Sunday 31st August
After a shower and a change of clothes, go into the cafe for
the breakfast buffet which is good. Fried eggs, "omelette",
sausages, assorted cold meats, salami,
cheeses breads etc etc.. The cafe is
very different from the Europa, it has a modern, clean design; it could be in Germany . The hotel offers a FREE
laundry service so make use of that. With my map from Reception , I set out to
follow the tourist trail. Sunday morning is very quiet, shops are closed and
not many people around. The trail is well laid out with a red line on the road
to follow as well as the map. I joined in the middle and took some deviations
off it, which led me to TGIF among other things. There is still a big statue of
Lenin looking over his Prospect and Karl Marx has a rather minor street.
Ekaterinburg is a big modern city with not so much for the tourist but they
have done a good job of keeping their heritage buildings, including some
fantastic 19th century ones. One, close to Lenin, houses an up-market shopping
mall which reminds me of the one in Vietnam in catering to people with
more money than taste. Maybe it's just sour grapes on my part.
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| It's that Man Again! |
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| Upmarket Shopping Mall |
It is quite a surprise to realise that some of the churches are new, such as a small
one near the lake, which was built around 2000 to commemorate the location of
the first church in the city, and the massive "Church of the
Blood", which was built after the
collapse of communism, dedicated to the
Romanov royal family who were murdered on the site. I thing the Russian
Orthodox Church has canonised them. Everything is in Russian so I may be
missing something but it seems there is a huge focus on the Romanovs and no
consideration of the millions of ordinary Russians who suffered and perished in
the aftermath of the revolution. Immediately across the road from the church is
a typical heroic, Soviet statue, so
maybe there is just no consensus on how to treat the past. Most of the people
in the church were genuine worshippers or pilgrims with only a handful of
tourists in a group. As I went in I thought there was an entry charge and
handed over 50 roubles and was surprised to receive a candle rater than a
ticket. I lit it for J in the hope that
she will make a good recovery.
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| Saint Catherine's Chapel. Built in 1998 on the site of the first church in Ekaterinburg. |
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| Church of the Blood |
The tourist trail has a a tribute to the Beatles and an
artwork of a huge Qwerty keyboard, formed of stones on a grassy bank.
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| Tribute to the Beatles |
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| Dr Who in Ekaterinburg |
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| Part of the keyboard |
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| Riverside |
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N. I. Sevastianov’s house |
Made my way back to the hotel and had a cup of coffee and a
cake in the Schokolade cafe next door.
Evening went to a restaurant recommended by Trip Advisor, Poshtek.
Inside it was very retro again, although not so overtly Soviet as Rassolnik in Irkutsk .
The tables were divided up so that each group of two or three occupied a
"living room" decorated in 1950s style with lots of books in
bookshelves "family" photographs,
pretty oil paintings hanging
on flowery wallpaper, light shades with
fringes and tassels and a few old cameras and typewriter to complete the scene.
The portable typewriter was almost identical to the one my mother had, except
for the Cyrillic type. I find the nostalgia strange since I can't believe any
of the diners, who need to be fairly affluent to eat at this type of restaurant,
would look back on the communist period with any pleasure. Also interesting
that the rooms re-created are very bourgeois, full of books, pens and ink
stands, the homes of doctors and lawyers
rather than the proletariat. Perhaps, despite all the hardships and injustice,
people really did believe they were building a better future?
Wednesday 1st
September.
Find
what I think may be the original station, almost along side the current one
which now appears to be a museum. Everything in Russian so not sure. When I try
to go n a man gives me a definite "Nyet" shrug without exchanging any
words at all.
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| Railway Museum in the Old Station Building |
Decide to take a tram ride to a different part of the city
and Tram 3 looks to go through the city centre and out to the South West. 23
roubles flat fare. Interesting to see different parts of the city and then we
are into the big housing estates. Lots of Soviet era apartment blocks, but after
seeing Asian mass housing in Singapore
and Beijing
these seem almost cosy.
On the tram I see "Lolita" for the first time. Is
she deliberately playing the part? Or rehearsing for one? She could be anywhere
between 14 and 17. Petite, pretty and immaculately dressed. Black formal but
flat shoes, dark tights, short black pleated skirt, spotless white quilted
jacket with paisley like pattern in black, black handbag with "Ginivy"
written in silver on it. A pink fabric rose is pinned in her longish, light brown
hair curled into ringlets at her shoulders. She has hazel
brown eyes and to complete the image she is sucking a lollipop. There are seats
on the tram but she stands immediately in front of me which is why I cannot
ignore her. She certainly stands out from all the other women on the tram.
Eventually we arrive at a huge shopping mall, Raduga Park
Inside could be anywhere in Europe , except for the Cyrillic. It has a superstore,
all the well known brands such as
H&M, Mango, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds etc, and a food court, same words in Russian.
Interesting that about half the shop front signs are in Latin alphabet but many
brands such as McDonalds and Baskin
Robbins have decided to
Cyrillisise, (is that a word?) their names.
Do the marketing departments do lots of customer research to make the decision?
Obviously all younger Russians are totally familiar with the Latin alphabet, not like me working out each Cyrillic word in
turn, so it seems doubly odd that so few
speak any English. Have a cup of cappuccino; I can safely order that, and a Danish pastry
in a small cafe which I think is called "Polly Bakery".
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| Tram and Apartments |
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| Flags and Apartments |
After having my fill of the shopping mall and looking at
some old wooden houses or apartments next to the high rise estate, I head back
to the tram stop to find the No. 3 tram does not run back in the direction I
came from. So I get on a No. 19 going back the other way thinking that the No.
3 must do a loop at the end of the line. On the No 19, there is Lolita again but now wearing jeans
instead of the black dress. Realise I am not heading back into the city and I
can see no sign of a No. 3 on the signs showing the trams in this direction. So
decide to get the No. 3 tram back the other way, which takes me back into the
city centre but not back to where I started. Eventually we ae heading out of
the centre again and finaIly stop at a terminus. I show the map to the
conductor and point to where I got on and she gestures me to stay in the tram.
Soon we are heading off again and eventually I do get back to where I started.
An interesting round the city tour for 69 roubles but not what I had
planned. The No 3 is a circular route
with an appendix in the South East and runs anticlockwise only. Why? What is the
point of a tram line that takes you somewhere from which you cannot return? The
black and white tram route I downloaded gives no clue,showing only the ends of
the lines. Colour maps showing the routes would be really useful at the tram
and bus stops. Check on the web later and find the following.
http://askural.com/2010/12/transport-in-yekaterinburg/
which confirms that " For example, if you take Tram 3
form the train station to Lenin
Avenue , it doesn’t mean that you can get back to
the train station by the same tram as it runs one way in circles." but
doesn't explain why
Went to the supermarket in the shopping mall across the road
from the hotel which has a range of products to rival any in Britain , and surpasses most in Singapore , to buy some cappuccino sachets for the journey
tomorrow. Did some ironing in the dedicated ironing room they have on every
floor.
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| Remotes are Us |
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