It has been terribly remiss of me not to write, this is due to one rather and one very galling problem, which I will write more about when I have more time, but for now things to note:

Not all provodnitsas are smiley ladies. Some are selfish cows
Mongolia is stunningly beautiful, but their horses will end [...]

Apparently the calmer, less touristy, more Russian village in which to conduct your Lake Baikal homestay. 110km down a jumpy road in a minibus with two other passengers, there are two “tourist” houses in the village of 600-odd. This is a sort of gated complex which houses a hostess and various little huts including the [...]

The train is large, and blue, with smiling ladies with shellaqued hair waiting at each entrance to check your ticket and boot you out if you’re in the wrong carriage. As I am going first class, I am in a two-berth compartment with very shiny curtains and lots of wood lining it and the hallway. [...]

Not a frothy, chocolatey caffeinated beverage, no, but a thriving, jumping, jiving capital city!
A good day objectively, a nasty one subjectively. I am in sulky tourist mode now, not helped by a light sunburn and a spot of dehydration, but generally exacerbated by people shouting at me, overcharging me, misdirecting me, and being unfriendly. I’ve [...]

One good reason for keeping the blog is to advise those that come after, so that they don’t make the same mistakes I do. For example, I can advise you to take a taxi to your hotel your first night in Moscow.
You may think that you’re being principled. You may think, as I did, that [...]

n St Petersburg, you can’t avoid the Nevsky Prospekt. It’s like gravity: no matter where you go, you end up either crossing it, or walking along it a little bit, so you have plenty of time to people watch. The street itself is like an even less interesting Champs Elysees, but with perhaps with more [...]

I always planned to read Proust on the Trans-siberian. Now that I am marginally less pretentious, I’ve abandoned that idea. However, I’m reminded of the title of the sequence by the total lack of Soviet history here. Where the 1917-1990’s history of Russia has featured, it’s been in reference to imperial things taken into state [...]

Today started with good intentions. Breakfast at nine, Hermitage queue at 10, lunch at 2, Transport museum at 3. The knock-on effect of continuing jetlag and the alluring stories on Russia Today defeated me, however, and I was in the Palace Square at 12:30, just as the rain started. Russians, as you might imagine, are [...]

I was really unprepared for the sunlight to last 18 hours. Where I went to school in the north of Scotland it only got dusky in late June, never fully dark, and it’s a bit like that. My body’s having enough trouble coping with the West to East jetlag without the added confusion of sunlight [...]

“Hello, my name is Katie, I’m in St. Petersberg airport and this call is costing me two pounds a minute and I’ve been on hold for 20 minutes. Can you tell me quickly why my debit card isn’t working?”
So began my three week journey across Russia into Asia.
I’m the first to admit I am bad [...]