Hello everyone, my name is Anya (@doroga.v.sochi), and on the last December weekend I traveled to Yekaterinburg.
All my life I have been writing stories and I want to tell one of them, about this trip, from the end.
Clouds lay like a soft blanket outside the plane window. The sun brightly flooded the salon. Suddenly a loud cry: “Doctor! There is a doctor? on board! Urgently see a doctor!” A man from the next row instantly jumped up: “I’m a surgeon, what happened?.”
There is a young girl unconscious in the passage. Fell while going to the toilet. Ammonia, artificial respiration – everything happened in a matter of minutes. From somewhere an oxygen tank, water, and a medical suitcase appeared. The man acted with lightning speed. As it turned out later, he had practice in an ambulance.
The girl opened her eyes and began to breathe evenly. The whole plane applauded.
The passengers took their seats and for the rest of the flight, as men passed by the chair, they nodded, smiled and thanked him. There are two important factors in this story: the doctor’s education, which cannot be replaced by online certificates, and people. Real, responsive, from the Urals.
Talking about my trip to Yekaterinburg, first of all, I really want to talk about the people.
Upon arrival I was met by an interesting taxi driver. He did not know the rules for entering the airport and at the beginning of the journey he was indignant that if he checked in again within an hour he had to pay 500 rubles. Then he found out that I was from Sochi, was struck by memories of my youth at the resort and warmly dropped me off at the hotel.
Boutique Hotel Gold 1905 is located in the very center of Yekaterinburg. This is a 19th century mansion, restored and incredibly beautiful. The composition of the facade is made in the spirit of eclecticism using forms and techniques of the so-called “brick” style. Nice employees work there, and breakfast is served directly to your room.
Near the hotel there is a Central Department Store, several shopping centers and the pedestrian street Vaynera, where in the summer, they say, there is no crowd. There were no crowds in the harsh -20°C.
We walked around the city with my best friend. She showed me a monument to the founders – Vasily Tatishchev and William de Gennin. We ate at the wonderful pan-Asian restaurant MoMo and headed towards the Yeltsin Center.
On the way we saw the work of the artist Timofey Radi – “Who we are, where we come from, where we are going?”. Indeed, we thought as we crossed the frozen Iset. For the first time in my life, I walked straight along the river in the center of a huge city!
The area resembles “Moscow City” and is called by locals “Ekaterinburg City” – there are fashionable glass skyscrapers, beautiful catering establishments, and an expensive hotel. In the Yeltsin Center itself you can get acquainted with the activities of Boris Nikolayevich and his associates. The perfect place to immerse yourself in the 1990s era. There is an art gallery on one of the floors. We visited an exhibition of works by Kazimir Malevich and his contemporaries. I was delighted, because you don’t see such masterpieces every day.
The Yeltsin Center also has a cool bookstore where we spent a lot of time. A corner of Ural designers and a cool corner with souvenirs. There is a food court area, a huge gym, office space and, apparently, much more. They made a small ice town in front of the building, where we had fun like children.
The next morning we met with former colleagues. Yes, Yekaterinburg is about like-minded people. There is the same hotel chain in the city where we used to work, and it would be strange not to visit it.
After laughing a lot and feeling nostalgic, we set off to complete a task from subscribers and OneTwoTrip, namely, to make New Year’s dumplings. My friend’s parents live in the Zavidovo cottage village. There is a beautiful forest area and very European-style houses. We sculpted, made TikToks and laughed a lot.
And in the evening we took the metro (yes, Yekaterinburg has it!) and visited the Ural Stand Up – this was the most memorable event of the trip. I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. In the Urals they know how to have fun!
On the last day we went running around the center. We visited the legendary coffee chain Simple Coffee and looked at a lot of street art. Yekaterinburg is called the capital of Russian street art. Hence the famous artists Timofey Radya, Slava Ptrk, Ilya Mozgi. Street art festivals regularly take place here. I was delighted, even though the frost did not allow me to walk much and enjoy creativity. But it’s so amazing how abandoned and inconspicuous five-story buildings are turned into real objects of art.
On the first day, I noticed a unique building – the headquarters of the Russian Copper Company on the street. Gorky. Locals call it “pineapple” because of its faceted shape and resemblance to the fruit from afar. It seems to me that this area in the summer is one of the most popular for walking and photography. It is very picturesque here, even in the snowdrifts. The obvious conclusion is that Yekaterinburg is worth a visit in the warm season.
There are a lot of universities in the city, and therefore there are a lot of young people. Fun, parties — all this is about Yekaterinburg. I really liked the city, but I was even more impressed by the people. The harsh Urals turned out to be very sincere and incredibly funny.
Be sure to travel around our country! Discovering the Russian soul through different cities and experiences is the best wish for the coming year 2022.
