Russia

As I walked away from the taxi outside of the Yekaterinburg train station, I felt my hope slipping away. My main reason for stopping in the city on my Trans-Siberian journey was to visit Ganina Yama, the monastery that now stands on the site where the bodies of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and […]

  I have to admit, I thought about backing out.   As I was wandering around aimlessly searching for my hostel in Krasnoyarsk with the wind whipping against my face, I seriously thought about backing out. And when I lost my debit card to an ATM machine for the second time on this trip, I

I have to admit, I did not love Moscow. Unlike St. Petersburg, where I flipped through my guidebook and wanted to see just about everything, very little stood out to me as “must-sees” when it came to visiting Moscow. That being said, in the two and a half weeks I spent there, a few things

  Most people barely spend two days in Irkutsk, much less two weeks.   I initially planned a short stop as well, but when I heard about an opportunity to volunteer with the Great Baikal Trail organization, I thought a longer stay would be worth my while. I reached out to GBT in September and

I stared out of the dusty train window at rows and rows of wooden houses. They seemed to go on for miles and, as the train slowed down, I assumed we must be nearing the train station – and arriving at my first destination after a 62 hour journey from Vladivostok.  Instead, we just kept

Prior to this trip, the longest I had ever spent out of the country at one time was 23 days back in 2001. As of today, I have been traveling for 92 days. Three months. I thought a lot about writing this post because, well, sitting on a train for 32 hours with “roommates” who

As I walked through the Galeria Mall in the center of St. Petersburg, I couldn’t help but wonder where I was.  I passed a GAP. And a Nine West. And a Payless Shoe Source. Not to mention Nike, Adidas, Puma and Timberland.  If it wasn’t for the Cyrllic lettering on the signs everywhere, one could

As I travel, I have come to expect to see the golden arches of McDonald’s nearly everywhere I go. So I find it interesting to see what other American fast food chains have set up shop abroad. I was surprised to see such a variety here in Russia – including a Baskin-Robbins in Vladivostok and

Lake Baikal. The deepest lake in the world. Olkhon Island. The largest island in Lake Baikal. So what if I was visiting in the middle of November? When I first planned my trip to Russia and as I finalized my Trans-Siberian itinerary, a visit to Olkhon Island was non-negotiable. To make it worth your while,