Back In The USSR
Yekaterinburg
It's 29 hours here by train from Moscow, the first big chunk of the Trans-Siberian railway. The train was almost empty and I was the only foreigner on board but the journey went fine thanks to a regular supply of 5 rouble (that's 10p) cups of tea and a few conversations with Russians that didn't even get going enough to be considered 'halting'. Everyone that spoke to me found it hilarious I'd even consider travelling in Russia by train for fun. Maybe they have a point. What the hell am I doing here?
Anyway, crossed over into Asia late last night just before arriving here. Nearly one and a half million people live here, which makes it bigger than Leeds and Bradford put together, so it's hardly a backwater.
Went to the first hotel I found (the Sverdlovsk, the old Soviet name for this city that's still widely used) and managed to get a room. It's a huge old Communist concrete block that again looked mostly empty. Most of the stereotypes that exist of Soviet accommodation were confirmed as true within five minutes. In true Communist job-creation style you don't get your key from the receptionist, you get a bit of paper which you then have to give to another person who sits in another office on your floor. The corridors seem to be never ending, full of identical doors on either side. Eventually I found my room, and I imagine I'm the first person to find it in quite some time. The glass and plate that were in there were firmly stuck together, one of the windows doesn't shut properly (not a great thing when it's suddenly got very cold outside - 5C when I got in last night and not much warmer now), the wallpaper is pure 1960s and the black and white TV only manages to get one channel. Last night it was showing 'Arachnophobia' with a very disinterested Russian guy dubbing over all the parts (including women) in a monotone drawl.
All great fun this though, I went to bed smiling and not just because my mouth had frozen into that shape. Off to get a big coat this morning, then to see if I can find where the Romanovs were killed in 1918.
2 Comments:
Glad to see you're back on the boards. It might be minus 5 in Yekaterinburg, but it's still 20 degrees plus here in Aksai, Kazakhstan, (which is just about as far as the German Panzer divisions reached in 1943!)
Guess who - from Budapest, Hungary
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Greetings!
I have been instructed by Bron to get in touch. The reason for my lack of contact is that my uni access has been switched off, and work blocks t'hotmail. And I'm a lazy so and so. Anyhow, I have been studiously keeping up to date on the boards, as this is not blocked. As I am at work I have often had to suppress laughter at the remorselessly sardonic way in which you have ridiculed our Teutonic and Slavonic cousins.
It would seem you have picked quite a good/bad (delet as appropriate) time to be in Russia. Bombings, aviation terror and school masacres - everything it said in the brochure and much, much more! If you're still in Yekaterinburg, I suggest you check out the lake (apparently the biggest in the world, by volume). Or alternatively the vodka (apparently the strongest in the world, by volume). Anyway, must be getting back to work, before my boss starts to hassle me for not harrassing innocent people to sell them stuff.
Catch you later.
Ben
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