Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg has a very nasty bloody history, with the execution of Tsar Nicholas second and his family, as well as high profile mafia killings in the 1990's (thanks for that Lonely Planet). There is a memorial of the Ramanov deaths not that we have or probably will see it as its like every other house here. Boris Yeltsin also went to university here, I think.

Well besides its dark history, there is little evidence of that today. Loud speakers blare all sorts of noise pollution onto the streets while huge speakers blast hard core techno. Young and old seam to be into it, grooving down the street. People sit (cant believe it, I last an hour out side if briskly walking) and drink beer and dance along to the music. In the underground walk ways university students play guitars and sing along, almost made me cry it was so full of gusto and enthusiasm. Women try to navigate the mud, ice and snow with their high heels, where as I look like I am going snowboarding for a week and my pants are covered in mud, well yes not so stunning really. Physically the people have rounder faces, and fascinatingly you can tell its the Asian/ European border. Their are white faces with pink cheeks as well as really round more Mongolian faces, ahhhhh i love it.

Older people gather around the statue of Lenin and listen to 'communist' type speakers, while trying not to be run over by the young jumping over the base of the statue on their skateboards. Where ever we go people chat away to us in, what sounds like, frantic Russian, and when it becomes obvious that we have to open our mouths and say an English word, they just look intrigued and interested. I do know a few Russian words now, and can even get to the human level (tug on the heart string if you will) in the market when buying something saying it is for my grandma (babushka) in New Zealand (makes the foreign price 3 times as much as locals instead of 4). I can also get away with saying an English word and adding a 'ski' to the end which sometimes helps.

Today we trudged 30mins through the snow to bring you this email he he. Its stunning out there, huge flakes falling heavily (Keith you would love it, owww no more dancing in the snow on the British Museum roof with you, sniff.)

OK I"m truly over Russian food and after trying to be adventurous a dozen times and always regretting it, we are thankful that the Irish made their mark around the world. The Irish pub does good food, cooked veges etc,. and for dinner we usually get stuff from the supermarket and have a lil picnic in our Soviet styled room. Its lovely really, and we have made it homely with blankets on the floor etc but the over excited toilet flush and the over flowing shower, we could do with out. Ha now here it is, add insult to injury, we try get some washing done in our hotel, 2 pounds per item!!!!!! OK ok to be fair a slight discount for sox and undies. People don't earn much here in Siberia, and yes I have the extreme privilege to be able to travel, but please! Anyways we are going back to string up our travellers clothes lines and do mountains of hand washing!

So tomorrow night at the beautiful hour of 2am we are off to Novosibirsk, just for a one night stop off, to then catch our two day train to Irkutsk (lake Baikal) where we are going to head into the country or to an island in the lake for a few days, I really want to go dog sledding! Novosibirsk is a place you use to sleep and eat, recharge the ipods and camera etc, breaks up the three day travel to the lake nicely. Being on the train gives you some good thinking time but also puts you up against your demons so to say, actually don't have too many, but just gives you the time to think far more than you have in along time, where from here etc! Isn't it interesting that our human instinct is to want to wrap the people most dearest to us in cotton wool! Ah but no, its the art of letting go and trusting that all will be well (sure our parents can relate to this one). Since leaving home, I have got better at this and now I have about 120 more train hours to perfect it in he he.

Ok must go off into the snow again, we are going to drink beer and watch the synchronised swimming finals, it gets better........ its the team event! At the moment we gain an hour every few days which is taking some getting use to. But we just figure, sleep when your tired, eat when your hungry etc. Also trains and stations in Russia run on Moscow time, which is improving my maths alot! Feeling a little remote out here, 'Oni your in Siberia, what did you expect' ha ha.