Weather mostly cloudy and warm. By mid afternoon the sun came out. Spent all day on the train wiling away the time watching the world go by, playing games, eating and getting to now our travelling companions Bryce (American New Yorker), Jennifer (Canadian) and Sergei (Russian). Arrived in Yekaterinburg 19:45 local time. The hotel is an ex-student halls of residence nicely refurbished. We have a huge room with enclosed balcony. Had difficulty finding somewhere to eat near the hotel and ended up at a mock British pub called the Rosie Jane!
The train compartment is identical to the the train from St Petersburg to Moscow. Landscape is very flat and dotted with small spread out villages made up of rather ramshackled-looking gray wooden houses with steeply sloping corrugated roofs and unmade roads. After lunch we reached the Urals where the scenery is more dramatic and pine trees predominate.
It’s nice just to be able to relax and pass the time looking at the scenery playing the odd game of Connect and chess and just chatting. Sergei finally woke up this morning and has become quite loquacious – although we have decided he is a little crazy! He says he is a saxophonist with a wife and little girl and is planning to get a visa to go to work in Korea. As the day wore on this man began to freak me out and in the end we went to sit with Bryce and Jennifer in their compartment.
The train runs to Moscow time for the whole journey through Russia which I suspect will get confusing given the number of time zones we are travelling through.
The hotel in Yekaterinburg is fairly central, situated on the main street which runs from one side of the city to the other.