating man, who no doubt would have had some very interesting stories to tell if we understood Russian! He managed to explain to me however, that he had a Belorussian passport, the mind of a Russian and the body of a Ukranian; whatever that means! In between these companions, a charming Siberian classical music teacher spoke with us before she settled down to get some sleep.

We arrived in Yekaterinburg at 5am, and considering the weather we have been experiencing and the time, it was relatively warm. The city has a population of over one million Russian souls and is best known as being Boris Yeltsin's city and the city where the Romanovs were murdered (executed if you wish to take the Bolshevik line!). The house where the mortal wounding occurred (this seems to be the accepted phrase in Russia) has since been demolished and on the site a huge church has been erected as a memorial to the last Tsar and his family.

Church upon the Blood

The City Pond

Other than main tourism draw the city was beautiful. The imaginatively named "City Pond" sparkled in the sun and we went on a walking tour of the city, guided by a painted red line that follows the city's key attractions. The one sour note in the city, was the violence we saw. Whilst beginning our walking tour we were witness to a small brawl that kept stopping and starting. Other city folk went about their daily business with little concern, but we kept a safe distance from the scuffle. Later in the day we saw a further reminder of what might be a slightly violent undertone, in the form of a young man named Sacha. Anybody who has been viewing our photos on our blog's Dropbox link, will have noticed that we take a photo with a local person in every city we visit with a whiteboard detailing the date, city and the local's name. This can sometimes be challenging, especially when we are not in a city for long as not many opportunities arise to ask. In Yekaterinburg we stumbled across two fairly normal looking guys who we began asking. Unfortunately, as this went on, Sacha appeared and wanted to have his photo taken. Now, I am sure he was a lovely chap, but he seemed a bit rough around the edges and his white shirt was covered in blood stains. We took the shot and made a hasty retreat!

Sacha and the Whiteboard

Before, aboarding our train to Nizhny Novgorod and crossing the Asian/European border we had time to visit a charming museum detailing Yekaterinburg's history. It was small, but full of interactive exhibits, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to both the museum and the city as a whole.

Europe/Asia Border (taken from the train)

After Yekaterinburg's pleasant temperature, Nizhny Novgorod was hot, really hot. Various themometers around the city attempted to gauge the temperature, with a range from 29 degrees to a whopping 40 degrees! I am guessing it was somewhere inbetween the two, but we certainly had to mop our brow at times as we walked through the city in the blistering sun. We both absolutely loved the city however. We saw the historic Kremlin, walked down a gorgeous pedestrianised restaurant and shopping strip and visited an eighteenth century mansion with many original fixtures and fittings. Nizhny Novgorod is not on many people's bucket list, but if you get the chance to go, I thoroughly recommend it!

Rukavishnikov Mansion

Nizhny Novgorod General Photos

As means of an update, in the whole trip we have so far travelled; 32,832 kms, of which 23,513 kms have been via rail. We have sipped over 50 types of beer, visited 14 Unesco World Heritage Sites and spent 21 nights on trains! If you would like to see more of our stats, please visit our 'Ghosting Genghis In Numbers' page.