Yekaterinburg, is the fourth largest city in Russia, with a population of 1.3 Million. Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723, and was named after Peter the Great’s wife Catherine I. From 1924 to 1991, Yekaterinburg was known as Sverdlovsks (Свердло́вск) , which was named after the Bolshevik leader Yakov Sverdlov.

Yekaterinburg is situated on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, and it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Ural region. Yekaterinburg’s geographic location is very special, as it is situated at the border between Europe and Asia, and that border has become a major tourists spot in Yekaterinburg. I made a visit to the Asia-Europe monument which was located along the highway. It is not recommended to make the trip there unless you have a lot of free time. Basically, the monument is just a piece of metal structure, with Asia and Europe written in Russian, divided by a line in the middle. There was a group of school kids visiting the monument, probably for a geography field trip. I liked the surrounding forest where people would tie ribbons to the trees, apparently for good luck.

After visiting the monument, I could not find a way to cross the highway to take the bus back to the city. So I hitchhiked along the country road and soon after, a driver stopped for me and he sent me to ikea which was in the city suburbs. I had lunch there before taking a local bus back to the city centre. At the post, I met Anton again, the photographer who works at 66.ru.

We had a snack at Ratatouille and he asked if I was interested to appear on tv, but I had to decline as I was leaving Yekaterinburg this evening.