city-hopping

After a bit of city-hopping I will leave for Olchon Island on Baikal lake tomorrow morning. I am sooo much looking forward to it, as the lake is not only considered to be really really beautiful but what is more I will stay there for around a week, which will give me some rest... because last week has been rather exhausting, as I didn't stay anywhere longer than 2 nights and topped with the quite cold and windy weather I got a bit sick. Nevermind...

So, I will give you a short introduction into the cities along the transsiberian railway-track that I've seen:

Kazan
After Nizhniy Novgorod, that I left one week ago,

I arrived really early in the morning in Kazan, the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan. All the street signs are written first in Tatarnese and only then in Russian. The percentage of Muslims in Tatarstan is quite high compared to the rest of Russia - and this is what makes the city in fact so interesting: the impressive "Kul-Sharif-Mosque" in the Kremlin.

After spending some time in a creepy station-café I walked to the city center to see all the historic sights. But to admit, well, I was really impressed by the Mosque and the whole Kremlin. The main street could be beautiful, if it wasn’t completely under construction. But after all: I saw more or less everything after 2-3hours – and this trying to be really really slow… That’s where travelling alone show’s its disadvantage: sometimes you are in fact alone and this can be boring in a place where there’s not really that much going on… So I was quite happy to hop on the train in the evening to continue to Ekaterinburg.

Ekaterinburg

(That's the Church on the blood - the place where the Bolsheviks killed Nicolai II, the last head of the Romanov-house (and last tsar) together with his family)
Ekaterinburg somehow remembered me of Warsaw – on the one hand you can still see the Soviet influence everywhere, on the other hand the city obviously tries to be modern.

There are many bars and the main road is lively full with people. I really liked the Beatles-memorial - that was an insider-tipp I got from a guy I got to know in the hostel in Moscow: isn't it nice??
However, I again only stayed one night which was enough considering that I was only visiting the city alone, and went further on my so far longest trip on the train to Krasnoyarsk, that I already summarised in my last story.


Krasnoyarsk

 

As my friend Olga, who is from Krasnoyarsk, was just at this time visiting her parents I had decided to stay there a bit longer than just one single night. I was really happy that I could stay for 2 nights in her mothers appartment and could again enjoy Russian hospitality.

They dedicated the whole Saturday for me: After great breakfast (guess what… yes, of course! delicous selfmade Bliniki) we went all together for a hiking-trip to the nearby Stolby-ressort: a montainous region with really impressive stones from old Volcanes, and after that to Divnogorsk, a nearby really sweet town on the border of the Yenisey-river and finally to hydroelectric dam, that covers the "back of the 10-roubles-note." (check the link!)

Even though I spent a bit longer there, going to the cinema (so proud of myself: I understood almost everything!!), walking around a lot, chatting with Olga and her family, time was running out fast as well and I saw myself quite soon on the train again - direction further East: Irkutsk.






Irkutsk
Irkutsk is considered to be the "Paris of Siberia". Mhm, well. To admit: I don't know why. With it's old wooden houses it is definitely beautiful,

but Paris of Siberia?

Rather Vienna of Siberia :D considering the fact that it has a really typical Viennese Café with our dear Strauss inside, marble-tables, Julius-Meinl-coffee (served on a plate together with a glass of water!) and of course Apfelstrudel ;)

After this city-hopping I would say one rule about Russian cities (letting appart Moscow and St. Petersburg):
you've seen one Russian city, you've seen them all (same goes for churches, wouldn't you agree??)
Appart from the very special sights in each town they are all the same: they all have a quite lively main-street, old Stalinist administration buildings and loads of sad concrete buildings, old marshrutkas, they really do all have a Lenin-street, a Karl-Marx-Street and a Dzherzhinsky-street (founder of the KGB - freaky that they still honor him in every town) and of course you will find a Lenin-statue in each town - showing you the right way!!