"Russia is for the Russians." - Maria This was the general feeling we got about Russia after our 12 days there. While its sights were beautiful and its scale vast, Russia sure proved to be difficult to travel through independently. As Tom's co-worker Olga had predicted and forewarned, Russians don't like foreigners, they're not friendly to strangers and they won't speak to you even if they can speak English (which they are taught in school). Oh, and the stereotype is true: they drink a lot! Despite all this, the train rides were the highlights for us. Travelling from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, we got off the train to explore Irkutsk (Lake Baikal), Moscow and St. Petersburg. Our longest journey (Irkutsk-Moscow) was 87 hours long, but it was fantastic and it really couldn't have gone smoother! To Irkutsk
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