Blogs from South, Russia, Europe - page 2

Firstly, apologies on how late and rushed this one is. The next will be better, I promise! I arrived in Volgograd mid-afternoon on Tuesday and walked to my hostel on Heroes Alley. Volgograd is probably better known to history buffs as Stalingrad, but before Stalingrad it was called Tsaritsyn, 'Yellow River'. Founded in about 1589 to guard Russia's southern boundary, Tsritsyn was also a trading port. Although it was only named 'Stalingrad' for 39 years, this is the name most people recognise. The Battle of Stalingrad had a devastating effect on the city and the people. I visited Mamaev Kurgan (Hill 102) and the Battle of Stalingrad Museum. Mamaev Kurgan is a monument to the battle and the museum is, well, a museum dedicated to the battle. At Mamaev Kurgan I was given a guided tour ... read more

First serious off road driving The area between Liman and Astrakhan was sandy, I think it was part of the seabed of the Caspian and the lovely tarmacked road disappeared and it turned into a white single lane sandy track. For the first time on this trip, I was able to take the car off-road and drive it hard. The E119 still appeared as a purple line on my SatNav, but on the road it was just a sandy dirt track surrounded by flat featureless and desolate landscape. The area was also quite windy because it was beside the Casian sea. For four hours I was driving on this white sandy stuff and occasionally hitting large puddles of muddy water. I was amazed by the Mercedes G wagon's ability to handle itself off-road. Until now the ... read more

I am now located in Russia with the Caspian sea to my right and the Black sea to my left. This morning I set the SatNav for a city called Astrakhan so that I can head to the Russia - Kazakhstan border crossing. So I headed Northwest on the E117 until it reached E50 somewhere between Georgiyevsk and Mineralnye Vody. Halfway through my journey I was stopped by the local Police in a blue and white Lada to check my documents and the contents of my car. After 10 minutes of talking to me in Russian and I replied with my blank ‘I don’t know what you are talking about’ expression, they finally let me continue my journey. I had to be very polite to them because they were not carrying pistols but Kalashnikovs, automatic rifles ... 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