ALIVE IN EKATERINBURG.

We made it alive to Ekaterinburg after three nights in a row on the train!

Each of our train rides was special in its own way.... our train from Moscow to Nizhnii Novgorod was brand new and quite fancy and full of quiet, serious Moscovites reading quiet, serious books. Our train from Nizhnii Novgorod to Kazan put us in a platz-kart wagon nearly entirely full (minus two little girls and their parents and about three old women) of 18 year old Russian soliders who had clearly been lectured by their officer to leave us alone and be quiet because they certainly did. Our train last night from Kazan to Ekaterinburg was hot as hell and Meri and I had two top bunks with three judgemental babushki below us who didn't want the window open for fear of a draft, so Meri and I -- in order not to pass out from heat stroke -- had to wait until they were all asleep to reopen the window.

We made it to our hostel in Ekaterinburg though finally, at long last, or should I say "hostel" because it is actually just a Russian apartment with two sets of bunk beds and one twin bed, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a clunky PC from the 90s (which I am currently on) run by two adorable Russian women who speak in cute, accented English who can't be more than 5 years older than us. It's actually really wonderful because Meri and I feel like we are just getting to relax in our own little apartment for the night before carrying on. We don't have to deal with one of those typically hostely-hostels full of gregarious Australians who want to chat and go for a bar crawl. We made coffee in the kitchen and have been using the wonderful shower (despite the fact that all the water in Ekat smells like sulphur, after not showering since Moscow we really don't give a shit) and watching Russian TV and figuring out our plans for tomorrow and when we get to Baikal.

As for our last two stops...

Nizhnii Novgorod, I had heard, by some person, that it was the "most beautiful city in Russia." Either we hit the completely wrong parts (though we walked along the main pedestrian street and around the Kremlin) or the weather really didn't do it justice, but I have a slightly different opinion of that city.... it was also just one of those "Russian" days where everything goes wrong. Things that we thought would be open were closed, the Mexican restaurant we wanted to find that had been recommended by Lonely Planet was closed for remont, the pizza place recommended by Lonely Planet was bad, we couldn't find postcards that didn't come in packs of 10 or have writing all over the back, the park we wanted to go to was actually just a pile of dirt and a tree, it started to rain....

But for everything that was lame about Nizhnii, Kazan was even better. We waited out the rain in the morning and spent some time reading and drinking tea in the local McDonald's (the only thing open at 6:30AM when we arrived on our train) and then spent a beautiful, sunny, cloudly blue day in Kazan just walking around. Kazan also has a pedestrian street and a Kremlin, but for whatever reason it is just SO MUCH COOLER than Nizhnii. No offense if you like Nizhnii. Kazan is the capital of Russia's Autonomous Region of Tartarstan and so all the signs are bilingual in Russian and in the Tartar language which is cool. The city is also full of mosques due to the Muslim population and has a Middle Eastern kind of vibe which was a change from the typical Russian cities we'd been inhabiting. We didn't even go into any museums (we've been feeling kind of burnt out of museums) but just walked around looking at everything and enjoying ourselves thoroughly.

As for Ekaterinburg, I already saw and said hi to the hotel we stayed at on the Wellesley trip two years ago but that's about it. After we take some time to shower and reorganize our lives, we'll go out and explore.

Time update: Ekaterinburg is two hours ahead of Moscow time, meaning I'm now 10 hours ahead of most of you reading this blog. Good morning!