On a beautiful sunny day, two crazy Europeans decided to hitchhike from Russia (Ulan Ude) to Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar). A Masjroetka (minibus) dropped us 40 minutes out of the city centre. We did a quick photo session because we had good hope we were going to be picked up soon. And we were lucky. Soon a […]
Russia
A perfect day around Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal, so big, it contains one fifth of the world’s fresh water! Sam and I stayed almost one week around this incredibly beautiful part of Russia and I can easily say that these were the best days of my Trans-Siberian adventure. It already started with a day trip from Irkutsk to Listvyanka, the closest […]
Nina

Our Russian grandmother (Babushka) at Olkhon Island Nina grew up along the Northern part of Lake Baikal. She is Buryat. Buryats are people from the south-east of Russia. Their orignal language, Buryat, is one that is more close to the Mongolian language. It is easy to recognise them, because the Mongolian, more Asian look is […]
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How to survive the Transsib

The Trans-Siberian railway. A train ride I have been dreaming of since I was a teenager. There was something about that wild and mysterious Siberian nature and the long, giant trains… In reality, things are a little different than in my dreams of course… If you read my current mission page, you might remember I said […]
The Giants of Russia: St. Petersburg & Moscow

St. Petersburg St. Petersburg was a lot bigger than I expected. apparently, only London, Moscow and Istanbul are bigger within geographical Europe. My host lived a little out of the centre, which meant I had to travel for about 1 hour to any touristic place in St. Petersburg. Also St. Petersburg is a quite European […]
First impressions of Russia

Although I am currently in the train halfway through Russia, I am still gathering my first impressions. And I can easily say I will have a lot of first impressions until I reach the next country. Because Russia is definitely different from any other country I’ve visited. There are a lot of stereotypes and predispositions […]