Ekaterinberg was very kind to us. There was a storm last night which cleared just as we finished buying our tickets to Moscow. The light was fantastic. Anything it touched was backed by super dark clouds, giving this awesome contrast and clarity. This town has a TV tower that was half built in 1985 and just left to rot after the main guy backing it disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Hanging out at our host's house where the kids are watching what looks like Eastern Europe's favourite cat and mouse team... Fucking weird shit from the 1970s with heaps of synth and "Turkish Star Wars" style narration. I'll try and capture some of it and email it through.
The dad (Evgeny) of the family who is hosting us has lived here all his life, so he knows every little bit of information there is to know about the town. "see that building over there? well...." and "this rubbish bin was installed in 1992...". He works at the "institute", where he is the "owner of his time", allowing him to show us around. He's got this cool sidekick (Vitali), who is about 70 and used to fly Migs back in the day of the all mighty USSR. Evgeny got a grant to tour this old bloke around Europe to tell his story. Hopefully I can sit down with him and have a chat about the good old days.
Tomorrow we are jumping into a mini van and headed for the Urals, where there is an observatory waiting to show us the stars of the Northern Hemisphere. Sounds cool. I love scientists and what they think is a good excursion for the tourist.
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