Yekaterinburg, A Real Industrial Town

Hostels are rarities in Russia, and if you come across a city with one it is a good idea to make the most of it. I’ve no idea why you’d actually want to stay in a cheap hotel over a hostel. For the same price as the cheapest of hotel rooms you get a place with a pretty comfy bed, a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, usually a laundry, and the chance to meet other travellers. This is the entire reason we chose to visit Yekaterinburg. The sites to visit here are limited and the city isn’t a hip and happening place. But seeing it had the hostel we went for it.

Look out woman, no sleeping outside the train station

The hostel was named Europe Asia hostel and was about 700 roubles a night, was located at somewhere quite out of town and was pretty small, but was totally worth it. Throwing in the bonus of free wifi and a free breakfast made it a well enjoyed break from all those unfriendly hotels.

Romanovs unite to your death

The rest of Yekaterinburg actually is sort of interesting, as has some history that is little known to most people. It is the city where the Romanov family was executed in 1918 due to the Bolshevik government fearing the power of the Tsar. Also the city is the birth place of former president Yeltsin, not that there is anything here to commemorate that.

The Afghan monument was quite an emotional, cool, but nothing on the keyboard

We spent our full day here looking at some pretty good sites, including a memorial to the failed Afghan invasion by Russia, the cathedral with it memorial to the Romanovs, and a giant keyboard monument. That’s right a monument to the qwerty keyboard. This was probably one of the highlights of my entire trip. A monument to the thing I’ve probably spent half my life at, is there anything better? Well the monument wasn’t that impressive, but it was the thought that counts. Also in the city was a great restaurant called McPeaks, which is totally ripping of McDonalds, so I was happy to spend my hard earned dollar here in a hope that by eating here will support them enough to become large enough to have McDonalds sue them and therefore cause a huge legal battle that bankrupts all chain fast food joints that prey on little children to make them fat, and results in an open market that allows for diversity in our eating choices and hopefully giving people the power to eat healthily...

Best monument ever, period

The next day we’d had to wake up at 5am to catch our early train, this was a chance for some sweet justice. Hostels are awesome, but there is a price to pay. The fact you are sharing a room with random people can mean that you might be in for a terrible nights sleep caused by the random's sleeping habits. It seems the hostel in Yekaterinburg only other visitors were a bunch of large men who would arrive back at the hostel at 4am and snore as loudly as possible until who knows when. Our 5am wake up call was not done in a polite fashion and we rummaged as loudly as possible to pack our bags and head out.

Another day, another train, platzkart is awesome

Costs:
Euro/asia hostel: 700 rbls a night for 2 nights
Food: typical supermarket shopping all the way through russia...
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