The driver who met us at the station was awesome. Konstantin was very welcoming, spoke near-perfect English, and was full of information, maps, and recommendations. Once again, Russia Experience (or, rather, the Ekaterinburg Guide Center, their counterpart here) found a pristinely clean hotel close to the center of it all. And this one was cute to boot! (It had free Wifi in the room as well as a free laptop to use downstairs for uploading photos. The breakfast was similar to those offered in our last two hotels, quite ample. I am apparently a porridge fan, who knew.) The hotel provided an elaborate booklet of all their services in English. The only service they did not mention was laundry. [LAUNDRY ASIDE: The front desk said they could do laundry for 500 rubles a load ($17) and that it would be done in a half day. But it was a process, both to track down extra bags for our two loads, to locate our missing clothes a day and a half later - they were hanging in a side room - and finally get them back just in time to pack. The staff tried to be responsive, but did not speak English very well and there was some confusion about the whole process, until the billing, which they were very clear about...]

For dinner, we went to an Uzbek place our driver recommended a few blocks away from the hotel. Rachel had dumplings and I had some lamb and greasy rice. We both ordered "cowberry" juice, but it tasted so much like cranberry juice, we weren't sure if the waitress accidentally read the item above it. Behind our table was a miniature version of my parents' oriental rug. This was the first and only time they brought us our check (and expected payment) without us asking. Almost like they were trying to move people (or us?) through the restaurant quickly. The bill was 360 for BOTH of us. Nine dollars. Things are starting to get a little cheaper.

The 23-year-old woman that was to be our guide met us at 9:30am and took us on a walk around town. Like all our guides, she had fantastic English. Above the dam in the center of town (and the center of the metal map above), we saw the newlywed locks again. Our guide said she would not do it because "it's stupid and when you get a divorce, you have to take it off again."

One of the main attractions of Yekaterinburg is the Church of All Saints, finished very recently in 2003. For the first time this trip, I donned the required headscarf when entering, feeling massively self-conscious and confused about whether I should tie it under my chin or behind my neck. I was more hesitant about the whole headscarf thing when our guide told us that the reason women had to wear them was because we were sinners and so should be ashamed. Not sure if this is the case, but ugh. She said Rachel's hat would be sufficient, but some drunk guy inside the church appeared to disagree, pointing at her hat and talking loudly in Russian. Our guide said to ignore him. The bottom floor of the church was black inside and dedicated to the Romanov family who were murdered at this site almost one hundred years ago. Although one, of course, feels sorry for the five children that were killed, it feels a little over the top as they are treated as saints, with halos even. Notably, their four servants were also murdered, but there is no mention of them. The top floor, painted a much brighter white, is dedicated to all saints and has the standard wall of icons. And there is a mean-looking Jesus looking back if you look up one of the towers. (Like all Orthodox churches, I couldn't take any photos within.)

Toward the end, we treated our guide for lunch at the "Coffee House" chain (possibly more ubiquitous than "Shokoladnitsa"), but they did not have the first item I wanted, nor the second. The service was ridiculously slow and it took forever for us to get the bill and get our change. But they did have a smoking section that one of our party partook of.

Our guide called it "Puppet Theatre" and was willing to help us buy tickets even though the show was for kids. Well... the puppets took quite a while to show up. And, when they did, they were less puppets and more people dressed up as puppets. The show was still fairly entertaining, given that it was all in Russian, with brightly-colored costumes and a lot of action. The children in attendance were all dressed up nice with elaborately braided hair. I felt a little underdressed, actually.

The story centered around a magical pool that turned people into puppets and back. There was a love story happening amongst the cast of zany characters. Every time I zoned out, bright lights or loud music (or both) would happen, bringing me back in. My favorite part was when two buckets fell into the pool and came out as bucket men (with legs) and started Riverdancing! The closing song appeared to be a Russian Folk instrumental version of "Venus" (Think 80s as in "I'm your Venus, I'm your fire, it's your desire.") Random, but fun! Not a bad way to kill an hour, all in all.

We wandered Yekaterinburg on our own for a while, starting with small street market nearby. Landscape paintings, old coins, and stone carvings, especially malachite, were commonly for sale. We watched two men play chess for a while. Just for fun, we hopped on the green line and took the metro (which is only twenty years old and parts are still being built) all the way to the last stop: Prospekt Kosmonavtov, which translates as Cosmonaut Avenue. We shopped in a fabric store (Rachel found some unusually-colored zippers) and wandered around the nearby neighborhood, seeing many stands selling fruit, meat, and bread - no chain stores here - and did some people-watching. In this area were many 6-8 story blocky apartment buildings, somewhat boring and run-down as many soviet-era apartments seem to be. There was some graffiti, but generally seemed to be your standard middle-class family Yekaterinburg neighborhood.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called "Dacha". A dacha is a second home, or country home, that a surprising number of Russian urbanites have for summer retreats and to grow food. The restaurant had homey decor and was playing a Russian version of Jerry Springer on television. We chose a huge table with a sofa on either side. We each took a sofa. When the waiter (he looked like he was the manager or owner, actually) found out we were from the U.S., he put a little American flag on our table "like we are ambassadors." We both ordered wine. Ironically, a glass of wine cost 240 rubles, but a glass of grape juice cost 310 rubles. When the main course I ordered would take 30 minutes to cook, I chose the next one down instead. Most of the items had short English descriptions, but this one only said "Four Corners" and the waitress could not explain what it was. Rachel got Beef Stroganoff (much like the one I had in Saint Petersburg) and I received what can only be described as a square pillow of bread with a raised-bread bow. Turned out, each quadrant contained a different filling like ground beef, mushrooms, or onions. Tasty! We received a basket of dark brown bread, but no butter. And, wow, what a process to explain butter! Two waitresses got involved and their best guess, despite Rachel's perfect pantomime, was mustard. Eventually, after a long wait, we did get butter. A lot of butter, looking as if it had been grated off a large stick. For dessert, I got a small scoop of chocolate ice cream (which they called a "parfait") and Rachel got "whortleberry jam" which was kind of a mix between a cranberry and a currant. We are discovering new berries daily, it seems.

We walked down a pedestrian street back to the hotel (it had less stores and more trash than Arbat, but was better than taking the street). And we saw a Black dude there (whoa) playing DJ in front of a trendy shop. Did I mention Russia is Very White?

The next day was one of arranged "excursions" to the border of Europe and Asia. Our driver picked us up and took us about half hour away from Yekaterinburg, on a highway through the forested hills, to the border. Not sure how official it is, but it is the official tourist spot! It was actually a lot of fun! We posed for pictures in front of the monument (where apparently there is a stone on the Europe side from Portugal and a stone on the Asia side from Southeast Asia) and had a silly little celebration. The location is gorgeous and apparently a common place for couples to get married. We both got a certificate. The certificate has my name and the date (May 13), our guide's name, then goes on to say, and I'm not making this up (all spacing and punctuation theirs):

Making a Trans-Siberian journey and being in the Urals have made an act of bravery, crossed the border between two continents EUROPE and ASIA!

Congratulations!!!
Issuing this certificate we guarantee that:
Every time looking at it you will remember that wonderful trip and us and all pleasant memories will come in your mind;

If you show it to friends they will be proud of you;
And be sure if you show it to your enemies they will die from envy and spite.

I especially like the part where my enemies won't just die from spite on their own, that I have to be sure they will die.

After the border, we continued through the forests on some side roads until we reached the Romanov Monastery, which was built at Ganina Yama, where the remains of the Romanovs were found.

I knew zilch about what a Romanov was before I arrived. Now I feel I'm something of an expert. You wanted to know all the gory details too, didn't you? I thought so.

Apparently, there is some controversy. The Church wants to keep the Monastery as the official place even though DNA proves otherwise. There is a saying that when the final remains of the Romanovs and the body of Lenin are finally buried, the city will be free of its strife

Seven chapels are here - one for each member of the royal family. I had to not only wear a headscarf but a skirt, which they provided at the entrance. My headscarf kept slipping to the back or my head no matter how I wore it; how do women keep those on? (I would have enjoyed it more without the skirt; perhaps because male visitors only had to remove their hats.) The wooded location was beautiful and peaceful. The log cabin style Orthodox churches with the gold domes were a fascinating variation. Apparently, one of the chapels burned down and the keepers took this as a sign to build the replacement chapel out of stone. (We saw it under construction.) Not all the chapels were open, but the one I went inside had rows of upside down empty clay pots on the ceiling, apparently serving an acoustic purpose.

There is a covered wooden walkway around the mine. A group of children and women walked hand-in-hand along the walkway, singing. I think our guide told us they were pilgrims. It was quite beautiful.

Walked all the way to the pretty gold domes in the distance, which turned out to be Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. I was unimpressed. Perhaps work was being done on it? The church was not open that I could tell and did not seem prepared for visitors, so I just walked in the parking lot around it. A homeless (?) woman at the entrance started talking to me. I neither had my purse, nor language skills, nor patience to spare. I just gave her a smile and a shrug, spreading my hands, and kept going. But she shook her head as if she was not asking for money (though it looked like some other visitors gave) and just continued talking. I sensed she was giving me good-natured advice, maybe just telling me to have a nice time? Hmmm. (Side note: the few beggars I have seen on the streets are not particularly aggressive; the drunks are, however. But there are not a lot of either. I suspect being homeless in Russia would be a difficult prospect in winter.)

On the way back, I spotted some political graffiti that was, like a lot of graffiti, randomly in English. Here and in the last two cities, I saw more graffiti than I'm used to. Not an overwhelming amount, but enough where I could not use the amount of graffiti to determine the shadiness of a neighborhood.

Dinner tonight was in a recommended restaurant in the giant shopping complex behind our hotel. There was No English here. No pictures. Just a several-page all Russian menu. Our sounding-out skills found us the blini and borscht sections. I ordered the top item on the blini list and Rachel ordered the top item on the borscht list. Somehow, we both got borscht: a big bowl of beet soup with a generous dollop of sour cream in it. There were two ground-beef-filled blini, so we each had one. The water was not free, but the total was not too bad: 760 rubles ($12 each) plus the standard 10% tip. Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers were heard in the background music (which was not unusual at Russian restaurants; I guess western music is popular everywhere.)