We flew from the U.S. through Frankfurt to here, Ekaterinburg, Russia, to start the train trip. This is the Ekaterinburg, or "E-kat," skyline from the Atrium Palace hotel, the five star hotel with Russian characteristics. Notice there's no sign of a mountain range, here beside the Urals.

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Muddy E-kat, east of the Urals. It would appear that getting away is on the minds of the locals. This billboard siggests taking a trip to Egypt or Thailand.

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"Mid-rises (like the Atrium Palace) glowered down on ancient Siberian carved–wood houses." Detail of one of the houses in Ekaterinberg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.

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Orthodox cathedral, Ekaterinberg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.

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What do you think? I'm guessing I found the only shifty, suspicious-looking redhead in E-kat here at this kiosk.

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This is the tiny, dainty candle-lit Orthodox church-let, where we bought a tiny cross and a few icons.

With a glass, the women inspected the back of each, like kids examine trading cards, and they proclaimed one Nikolai and explained of another, “Blogodot Denyaba.”

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The modest memorial at the site of the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg. The family of deposed Czar Nicholas was shot while holed up at the house during the revolution, in July 1918. In 1977, local Sverdlovsk (now "E-kat") party boss Boris Yeltsin ordered the Ipatiev House destroyed.

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The Moscow to Vladivostok "Rossiya" Trans-Siberian train.

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Monument commemorating Tsar Nicholas, Ekaterinberg, Russia.

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Home, sweet home. Compartment nine in carriage seven of train number two, the Rossiya, between cabin eight, with a baby, and the toilet.

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Welcome.

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Here's the station at Novosibirsk, at 1.6 million the largest city in Siberia. Each carriage had its own provodnitsa. This was a carriage next to ours, so this provodnitsa isn't Lydia Ivanova.

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Typical scenery along the tracks. A freight car, Trans-Siberian railway, Russia.

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"Must’ve been 68 or 70 degrees, perfect air, as we all clambered out to stretch. They sold tons of some particular flayed and dried fish. The good people of Barabinsk still looked thoroughly European, not a bit Asian."

Barabinsk rail station, Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia.

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"East of Barabinsk a particular aquamarine colored paint took hold of all the buildings."

Typical house between Omsk and Novosibirsk, with shutters of that aquamarine color.

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Dried fish for sale along the Trans-Siberian railroad, Russia.

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Corridor in carriage seven of train number two, the Rossiya.

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