Why was it a mistake? Russia World Cup 2018

Russia World Cup 2018

Well instead of accepting a lift I walked the 3 kilometres with my bag. Found the address of my accommodation, but could find no trace of the hostel. Despite enlisting the help of the locals, and ringing the number given, I had to give up looking after an hour.

Luckily managed to find somewhere nearby and then spent the next two hours checking in as they recorded all my documents and wanted to know where I had been and where I was going. All with the help of google translate. It took some explaining and I have now decided to cancel my next booking in Ekaterinburg, as I would end up spending as much time checking in as sleeping there!

During the day it was cloudy and it started raining for the first time in this trip. It was a great shame as it is a lovely city, but photographs on this weather would not do it justice. I decided I would come back at night.

At this time of year, it does not really get dark and these are known as white nights. This added a surreal feeling after the Russia game as clearly no one wanted to go to bed. Russians chanted with displays of nationalism I had not seen since the Lucy bar in the Ukraine in 2012. Cars blared their horns, with people hanging out their windows waving flags. You would think they had conquered the world, not just won a second football match.

All this was going on as I took in the sights and photographed them into the early hours... as I have a day off tomorrow.