Manu goes to Russia

Coming back from Kamchatka I spent another night in Khabarovsk before catching the train the next evening to Vladivostok. I used the day to update my blog and catch up on some things on the internet – scary how used we got to the internet, 2 weeks without it and you can spend a whole day catching up on the most important things… After an unspectacular overnight train ride, I got off at my final destination: Vladivostok! I cannot really describe what I felt in that moment – something between extreme satisfaction, happiness and surrealism. For so long I was dreaming of doing this trip, getting off the train in Vladivostok I realized: I made it, I actually did :) I took the obligatory picture of the final mark of the Trans-Siberian: Moscow – Vladivostok 9288km. ... read more

Ira dropped me off at the airport before going to work – consequently I was there well in advance. In some way it was a good thing – given that not many people use online check-in I actually got a window seat :) I went through the security check and sat down in the waiting area listening to music and observing people. Khabarovsk airport has four gates – so there are probably like four ladies doing the boarding for all the flights. The most important skill in that position is probably to have a loud voice – the ladies are actually walking and screaming through the whole waiting area “last passengers to Moscow, flight 1234, please board at gate 3’’ after they announced the last call for this flight at least half an hour ago :) ... read more

Almost until the last minute I was standing on the track talking to Aliki before jumping on the train to Khabarovsk. I boarded the train, as usual the train attendant passed by to take the copy of your ticket, but for some reason everyone except for me already got their linen beforehand – I thought maybe it’s because I was standing outside for so long. Turned out , even for the train attendant a foreigner was something special – I asked him for the linen, he told me he’d bring it… after waiting like 1h I decided to pass by his ‘’office’’ – he started asking me all the typical “OMG a foreigner” questions :) After some 15min I got my linen and free chocolate on top of that ;) I made my ‘’bed’’ – lay ... read more

Chita – Blagoveshchensk was my longest train ride in Russia, 37 hours, 2 nights, 1 day to the Russian Far East that kind of indicates already that it’s far away, but it didn’t occur to me that I am actually gonna be on the same degree of longitude as the center of Australia!. The train ride however was also the most boring one so far, nobody felt like talking; everyone just minded their own business. That gave me time to catch up on some blog writing and for once I actually took pictures of the nature passing by outside the train window :) At 7am I got picked up by Natalia at the train station. Natalia is a business woman as so many women in Russia nowadays. She rents apartments in the long-term and lets them ... read more

After short night in Irkutsk we took an early train to Ulan Ude – the idea was to go during daytime in order to enjoy the scenic ride along the southern coast of Lake Baikal. The weather didn’t seem to agree with our plan – it was cloudy, at times rainy, so you could see at most the first 100m into the lake… so Danny was reading, I rested my eyes a bit :) Once in Ulan Ude we tried to walk to the hostel, I had more or less a clue where it was Danny decided to be more of a follower on this trip – granted, he does not speak Russian and it’s his first time backpacking :), but not exactly, so we got kinda lost. Asking people didn’t help much either, the street ... read more

Half way through my trip, time to do some statistics : • 45 days have passed • 18 places visited • 53 people met only including people I have spent more than 1 hour with and had at least one decent conversation – so random 15min talks on park benches and sleeping people in the train don’t count ;) o With 10 I spoke mostly English o With 1 German o With 1 Swiss German I guess you can do the math – that’s a lot of impressions and information! So for the next two weeks I’ll switch from Russian to mainly English and change my status from traveler to tourist ;) Danny is coming up from Switzerland to give me company for two weeks around Lake Baikal :) The train ride from Krasnoyarsk to Irkutsk ... read more

In order to get back up from Kyzyl to Krasnoyarsk I was told to take a minibus – apparently it is way faster than the normal bus. Yes, that might be true, but it meant leaving Kyzyl at 5pm for a roughly 12h drive until 5am the next day. The little hiccup with that – there is no chance you can sleep in the full minibus for more than like 20min without knocking your head to the window or not feeling your legs anymore… so honestly, I might even suggest taking the regular slow bus if someone asks me to avoid a sleepless night! After being dropped off in the center of Krasnoyarsk, I made my way to Ksenya’s apartment somewhere around 6am – she was so sweet to let me in that early in the ... read more

For the trip from Abakan to Kyzyl I got a seat in a shared taxi buses can take up to 10h and drive out at 4.30pm – I wanted to make sure to do this trip during daylight. A white station wagon picked me up at 2.30pm – I sat in front :) The first part of the trip led us out of the Khakas steppe back into the Taiga and away from most civilization – it reminded me a bit of Canada: the street making its way along deep blue rivers surrounded by dense forest . We made our way up to the famous Ergaki mountains – granted these are actually real mountains and the scenery is beautiful, but for a Swiss not necessarily the most impressive part of the route. On the way down ... read more

At 6.30 am my train left for a 24h ride to Abakan. This time I only had three travel buddies – in the first 6-bed compartment they use two beds for storing linen. As every summer, a mom and her 8-year old kid Igor were travelling from St. Petersburg back home to some small village close to Abakan. For the first few hours we had company from a young guy who got a bit obtrusive after a while, so we were happy that he didn’t come with us all the way until Abakan. When travelling in Russia your perceptions of distance and time completely change – in Switzerland riding from Geneva to Winterthur takes about 3.5h and it seems like forever, here you are happy if the guy only rides 3.5h with you :) Once the ... read more

For Tomsk I had plenty of contacts who were ready to meet me for a drink, but no one who could actually host me, so I booked myself into the hostel for Saturday and Sunday night. Friday night, Max was ready to host me, so once again, got picked up at the station . Max lives with his wife Masha and his 2-year old daughter Katya – they are such a cute family. He works as a doctor in a close-by town called Seversk. Seversk is one of Russia’s famous closed cities – Only residents and people with a special permit can enter those cities. Closed/ secret cities in Russia usually host nuclear reactors and chemical plants. In the case of Seversk these work with the processing of uranium and plutonium. Up until 1992 closed cities ... read more