30 I flew into St. Petersburg from Singapore to start the first leg of my Russian visit. Not my first visit, though. That was back in the 1980s, when I flew on the Soviet airline Aeroflot on my way to…
31/7 to 2 Russia is big, powerful, and has a long history, the Hermitage Museum is the embodiment of that. It is a museum, it was also the palace of the Romanov, the last emperor of Russia. From the outside,…
1 St. Petersburg has many palaces, so I had to at least visit one. I took the morning train to Peterhof Palace, supposedly an easy, one-hour ride, but I overshot it. When I asked the ticket inspectors if I was…
4 From St. Petersburg to Moscow, I wanted to take the night trains to save time, but buying night train tickets at the last minute on a summer weekend was excessively expensive. I ended up taking the day train to…
5 Next to the St. Basil’s Cathedral looms the Kremlin, the Russian seat of power. I walked around the compound within the walls. Beautiful churches with those exaggerated golden and colorful domes stood on the same ground local and world…
6 Moscow is obviously more than the St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, so I took a day trip to Sergiyev Posad, one of the towns on the so-called Golden Ring around the city’s fringes. The Tourist Information Office advised…
4-7 Fellow travelers have expressed that St. Petersburg is more enjoyable than Moscow. I, however, find many things that intrigue me here. I could spend days wandering around Red Square, admiring its stately buildings and cathedrals, soaking up the aura…
8 I have now seen the two most famous cities in Russia: St. Petersburg and Moscow. Time to move farther east on the Trans-Siberian Express. I wanted to stop at some cities in Siberia, proceeding only when I was ready…
10 After a little over a day, I boarded the 15-hour night train to go farther east, to Yekaterinburg. I had almost two full days here, a Saturday and Sunday. The sun was out; the locals were out. The living…
13 I arrived in Krasnoyarsk about 10:30 a.m., after two nights—35 hours total—on the train from Yekaterinburg. I’ve never been cooped up in a train or on transport for 35 hours. Traveling by train horizontally across the country, losing a…
15 About eighteen hours after departing Krasnoyarsk, I arrived in Irkutsk early the next morning. This part of Russia was well and truly in Asia. Although the majority of the people were still Caucasian-looking, I was seeing more Asian faces…
16/8/2019 – After a night at Irkutsk, I joined a minibus to Khuzhir on Okhlon Island, paying 1000 roubles for the privilege. The island is reputed to be the best place to see Lake Baikal. We started off at about…
17 The few hours around Khuzhir yesterday were just the appetizer. The next morning, eight of us tourists were driven toward the northern part of the Olkhon Island, in a funny-looking Russian van. Many of these workhorses are seen plying…
19 I enjoyed walking to the end of the world, living on the edge without spilling over, testing the limit without crossing the line, then withdrawing to my comfort zone to relish it, and do it once more over and…
21 After two days of rest, I departed Ulan-Ude at 11 p.m. to arrive in Chita at about 10 a.m. the next day. By now, a train ride of fewer than 14 hours was a breeze. Sleeping among strangers, queuing…
22-26 After a few hours wandering around Chita, I was ready for my next train ride. I started this journey in St. Petersburg in Europe, and would end in Vladivostok, in the farthest east of the country, from ear to…
22-26 After 52 hours cooped up in the train, I finally alighted in Vladivostok, my last stop in Russia, having traveled from one extremity to the other. Not easy sometimes. For example, one of the two toilets for the entire…