Today we were lucky enough to be able to join our colleagues who are working with the Ekaterinburg City Administration and were spending four days looking at the tourist sights here .... part of the research for one of their projects.
Stu and Mike had already been to the places on the itinerary for today and did not go - and they had three extra seats on the bus so it meant all five of us not working for the City Administration could go along.
The first part of the day was spent at Mayakovsky Central park in Ekaterinburg .... which is a mix of fun park and nature park ... and obviously a favourite weekend haunt for families. In fact it caters for the old kids, young kids, beautiful people and more!!
Today there were some special celebrations going on so we also saw some great cultural activities including dancing, singing and acrobatics
We also got to participate in some folk dancing ourselves ... which was really great fun ... and we met some lovely people.
For a whole month, 111 Buddy Bears from Germany are on display in the park
Of course - I had to have my photo taken with my New Zealand Buddy Bear
It was also an opportunity to walk through some beautiful parkland. This park is only about 10 minutes from the city and is huge .... to the point that you feel you are miles outside the city.
After the Park we headed to the Ekaterinburg Fine Arts Museum which had some lovely exhibits. I particularly liked the statues made out of the local metals and the Russian artworks.
My impressions and thoughts about today:-
It was a great day ... we had seen and experienced a lot of different things. Everyone was very tired ... but we still managed to go out for dinner to a lovely cafe.
Stu and Mike had already been to the places on the itinerary for today and did not go - and they had three extra seats on the bus so it meant all five of us not working for the City Administration could go along.
The first part of the day was spent at Mayakovsky Central park in Ekaterinburg .... which is a mix of fun park and nature park ... and obviously a favourite weekend haunt for families. In fact it caters for the old kids, young kids, beautiful people and more!!
Today there were some special celebrations going on so we also saw some great cultural activities including dancing, singing and acrobatics
For a whole month, 111 Buddy Bears from Germany are on display in the park
Of course - I had to have my photo taken with my New Zealand Buddy Bear
It was also an opportunity to walk through some beautiful parkland. This park is only about 10 minutes from the city and is huge .... to the point that you feel you are miles outside the city.
After the Park we headed to the Ekaterinburg Fine Arts Museum which had some lovely exhibits. I particularly liked the statues made out of the local metals and the Russian artworks.
My impressions and thoughts about today:-
- People in Ekaterinburg like to have fun, get out of the central city and spend time with their families. This confirms feedback we have had in the interviews we are doing for our projects - people live in Ekaterinburg as it is a very family friendly city with access to a lot of recreational activities.
- Russians love colour - everything was so colourful from the balloons, traditional costumes, very smart and up to date fashion, souvenirs being sold in the market stores to the colour the buildings are painted. As someone explained to us the winter months are so dark and grey that when the summer comes people want it to be bright and colourful.
- It is a myth that Russian people are reserved and not very friendly ... or at least in Ekaterinburg. You could not meet a more friendly lot of people than those we met today.
- Lastly - what is it with the clouds in Ekaterinburg .... we have all commented how the clouds just pop out of the sky in our photos.
It was a great day ... we had seen and experienced a lot of different things. Everyone was very tired ... but we still managed to go out for dinner to a lovely cafe.
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