Bus station

We stayed overnight in Ulyanovo's hotel. It was the kind of place you'd stay on a primary school trip - about six rooms with mismatched bedding and furniture, and several single beds crammed into each - but with more mosquitoes, peeling paper and frayed wires. The only two toilets (with no paper) were downstairs by reception, along with the bath - but there was no hot water unless you warmed up a bucket-full using an electric heating element. The reception was also a tailor's workshop; I guess they don't have many tourists coming through these parts. But the receptionist was friendly and gave us extra blankets for the cold night.

The next morning, we headed to the bus station: the only bus stop around, as far as I'm aware. We bought our tickets from the lady through the little hole, for one of the two buses running that morning to the nearest city, two and a half hours away.