Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg is one of the major stops along the Trans-Siberian and a hub for trains coming from all over Russia but despite its size we found it to be a pretty boring (and not particularly attractive) city. No doubt it was a necessary stop as we were so ready to shower and eat a proper meal after the long train ride from Irkutsk but we certainly don’t feel the need to return.

After great food on Olkhon and in Irkutsk we also ate some terrible meals in Yekaterinburg, which did not do a lot to endear the city to us. We started our first morning off with a dreadful breakfast that included soggy waffles and an utterly undrinkable coffee (in Yekaterinburg’s hippest cafe) and things did not really improve from there. After breakfast we walked across town to Yekaterinburg’s most famous site, the Church of All Saints (also known as the Church on the Blood). Yekaterinburg is most famously known as the town where the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and his family were executed in 1918. This church, which opened in 2003, is built on the site of the house where they were killed. It’s a somewhat strange place now. It’s located on the main high way that runs through Yekaterinburg and we found the grounds to be almost completely deserted. With no information in English, we poked around for a while, enjoyed our first glimpse of an Eastern Orthdox church and then headed off in search of a second breakfast, hoping that it would be better than the first.

We landed at Mamma’s Big House. We tried the fried cottage cheese cakes that Dan has loved so much throughout our trip and I got a passable coffee. Not great but an improvement at least. Next up, we decided to walk along the Iset River, that runs through the city. It was very green and lined with a few nice old buildings and some public art. We had fun playing at an enormous key board on the side of the river and then walked back to our hostel for a Russian siesta. Somewhat restored, we went in search of lunch. We landed at Khachapuri Dlya Pushkina, a cafe serving traditional Georgian flat breads. The vibe was really nice and cosy and but again the food wasn’t the best. Dan commented that “it was good for bread submerged in cheese”. An accurate review. Sooo cheesy it was overwhelming (Kate, Matt might enjoy this?!).

We continued our walking tour after lunch, before landing at Intouch for what the internet says are the best cocktails in Yekaterinburg for a pre-dinner drink. Our cocktails were comically bad and were followed by dinner at an equally disappointing restaurant. (Hopefully this is the most negative post I write about our trip!).

We woke up in the morning very ready to get on the train to Kazan. Sadly, the train didn’t leave until 6pm so we had the day to fill. It started off better than expected with the best coffee we’d had in a while at Duo. I had mine with a Russian biscuit called kartoshka. It reminded me a lot of hedgehog slice and some research online suggests that they actually have a lot in common. Kartoshka is made with very similar ingredients – cocoa, crushed biscuits, condensed milk. Delicious! And something I hope to recreate in the future. The food options at Duo were pretty insubstantial (hence the kartoshka for breakfast) so we followed up with another forgetful breakfast nearby.

We spent the next couple of hours packing and then went in search of lunch. Thankfully we found a decent meal at Pelmeni Club. I had cabbage pelmeni with a really nice vinegar sauce, Dan had some meet stuffed dumplings and we ended our meal with an enormous piece of very delicious honey cake (our first of the trip and another cake I can’t wait to try making). After lunch we got coffee and then it was finally time to board the train to Kazan! (With a detour for another burger at Burger King, because it might have been the best thing we ate in Yekaterinburg?).