Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg may probably not be called beautiful and the – especially for photographing – less than mediocre weather certainly did not improve the attractiveness of this old, industrial city. But since sightseeing was not a top priority for me (although I did some), anyway, the city appealed to me with its rough, unpolished charm. Unfortunately I couldn’t start to explore the city right away.

While at normally you seldom need any reservations as a backpacker if you travel outside the main season, Yekaterinburg seems in some way to be an exception to the rule.Not so much because everything was booked out but because the hostels (most of them had just opened somewhat recently) I looked for were either completely shut down or otherwise unavailable. After four failed attempts and approx. 17 km of walking with my big backpack I finally settled for a hotel room.

On the plus side, I had already planned to walk a lot during the two days in Yekaterinburg to get used to long distances again for the more challenging hiking trips later on. After doing some sightseeing, walking for another 12 kms and stumbling upon an unexpected fire show, I called it a day.

The next morning I decided to explore Yekaterinburg some more (another 30 km …) and tried to capture the atmosphere despite the cloudy and rainy weather. I hope you enjoy the photos, even though they are not of the classic “beautiful, touristic” variety.