Ulan-Ude, Siberia! We were at the Ulan-Ude Park Hotel overnight, but checked out in the morning. We left our bags with the hotel while we spent the day exploring. We had most of the day for this exercise, as our train (The Trans-Siberian!) was not leaving for Irkutsk until 10:13 at night.
Basically, our plan was to leave the hotel, walk down to ploschad Sovietov (площадь Советов, Sovietov Square, the main city square), dominated by a huge Lenin head, and then to walk down ulitsa Lenina (улица Ленина, Lenin St.) all the way to the Odigitria Cathedral (Одигитриевский собор, Ogitriyevskiy sobor), checking out the sites and shopping all the way down and the way back up. So that's what we did.
When we reached pl. Sovietov, we found it alive with kids of all ages practicing dance routines. Turns out that the next day, June 12, is Russia Day (День России, Den Rossii), and big celebrations are on all round the country. But the rehearsals were just as entertaining!
Just down from the square is a magnificent building, with another smaller square in front of it, and a spectacular dancing fountain — the Opera & Ballet Theatre.
And just down from the Theatre, spanning ul. Lenina, is a huge triumphal arch, celebrating the victory of 20-21 June 1891.
Then we continued on to the Forum Shopping Mall, passing on the way the statue of the merchant Evsei, a quirky monument to Russian merchants. In the Forum, in an electronic gadget shop, Warren stretched his knowledge of Russian, but still successfully came away with an international power adapter to fit the Russian and European sockets — our original one is probably still sitting on the floor in our first ger in Mongolia! Message to self: check thoroughly before departing any temporary abode!
By this time, ul. Lenina had become a pedestrian mall, and was starting to fill with shoppers and tourists alike.
We walked on to the Ogitria Cathedral, a beautiful old building, the first stone building in Ulan-Ude, built between 1741 and 1785. During the soviet era the building was relegated to the role of museum storehouse, but it has re-blossomed in recent yeats, with fresh chalky-white exterior and re-gilded domes. It is still waiting for the Byzantine wall painting in its intrior, but this too will come. The cathedral volunteers were in the process of planting colourful annuals throughout the grounds, ably assisted by an exuberant 5-year-old watering the plants with the garden hose (Mum carefully supervising!).
Retracing our steps up ul. Lenina, we found the Ulan-Ude City Museum, a small exhibition occupying the house of the merchant Vetkhneudinsk, showng his role in the fur and tea trades at the time, and various other aspects of 19th century city life. Apparently the imperial heir Nicholas II stayed in this house in 1891.
Wandered back up to the Forum, where we had a bit of lunch from the busiest of the food outlets on the top floor — traditional Siberian food — hamburger! A couple of the best hamburgers we've had — beef, tomato, cheese, gherkin and lettuce, but on a fresh hamburger bun baked in-house! Suzie was entertained watching the baker producing these buns as well as dumplings for the outlet next door. The short time we were there, this hamburger place had about twenty customers, whereas the "Genuine American Hotdog" shop next door had precisely nil!
We walked across to Prospekt Pobedy to suss out the market there — it turned out to be an old indoor market, not particularly inviting, so we turned our interest to the traffic in the street and the park over the road. We walked past the fountain and up the steps to the War Memorial, topped with what appears to be a fully-functional army tank!
Returned to ul. Lenina, walked up a little further to try out the Nature Museum and the Geological Museum, only to find the former obviously defunct, and the latter closed (even though its signage indicated it should be open!) So we adjourned to the Churchill Pub virtually next door for an afternoon refreshment!
After this, we went across to the square to watch a little more of the dancing, before cleverly finding our way back to our hotel to spend a few hours relaxing in its Terrace Restaurant before getting the desk to call a taxi for us to take us to the station to board the train for Irkutsk.
Getting on the train was a saga. The Russian railways don't announce the platform until about 5 minutes before the train arrives. Just before this time, a huge Chinese tour group arrived, and it was their tour guide who found out which platform, raised her flag and announced "Platform 3" to all and sundry. Then the stampede erupted, up three flights of stairs to a crossway, and then down again onto the platform. The station personnel showed no inclination to assist two 72-year-old travellers with their heavy cases through this obstacle course, and it was only through the graces of the same tour guide that two were persuaded to "volunteer" their assistance. Our "volunteers" disappeared at the top of the crossing, and the tour guide herself assisted Suzie down with her case, and Warren managed his own.
Onto the platform, and every ticket had to be matched with the appropriate passport, which took a bit of time. We stood back as the tour guide herded her unruly horde through this process. Then it was our turn. We were two people occupying the whole of a four berth cabin. To accomplish this, the tour company had issued us with four tickets — the train personnel could not understand where the other two passengers were! It was hilarious. We finally sorted everything out and were on board for Irkutsk.
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