Shortly before Perm the clock jumps two hours forward. Perm is an industrial city of around one million inhabitants in the heart of the Urals. My host is Albina, a Tatar woman of 26. She works as a project manager for an international venture carrying out an urban regeneration project on the former grounds of the derelict Porm Pert on the river Kama.
Albina is having a few days off and shows me around Perm. We visit the excellent Art Gallery, which houses a remarkable collection of predominantly, but not only, Russian art, including icons and religious wooden sculptures. Outside of the museum, elderly people dance merrily to the tunes of an energetic blonde singer. It's Friendship and Love day and is hot. We go on a cruise on the Kama river. The boat is packed with celebrating Russians having picnics, drinking and dancing. Later in the evening, we join Albina's colleagues at a 'banya' next to the Kama river. Marek, Albina's boss from the Czech republic, tells me about the history of the country and extolls the virtues of Russian women.
Next day we go to see Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera performed within the former Gulag prison for political prisoners, Perm 36. After the perforamce we meet for dinner with Anastasia, who works at the Perm Opera and a group of German holidaymakers. They are Fabian, a lawyer at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Dorothea and Anna, both working in Georgia for GTZ, a German International cooperation organisation and a fourth person whose name I can't remember and is an engineer working on a project to turn C02 into petrol.
Next day I continue to Kungur, a beautiful yet somehow rundown city sandwiched betwen the Iren and Sylva rivers. My host Roman is away for work and I'm welcome by his charming and hospitable girlfriend Mariana. While I visit the ice caves, it starts raining cats and dogs and decide to stay another day. Mariana shows me all the landmarks and architecture of note, including an art déco wooden house out of a fairy tale. Crowds of teenagers hang out in the parks.
The following day is cold, my stomach is upset and I don't feel like wild camping. In Acit, they tell me the next hotel is 40 kms away but I've already cycled 110 kms and it's 10 in the evening. I inquire about accommodation alternatives and Igor, a paramedic of the Catastrophic Medicine unit, offers me a bunk bed in a trailer. Igor looks like a Lenin who's realised that communism is not worthwhile after all, has shaved and decided to go pleasure sailing. The next morning, Igor shows me a brown bear in a cage next to the café. The bear was caught as a cub in the forest. Igor tells me that he earns $200 per month, that politics are boring, that his real profession is pilot and wants to buy a second-hand autogiro.
Two days later I arrive in Yekaterinburg. 10 kms or so before Yekaterinburg there's a monument and a café that mark the border Europe and Asia. Asia is represented by a dragon, and the European side by a rooster.
No comments:
Post a Comment