Thursday, 27 August 2026

 

Start: Izhevsk (RU) 9:45

Arrival: Votkinsk (RU) 14:50

 

Total: 103 km

 

 

I hate "set plates". Yesterday evening we had to decide what we wanted to have for breakfast. More precisely, there were several options and we had to choose three. I opted for kasha, blini and drink yoghurt. We also had to tell them precisely when we wanted to have our breakfast. So shortly before 9 am, we made our way to the hotel cafeteria. There was a table with our room number, two plates of cold blini, a glass of yoghurt and an orange. Sonia's "fruit" choice. Great. How long had they been standing here? We procured ourselves some coffee and tucked in. A girl brought out a huge bowl of rice kasha. Not my favourite kind, and certainly not in these XXL amounts. But the room had been ultra comfy and sound proof, we'd had a good night's sleep, so we were not complaining. For tonight though, we booked a room without breakfast. Because a 50-euro room in a one-dog town where the dog just died of old age screamed "set plate". And as I said: I hate set plates.

 

 

An icy wind was blowing when we arrived at the Ludorvai Open air museum. The parking lot was empty, the place looked lonely and forlorn on the windswept heath. Better put on a raincoat over our cardigans. Why oh why had I not donned a warmer pair of pants? Fighting against the wind, we made our way to the kassa. "What dreadful weather you chose for a visit to Ludorvai", the receptionist said laughing. Well, it's not like we were here for a month. It was either this morning or none at all.

 

 

We seemed to be the only visitors this morning. Ambling through the high grass, we marvelled at empty festival tribunes, boarded-up food stands and locked-down huts. Luckily, the larger exhibits were more or less open.

 

The museum had reconstructed original old farmsteads, a mosque, barns and work places. Every building had an explanatory panel in Russian, Udmurt and English, many contained figurines or exhibits that gave you an idea of local village life in the 19th century.

 

 

The exhibition hall displaying Udmurt traditional clothes and tapestry was especially interesting (and warm!). But we also enjoyed our stroll through the woods to a sacred barn where ceremonies were held four times a year. Further on, we found wooden statues of the legendary Alangasar, who are said to have inhabited the earth before the humans took over, and who were then pushed so far north that they froze and turned to stone. A sad story. You can see me standing next to a tall wooden alangasar statue further below.

 

 

We found an old Udmurt mosque (I guess they hedged their bets, praying to both the old and the new gods) and a large pond with a boat, water-skiing komary and more gnats than we cared to count. Meanwhile, the wind had abated and it was almost sunny. The tourist season was clearly over, as we were still as good as alone in the park. Who would have thought that late August could feel so autumnal!

 

 

Izhevsk is best known (if it is known at all) as the workplace of the most famous military engineer ever: Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose name is inextricably linked to one of his early inventions: a no-fuss, near indestructable and powerful weapon, the Avtomat Kalashnikova-47.

 

Unfortunately, my peace loving sister vocally objected to going to the Kalashnikov museum, where visitors can not only learn about the history of the Kalashnikov company (which to this day produces various heavy equipment as well as precision tools in Izhevsk), but also try out a real, loaded AK-47 for themselves. I could of course have gone there on my own. But in the end, I didn't. So we just visited the ethnic outdoor museum and then drove on, over potholes and deep ruts which made me tense up with just one thought in mind: our car has no clearance. Luckily, the ruts were not deep enough, or our car not low enough, to cause any damage.

 

 

In Yelabuga, we had not passed a single gas station that had petrol. We were mentally steeling outself for an early-morning gas hunt tomorrow, when finally a Tatneft station came into sight with a line of about 30 cars waiting. Yes, they had gas! We got in line and less than an hour later, we were on our way to Votkinsk with a full tank that would take us all the way to Perm tomorrow.

 

Strangely enough, in spite of the shortage, petrol remains cheap and of good quality. Real, unadulterated 95 (no E-10 here) costs only 0.84 euros a litre, and the quality is such that our fuel efficiency rose from 5.7 to 5.4 litres for every 100 kms.

 

 

 

When we arrived at our hotel for the night, I just wanted to drop onto the bed and sleep. The wind on the heath, the ruts in the street, the ever impatient drivers, all of this together had made me ready for a nap.

 

 

After some rest, we nevertheless decided to take a stroll along the pond. Its water smells enticingly salty, strange, seeing how very far we are from the nearest ocean. A walk on the promenade cleared up the mystery: the strong waves, created by the inrushing Votka River, are washing an abundance of algae up onto the quay. I guess it's these protists that produce the strong smell of salt reminiscent of an ocean shore.

 

By now we were really hungry. There are no restaurants to write home (or a blog) about in Votkinsk, other than the ubiquitous Rostics (aka KFC) and a branch of the Dodo Pizza chain (yes, their logo is an extinct Australian bird). I had wanted to check out the authenticity of the Colonel's rebranded Russian outlets, so we drove into town and ordered a bucket of hot wings, some fries and Evervess Cola. The verdict: it was yummier than KFC back home, in fact it tasted exactly as it used to in Western Europe, about 15 years ago. Evervess Cola, though supposedly Pepsi in disguise, tastes nothing like it, but rather like Coke. Which is a good thing, as I really do not enjoy the taste of Pepsi.

 

 

Though the place was not cheap (we paid 1000 rubels = 12 euros for a small cola, medium fries and 12 hot wings), it was packed with teenagers. People were getting food to go because all the seats were taken. That Russian company is making some serious money.

 

Well fed and content, we drove back to our hotel, only to find that my site was blocked. Inwardly cursing my provider - they had PROMISED that they would not red-flag me accessing my site from Russia! - we decided to enjoy a webfree night. Crossword puzzle book - here we come.