A game of serendipity: Fun Stuff on the Internet

So there is a cool new game where you get a random image from Google maps and you have to guess where you are in the world.  From when I heard about it I knew that it would be my thing. Yeah it is totally great.  You get points based on how close your guesses are to the actually location.  The first on I got was low hills with cat tails by the road, no buildings at all and a traffic sign on the right hand side.  I guessed USA because of the traffic sign and I think cat tails are in marshy areas, but it had the hills.  My guess was somewhere in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.  Turns out it was Brazil, oops.  Then I realized you can actually navigate around to get a better sense of the location not just the single snapshot.  The next one was a fancy shopping area.  Seemed obviously Japan. I guessed Tokyo; it was actually Osaka but my score definitely got better.  Then there was a plain-y area with modern metal buildings and farming equipment.  I guessed Amarillo Texas; it was in Kansas.  Number four was on an inland waterway.  The signs looked like they were in Spanish.  I navigated around a bit more and saw a number of signs that said Ponte (I think.)  Then I found some signs that had .br web addresses. Brazil again, Portuguese not Spanish.  My last place was basically this:

AH HA! Got to be Russia! So I pan around and see this.

Looks familiar… Like Yekaterinburg, but what are the chances?

I went exploring trying to figure out the Cyrillic alphabet and find a clue.  Pizza Place, Movie theater, a Botanical Garden, this crazy place…The tower reminds me of something in St. Petersburg and I know St. Petersburg has a famous garden I was about to guess when I saw a sign in English, you guessed it… Ekaterinburg.  I found it on the map, made my guess, and got my score.  Less than 2 km from correct.  Cool.  You should try Geoguessr.  It’s really fun.