Blogs from South, Russia, Europe

Once again after over 5 years I accomplished the 2 day journey to Vladikavkaz. This time it was an even bigger pain in the ass than usually, since I wanted to avoid flying Siberia (because Russian airlines have been crashing too often lately and if I remember how Siberia was flying...I'm pretty sure they will start crashing some time soon too.) I flew from Frankfurt to Prague, from Prague to Rostov and from Rostov a 15 hour journey with the train to Vladikavkaz over Minvodi and Beslan. Soo...While I set up this plan I forgot that Southern Russia is as hot as a desert in August and that these 15 hours in the train won't be as "cool" as I thought. It was real sauna. But luckily I got so tired anyway that I slept 13 ... read more

Riveting WWII movie recounting the Battle of Stalingrad as primarily seen by Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev played by Jude Law. Also starring Ed Harris and Rachel Weisz. The name of the city was changed in 1925 from Tsaritsyn to Stalingrad and again in 1961 to Volgograd, i.e., Volga City Arrived in Adler this afternoon where, like this same time last year, it is extremely hot and packed with summer holidaying Russians. Accommodation and food For the roughly 24 hours total I would spend in Volgograd I had always been planning to be able to find a bed at the train station hotel because it was really the only budget option in town. Not only that it was very convenient to all the sights. It was huge, maybe 100 beds or more, and I had no problem ... read more

Pyatigorsk was the starting point of my trip to Mount Elbrus. My spirits, strangely, were not high before the journey. I had worked very hard for three days running after return from Paris and did not have a single spare second to buy the things needed for the mountain trekking, except that I bought a warm jacket in Paris and brought some other items from my hometown beforehand. I would quite literally go to the summit empty-handed but I hoped I’d manage to get things on the spot. I thought about going to Elbrus earlier and had to cancel the plans. The first time I planned to go there in August 2011 with a friend of mine, but decided to cancel it due to some reasons and the friend was very angry with me. But this ... read more

Where are we – a Buddhist Republic, tea plantations & rice paddies? No its not some exotic Asia destination – its Russia and the European part of Russia at that. On one particular day we start with Buddhist temples in Elista, cross Cossack territory with its golden onion domed churches and end up passing mosques in the snowy Caucuses Mountains. Crossing the Ukraine-Russia border was surprisingly easy and fast. Would have been even quicker if we hadn't kept filling out our customs forms wrong much to the amusement of the border guards. Then we had to get out our Sterling as they had never seen British Pounds before and were really curious. The first houses we pass take me by surprise – single storey wooden houses with 3 windows surrounded by fancy fretwork, absolutely identical to ... read more

Po slunnych dnech u Cerneho more jsme se vydali smerem na Volgograd, coz je zhruba 1000km. Cesta byla dobra, celkem slusna hlavni silnice a tak bylo spousta casu se kochat planema, ktere si clovek z precpane zapadni Evropy muze jen tezko predstavit. Slunce nas provazelo celou cestu a tak ani nevadilo, ze nam prestaly fungovat sterace. Po prejeti z Rostovskeho rajonu do Volgogradskeho se silnice zhorsila, ale stale to jde. Prijezd do Volgogradu uz je po rozbite ceste, ktera vypada jako z dob valky. Mnohem rychlejsi je pouzit cestu vyjetou v lesiku. Kdyz najizdime na siroky bulvar ve meste netusim, ze tam jsou jamy az 40cm hluboke. Klickujici auta ve vysoke rychlosti, jamy,prach..to je prvni dojem z mesta. Jako prvni se zastavujeme u pamatniku " Mat Rodina", coz je obrovska socha zeny se zvednutym mecem. Cely ... read more