Blogs from Siberia, Russia, Europe - page 6

Since my first book was such a great success, and failed to get on Oprah's list, or any other list for that matter, I am trying something different. Though I actually had friends and others who wanted to PAY to buy the book "African Adventures, Addis to Capetown" through Amazon, I preferred to give them away. In fact, I still owe a book to my dear friend in Kuala Lumpur! So, to make it easier for you, and my wonderful reading audience out there. I am using Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for my next book, "Trans Siberian Railway Solo". So, I hope you are Kindle readers. Or you can just go back to the well over sixty emails that I sent from Russia, and piece together your own book. From Kindle: Congratulations, your book "Tran Siberian ... read more

Hi All, So we woke to a Russia breakfast of omelet and cucumber. Our honcho decided not to turn up in the morning and so we all went for a long walk in our group of six. We took some great photos down on the Lake. On our return she had a bit of a sulk because we wanted to go early. We then headed into Irkursk where our honcho showed us the cities main sites. A list of the sites she showed us include… · Raising of the Cross Church · The Saviours Church · The statue of TSAR Alexander the III · Lenin Statue · Yuri Gagarin Statue · Angara River and banks · An impressive mall · London Pub-with pints of good Russian beer We went to a ropey café for lunch everyone ... read more

Hi All, Due to no wifi from Moscow to Listvynaka we have not been able to blog, so this is to cover days 6 to 9 and today will be separate. So last blog we had met our fellow travellers: Tom, Martina, Jo, Katie. Facts: -3rd class sleeper (a pull down bed, approx 60 people in a carriage = no privacy at all) -approximately 54 Russian Soldiers in out carriage... and us. This was very daunting at first!! - 3.5 days and 4 nights on the train Good memories from the train: - Meeting so many Russian soldiers- they were between 19-21 years, couldn't speak much English but they were great fun, we drank, played cards and shared cultures by broken languages and pictures. - 3 duvet days we didn't feel guilty about -watching the landscape ... read more

I was "two days ago" in a pub (somewhere in baikal region) with Donovan drinking beer. We had fun and maked jokes about us trip. Donovan was travelling on his bycicle i was on a hitchhiking tour. Actually we had the same destination from east to the west in Siberia.. The day after he started his trip on his bicycle.. And 2 days later i also started my trip to the west.. After 230 km far from Baikal i ended up somewhere.. I was waiting for a car who could take me to my destination. And what I saw??? I could not believe it?? After 2 days i saw Donovan coming closer to me riding... read more

Geo: 52.3124, 104.296The Trans Siberian Express has almost the same mythical allure that the Orient Express has/had and like the Orient Express, there are a number of flavours. The one that most tourists take connects Moscow with Beijing via Mongolia but the 'real' Trans Siberian connects Moscow with Vladivostok and is the longest single train ride in the world. We've already been to both China and Mongolia and since we wanted the bragging rights of surviving 7 days and 6 nights on a Russian train heading across the barren tundra of Siberia, we boarded the train in Vladivostok. The experience from that point on was somewhat surreal- The tiny cabin that was to be our home for the next week would make a phone booth seem excessively spacious. There were two narrow benches that folded down ... read more