On the second day in Ekaterinburg we went on a hike at -12C. First, we took taxi to railway station (2euro between 4 of us!) and got tickets to Iset’ Station which is around 30 mins away from Ekaterinburg. The station is literally in the middle of nowhere except small village.
From the train station we walked through amazing frozen forest.
This is when I began to feel that wearing only jeans in Russian winter is not a good idea at all. To survive you would need a warm double trousers but, unfortunately, mine were in lost baggage… because we were constantly walking my legs didn’t froze completely.
I thought that it is a good idea to get a beer with me but after first 10 mins I was afraid that the beer in a can would turn into ice. It didn’t happen but everyone said that it is better not to get drunk in such cold. If you lose a control, there is a risk to lose your fingers or toes from frostbite.
After an hour we reached the Evil’s Fort or Chertovo Gorodishche. Evil’s Fort is a rock tower that rises above the trees. It appears like people put a few layers of stones on each other but the tower is actually natural phenomenon. It looks so unreal that people thought it dark force that created it. That is where the name of the place came from. From the top of the rocks all you can see is endless forest and a little bit of Ekaterinburg far away.
That day I first felt how cold it could be in Russia. That evening we supposed to have an 11 hours train to other city Izhevsk, but decided to stay in Ekaterinburg one more day to wait for the baggage. And it was a great decision! Do you think why? Read it in my next post.