Officially in Europe

Well, since leaving Novosibisk it has been raining pretty much every day, and it has gotten colder. The autumn colors are beautiful, but winter is definitely coming fast. At the moment I am wearing all the clothes I own, and I am still slightly cold. Need my thermals!



We officially crossed the Asia-Europe Border. Apparently the clash of continents is the real deal, confirmed by scientists. How can one resist a start jump?



We also got bogged twice; although Tim assures me that we didn’t really get bogged but were just slipping on the mud. Anyhow, he was able to get us out of the situation without outside assistance (including mine), by building a little path for the stuck wheel with wooden sticks. I stood on the highway, trying to flag someone down without looking like s prostitute.


Altai
After Novosobisk, we took a side trip to the Altai Mountains (very close to Kazakhstan), which I’ve been told is one of the highlights of Russia. Hmmmm…. the mountains were nice, but I wouldn’t call them spectacular. Probably you would get more out of them if you were a rafting or horse riding enthusiast.






Tobolsk
Tobolsk is the historic capital of Siberia, and is the only town in Siberia and one of the few in Russia which has the original Kremlin (17th century). Some serious money has obviously gone into its recent restoration:



We saw it in between bouts of intense rain, and quickly ran back to the car to thaw out. Upon our arrival back the car obviously went: “Haha, so you are looking forward to a nice, warm, drive? See how you like it if I don’t start!” Tim had to crawl underneath and hot-wire it…


Yekaterinburg
A very bland town but busy and developed, which chocker-block traffic. The only thing to really see is the Church upon the Blood, built to honour the Romanov family who were killed on the site. The original house was demolished in 1977 by then governor Boris Yeltsin who was afraid it would attract monarchist sympathies. Ironic really, since he ended up betraying communism himself.



The church is certainly big, enormous really, with a gilded interior. But to me, despite all the effort and money that has obviously gone into it, it seemed somewhat soulless. I think these memorials at the Yekaterinburg cemetary are more evocative. Can you guess who they are for? :)