Russia - Yekaterinburg

Well, it is high time I got back into updating my travel blog! I seem to have been too busy having fun and distracted by great company, that my memories are starting to fade.....

I was delighted to be off the train and looking forward to the next stop in Russia, the unofficial 3rd largest city, Yekaterinburg, a manageable size city, and therefore a good way to ease into Russian culture and history. The city was being spruced up for an Asian conference in June so was looking good, clean and nicely situated around a large city pond. The weather was really good and hence, the streets were lined with locals drinking beer - a real Russian activity, a few buskers and old men playing chess!

I was whisked off on a city tour with a young guide, Olga, who was excellent company and gave me some insight into the city's history and culture, from her thoughts on the renaming of the university to Boris Yeltsin University, her version of the story behind the Bolshevics killing of the last Royal Family - Tsar Nicolas in 1918, and her views of the Church of blood built on the site in commemoration of their death with lashings of gold! I really enjoyed the few hours walk around the city and whilst she responded tactfully on my questioning, I was sometimes flummoxed by her questions to me on South Africa. The one that struck me the most was her question of what has our country done to keep the people together? It certainly makes one think beyond what it is that holds you to your own country and culture..... to how successful (and still very new) democracy is in SA and how incredibly fortunate we are that we did not go the Communism route....in my (humble and) limited experience of China and Russia. There were only a few people I engaged in deep conversation with in Russia, and it was clear to me that what was happening in Russia wasn't working for the educated young and many, including Olga, were seeking to leave the country, in her case, to Italy.

After a day in the city, it was time for a day outdoors, and I had signed up for mountain biking in the Urals - mis-sold - it was more like a cycle around a pond!!!! We drove half an hour out of the city to a lake surrounded by a forest, waited 2 hours for the bikes and then mosied around the lake in an hour, with a wee mound for a hill!! In the meantime I chatted to the handsome young guide and got another version of Russian life and culture! There was a recurring theme of youngsters living life for today, perhaps not taking it too seriously, especially when compared to harsher life of older generations. Unlike China, where events are not talked about or written about and even censured, Russian youngsters are quite clued up on recent events and quite frank about Russian cultural oddities! His first question to me was did you experience some of Russian stereotype on the train - beer/vodka swelling men!!! No escaping that, and I still had 2 more legs of the train to go!!!!