I arrived in Yekaterinburg! Wednesday 29th of December 2010

I arrived in Yekaterinburg!
Here are two photos of the Yekaterinburg
I just arrived in Central Train Station in Yekaterinburg this morning and I am very excited to
explore this snow-covered city! The station in Yekaterinburg where our train stopped is called Sverdlovsk Vokzal which is a beautifully-decorated marble building with many white pillars along the length of the entrance.
In my cabin, I was listening intently to the American passenger explain and describe to her daughter the history of Yekaterinburg and it's mysteries. I was overwhelmed with excitement at the thought of visiting this approaching city as the train finally started to slow it's pace and lure into the Yekaterinburg Central Train Station. As my cabin mate spun the tales of the approaching city I decided to take a few notes on the city's history: Yekaterinburg is also called Ekaterinburg or Sverdlovsk and is the capital of the Ural Federal District and Sverdlovsk Region. From Moscow to Yekaterinburg, the train took 1 and a half hours, or 1h27 to be exact..During this time,The city was founded in 1723 by Peter the 1st and officially became a town in 1721. In the 19th century, it became a major centre of commerce, industry and banking. Yekaterinburg played an important trade-intermediary role since it is situated along the borders of Asia and Europe. The construction of giant plants during the 1930s lead to an considerable increase in the population. During the World War II, the city became a huge arsenal of military technology and weaponry although after the war,Yekaterinburg continued to develop it's major industrial and cultural centre.
Today, Yekaterinburg welcomes a population of 1 million and a half, and has a powerful industrial and research centre. Yekaterinburg is the seat of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since the town lies between the border of Asia and Europe it offers an important centre of cooperation between the the East and the West.


From the '' Train Station I took a bus to my hotel called the 'Park Inn Hotel' which is located in the centre of Yekaterinburg and is within walking distance of the commercial and business district and near the city's main shopping centres. In this way I will easily and quickly be able to explore Yekaterinburg and it's many secrets!
Places I will want to visit:
-museums:The Fine Arts Museum of Yekaterinburg, The Ekaterinburg History Museum


-restaurants: I chose 2 famous restaurants :Dudki-Ulitsa Tolmacheva, 23 (ул. Толмачева, 23);Troekurov -Ulitsa Malysheva, 137 (ул. Малышева, 137)


-russian shops and tourist shops


-city tours: I booked a tour called 'the Panoramic Excursion' which is a 2:30minutes tour bus or car and the tour is in Russian and English.


-parks:Victory Park (Uralmash Forest Park)or Парк Победы (Уралмашевский лесопарк)


-Theatres: the Opera and Ballet Theatre


-Famous monuments, landmarks:The Church on the Blood,
I just arrived at the hotel and I am very glad of my choice. This hotel is one of the first international hotels in Ekaterinburg, so I will be able to not have to dwell on trying to use my poor Russian to the employees. The hotel is situated in walking distance of many principal attractions of Yekaterinburg such as:- The Governor's Residence, The Central Post Office, the Literary Quarter, The Opera and Ballet Theatre.
[Image]I will be staying in Ekaterinburg for 4 days and then I shall set off again on the train towards Krasnoyarsk.
Here is my schedule during these 4 days: Monday
Tuesday
Morning: -Have breakfast in hotel.
-city tour (2 and a half hours)
Morning: -Have breakfast in hotel
- Walk through the 'Victory Park'
Morning:- Breakfast in Hotel
- Read and edit blog
Morning: Visit shops, tourist shops
Afternoon: Lunch in Hotel -The Ekaterinburg History Museum
Afternoon: Lunch in Restaurant- Walk through Yekaterinburg, visit famous monuments,landmarks Afternoon:- Walk to the Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Afternoon: Go to the Fine Arts Museum
Dinner:- Restaurant


 'Dinner: -Dinner in Hotel Dinner: Dinner:Restaurant 'Troekurov'
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Monday:
A typical Russian breakfast, or zavtrak is the following: an egg omelet, a sandwich,kasha which is a very common Russian dish, related to as porridge and is very healthy and easy to cook( There are many varieties of kasha such as: Buckwheat Kasha, Rice and milk Kasha, rice kasha, pumpkin kasha, farina kasha and pea kasha); as well as tea or coffee. Generally, the Russian people consume a hearty breakfast that consists of 2-3 eggs, or a bowl of kasha, or 2-3 sandwiches followed by a cup of tear or coffee.
I was served breakfast in the hotel and I chose an egg omelet and rice kasha and a cup of tea for I had a very big day ahead of me. The kasha was so delicious that I curiously asked the waiter the recipe and how to make it in my poor Russian:'Не могли бы вы сказать мне рецепт этого вкусного блюда?''

1 and 1/2 c of rice 3 c of water 200g of grated cheese 2 tb of butter salt
Wash rice under running water and fry it in butter until light brown. Pour over water and bring to boil, salt and cook on low heat for 40 minutes. Before serving, sprinkle with grated cheese.
After breakfast at 9 o'oclock, I walked out of the hotel and headed towards the city tour I booked, where I was to meet at the main Tourist office at 9:30. From there, we would travel by bus to the Church of Ascension, then towards the Cathedral on the Blood,Central Square,Ascension Church,Literary Quarter,The Dam, Governor’s Residence.
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We first arrived at the Cathedral on the Blood which is an astounding Orthodox church consisting of 5 golden domes and honors the Vosnesensky Hill.

There were two tour guides, one Russian and one English, and the group was split in two with about 10 people per group. I took some notes as we stood outside the Cathedral in the little park though we did not go inside the Cathedral. Here are my notes:  The Cathedral on the Blood replaced the wooden cross and a chapel which determined  the area (Ipatiev House) where Nicolas II was assassinated by the Bolsheviks on July 16th 1918. Nicolas and his family were murdered in the cellar of Ipatiev House during the period of the Russian Civil War. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and revival of the Orthodox Church to its accustomed part in society the Russians wished for a suitable memorial for the last Romanovs on the site of Ipatiev House which originated of the construction of the magnificent Cathedral.


Here is a video I found that might give you a bit more information about the Cathedral on the Blood of Ekaterinburg:

Our next stop was Ascension Church, situated besides the Church on the Blood.

The Ascension church (built in 1792-1818) was one of the few leading and prominent orthodox churches that was miraculously preserved in the 1930s, although the church vividly contrasts with the Church on the Blood, situated on the other side of the road for the church now lies under poor condition compared to the Church on the Blood. 

Our next stop was the Literary Quarter of Ekaterinburg which is I found very special and hidden within a park at the heart of the city, revealing the joyous atmosphere of old Ekaterinburg.


                                                                                                      

  (Литературный квартал) The Literary Quarter of Ekaterinburg is encircled by a grand park where we walked, intricate lampposts decorating the paths. The Literary Quarter has many museums of authors dedicated from the Urals. We walked by the Road Pushkin and found a statue of the great writer, Alexander Pushkin, made by the Sculptor, G.Guevorkian. 

 

This inspiring building is situated on the road Proletarskaïa (Ofitserskaïa), at the foot of the imposing Church on the Blood. This stone house was built during the1820s and used to be a post office is now a little museum dedicated to the Russian writer, Fiodor Milhailovitch Rechetnikov.(1841-1871,one of the creators of the popular Russian realist movement,born as a family of post workers.),And the post office service and the different aspects of trips in Russia during the XIXth century.  The striped posts in front of the house were represented in the roads in Russia. 

Along the road 'Proletarskaïa' (Ofitserskaïa), this is a museum dedicated to the literary life in the Urals during the periods of the XXthe century. This building is made of wood and is a duplicated version of a hotel close to the Ipatiev house of the XIXth century. There is another striped post shown in front of the museum.

At the end of the Proletarskaïa ( Ofitserskaïa), the first house of the writer D.N. Mamine-Sibiriak, secretly hidden under the heavy snow. The architecture of the house originates from the second half of the XIXth century. From 1993, the house was inhabited by the museum of dolls, toys and literature for young children among where children are able to admire their favorite heroes through beautiful dolls.
We walked through the park and it was absolutely splendid; intricate steel lampposts hung limply over the paths, the rays of light was sprayed over the sparkling snow; the scent of evergreen trees hung heavily in the fresh air and the glittering snowflakes drifted slowly down onto the paths. We had warm lunch of in the park on some wooden benches. 
I really enjoyed the literary quarter and thought it was splendid to have a quiet corner in the centre of the city that could easily boast of it's cultural and historic significance. 




After lunch, I decided to visit the Ekaterinburg History Museum so as to learn as much as possible about Ekaterinburg as I can in the short time that is left of my stay here. 
I took a bus to the museum from the Literary Quarter. The museum is a very fine collection of historical images of Ekaterinburg in the XVIII-XIX century and the city planning of Ekaterinburg during the end of XIX through to the beginning of the XX century. 
Among rare displays are: original photos, documents and books of the XIXth-XXth centuries, old coins, works of famous Ural artists such as Ernst Neizvestny and Misha Brusilovsky. The museum has a number of branches: so-called “the Metal Shop” that situated in famous water-tower on the City Dam. The second branch of the museum is the Museum of Photography called “The House of Metenkov”.
I enjoyed the museum very much, for I discover remnants of the Ekaterinburg history and it's mysteries. I did not look long in the Museum of Photography for I was running out of time, though the little that I saw was very interesting. Photographs are like brief, frozen moments in life linked by the course of time and they can not only show you one instant but also a whole story.


For dinner, I decided to venture to a Russian restaurant.The Ural is famous for the original recipe of traditional these Russian dishes - pelmeni and pirogi. So as to be prepared for knowing what to choosing as dishes, I did some research, to find a few of the famous Russian dishes:

• Pelmeni( пельмени)-a traditional Russian dish usually made with minced meat or fish filling, wrapped in thin dough. For the filling, mostly pork, lamb, or beef. The Ural recipe of pelmeni is considered the best in Russia.( so definitely for a try!)
• Bliny-(Блины)One of the famous examples of traditional Russian cuisine, bliny are made from wheat, buckwheat or other grains. They may be topped with butter, sour cream, honey, fruit preserves or caviar.

• Uha- (Уха) Uha is a traditional Russian fish soup. Vegetables, fish and potatoes are usually used in cooking uha. It is served with bread and sour cream.

  
  
  
  
  I chose the Pelmeni which was deliciously tasty and served with beautiful plates and bowls. After I tasted the first one, I couldn't help but chomp happily and greedily at the rest. It was sprinkled with spices and herbs. 
  
  For desert, I had a very filling desert, pancakes actually, better known as blini which was served with mushrooms. It was very different than any desserts I had ever tasted but was simply extraordinary and made for a 
  very tasty combination with the mushrooms.
  
  
  
  
  
  Tuesday:

I had breakfast in the hotel, and chose a rice and milk kasha and tea. I was suprisingly very full last evening after dinner from the delicious pelmeni and blini. I shall try to cook the pelmeni back at home and send the recipe to my friends, it is just too superb a dish to not share with others! The plan for the day would be to  explore and walk through the 'Victory Park' and have lunch in the park, then go to the Fine Arts Museum and have dinner at the hotel. 
I took a bus to the park, it was quite a bit farther than I had imagined it to be and took many photographs all round the park though I have not been able to download them onto this blog, though I did find some brochures with pictures to put on this blog.

 The landscape was beautiful, a pure white glittering blanket was carefully placed over the park. Sometimes I walked in through the evergreen trees and stomped through the snow. I could see my breath fade in between the branches were icicles hung. The nature was beautiful and I the cold only started to bite at my toes and fingers when the paths became covered in snow and would reach to my knees. The temperature must have been about -10. It wasn't so much that I had not been accustomed to extreme colds before, but the wind fiercly added on to the cold and made it seem like it was 10 degrees colder. I was wearing thick snow pants and fur and leather padded gloves, a fur hat, a big ski jacket and a very warm fur-inlayed coat. Frost was clinging to my boots and hair which had become frozen.  My nose was practically burning from the cold and my cheeks were very cold and blushed.  My hands were so cold that my fingers felt like they would simply break off and my throat was hoarse from breathing in the cold air. Snow occasionnally dropped down my back and into my boots which made me shiver and jump. The piercing wind  bit at my shivering fingers and toes and and howling in my ears.  The cold was almost frightening though the landscape easily made me forget the cold. More than once I found myself completely lost which did not make for such a pleasant experience! I could lose my bearings quite easily in the park for it was so vast and the paths were almost always covered in layers and layers of snow.


I was glad to come back to the cozy hotel after the freezing cold and I decided to stay in the hotel for a few hours to have a nice warm lunch and relax.  I decided that in the late afternoon I would spend a short visit at the Fine Arts Museum of Ekaterinburg, so as to say I would stay for 1/2 to 45 minutes for I would soon have to travel back to the train station. 
Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts is one of the biggest Art museums in the Ural and is a museum of Russian works.The museum is located in a the Historical Square. The funds of the museum take the area of two buildings: the first is on Voyevodin, 5 - The structure reconstructed in 1985 from the building of 18th century, and the second is on Vayner st.11 - previously the shop of Ekaterinburg Merchant, designed in 1914 by Mr. Bobykin K.T. The museum is famous for a unique collection of Kasli cast-iron moulding and Kasli cast iron Pavilion. Tough besides the pavilion the museum has got quite a number of masterpieces of Russian, West Europe, applied and modern Arts.

The museum was very interesting and I learned a lot from Russian art history that I marked down in my notebook while I was touring the museum. The building is very beautiful and is situated in an ideal spot , the Historical Square.

Once I had returned from the hotel, I packed my things again and got ready to go back in the train!