Unforgettable accommodation in Yekaterinburg

As we stood in the rain waiting for the lights to turn green, a man in a long leather trench coat approached us from behind….
He mumbled “Europe Asia” which startled us to say the least! Who was this guy standing so close to us? And how did he know where we were staying? By this point we were lost, cold and very glad to meet with some help, even though our helpful stranger looked quite sinister. We said, “yes” in unison. He looked at us for a few seconds before mumbling “follow me”.
And follow him we did. Putting all our faith in the universe and crossing all fingers and toes as we prayed silently for safety. A few attempts at conversation were met with stony silence, which was disconcerting to say the least. The night was getting dark and the rain was still pouring which gave the scene a noirish feel.
When we started walking through a building site I was convinced something was up. Karen and the stranger were walking in front of me so I quickly decided that if the stranger tried to mug us I would hit him with my drinks canister. Yes my plan was weak to say the least.
We walked through the building site to an old soviet tower block. On top of the door, spray painted on the wall were the words “Europe Asia Hostel”. Yes, spray-painted on the wall. And not in a we’re so cool and trendy we spray paint our signs kind of way.
Okaaay, this looks like our hostel we thought. Gulp. We followed the man into a small lift, he still had not said a word by this point. As the 3 of us (and our 2 huge backpacks) struggled to move in this confined space I noticed that the sides of the lift were plastered with porn photos. Hmm not the classiest of entries so far.
We got to the floor of our hostel and the stranger fished out a pair of keys and opened the door. It turned out that he was the “hostel” owner! Hurrah he was not about to murder us….or was he?
When I say the word hostel what I really mean is a one bedroom apartment that pretends to be a hostel. We were staying with Mr. No Voice ALONE! Every horror movie I had watched came into my thoughts. We were doomed.
As he opened the door to our room we saw the most beautiful sight: Two American girls that were also staying in the “hostel”. The look on their faces matched ours: Relief. When he left us to it, we practically hugged each-other with excitement. We compared stories about Mr No Voice and nervously laughed at our predicament. All 4 of us were booked to stay for 2 nights. We decided to brave it out and see what happened.
Our stay at the Europe Asia Yekaterinburg “hostel” was certainly unforgettable. After a lovely day in Yekaterinburg we went home only to be greeted by Mr. No Voice, sitting at his computer in his Y-FRONTS! That is one sight that will regrettable stay with me for a long time.
Not only did this man grunt at us while we were in his building, the BO that reeked from his body made our eyes water in the little time we spent in the place. Mind you I’m not sure we smelt any better after not having any access to hot water and therefore no shower for two days.
We had to laugh when on our last day there, as we left the building we noticed a sign supposedly from Tripadvisor saying “Best Staff” award. Seems like our man had a sense of humour after all.
So our only tip for this week is this: DO NOT STAY AT THE EUROPE ASIA YEKATERINBURG HOSTEL.
Unless you want unforgettable accommodation in Yekaterinburg of course.
We really do not like giving bad reviews of places but we feel to be honest bloggers we have to give it to you straight.
Apologies for the lack of images in this blog. We did not want to ruin the lens on our camera during our stay in the “hostel”.
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[…] Reaching Yekaterinburg was a real milestone for us. As the city is situated where the European and Asian continents meet, it meant that we had reached Asia without leaving the ground. Our first night did not get off to a great start because of our accommodation situation. […]