Trans-sib section one . . . Yekaterinburg

I got on my second Russian train in St. Petersburg for the first section of my trans-Siberian adventure. The trip from St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg is the longest section I have planned for the trip, nearly 40 hours. I stocked up on train food and headed out in the afternoon. Two nights of sleeping, eating, reading and staring out the window into the expanse of Russia, I arrived in Yekaterinburg- the last city of European Russia.

I had sent out a few couchsurfing requests before leaving and I actually got two responses so I had to choose between them. They both seemed like great hosts and like interesting people that I would get along with. I decided to stay with Yulia, because she had responded first, but I sent a message to Tanya to see if we could still get together.

With my two hosts, I ended up having two different and rewarding experiences in Yekaterinburg. I spent the first part of my first day exploring the city with Tanya- she is hoping to become a tour guide, so she looks at couchsurfing as good practice. Later in the afternoon I met up with Yulia and got to hang out with her and some of he friends. Yulia works at the university in the study abroad office. Right now there are not many foreigners studying in Yekaterinburg but that she is trying to change this and also encouraging Russian students to go abroad. Yulia is also working to increase volunteerism in her town- partly by volunteering herself and encouraging others to volunteer as well. She was very interested in what I was doing in Albania. The next morning I went with her to a fundraising event that she was helping with for an organization that works with downs syndrome children. It was great to see her and this organization and the work that they are doing.

In the afternoon I met up with Tanya again for tea and cake and then we went to see an art instillation at a factory near her house. The instillation, made up of several different light effects and video instillation's was really interesting. They somehow got permission to put lights up on several out of use parts of the factory, including a 'tetris' game on a smoke stack and a thunder and lightning display on one of the huge cooling towers. I'm not sure that I 'got' all of the instillations (do we ever really 'get' modern art), but I appreciated the exhibition. Much like the event in the morning, I am always happy when people are doing SOMETHING, especially since in Albania it was hard to find people that were doing innovative, interesting and important things. We finished the evening with a movie at Tanya's friends house and then she took me back to Yulia's. At Yulia's I was reminded again that things are still in progress in Russia when the elevator didn't work and we had to climb up 14 floors to her apartment. Overall, an interesting time in Yekaterinburg . . .