Russia

Moscow – Ulan Bator (Trans-Siberian Railway)

Taking the Transsiberian Railway from Moscow to Ulan Bator was a memorable experience. You could do that journey in as little as five days, but I got off the train several times, twice (in Novosibirsk and in Orkhon, Mongolia) for almost two weeks each, so it took me around one […]

Trip to Lake Baikal: Olkhon Island

Irkutsk, 31 hours by train east of Novosibirsk, is a good starting point for tours to lake Baikal. Numerous people had told me to go to Olkhon Island, the biggest island in the world’s deepest lake. Unfortunately I only had two days for the excursion, since I had to get […]

Babí Léta in Novosibirsk

Babí Léta means Indian Summer in Russian and describes well my first week in Novosibirsk. We had mild and sunny autumn weather with temperature peaking at around 20°C while it was icy and snowing in Moscow. So Siberia isn’t always cold! Through HelpX I had found a really nice and […]

Teaching German in Russia

The day I arrived in Novosibirsk my host Larisa introduced me to her friend Olga, the German teacher at School 29. We chatted for a while (it was funny to speak German again) and she had me agree to join her for her lessons the next day. I was supposed […]

Alone in Perm36: Visiting a Gulag Museum

My first stop along the Transsiberian Railroad: Perm. Just above one million people live here, more than 1000km east of Moscow. I arrived at noon, quickly found the tourist information (as opposed to Moscow, this city is one of the few Russian cities that actually have one!), and went to all the […]

Impressions of Moscow

When I exited the train station on the morning of my arrival I instantly knew that I liked this city. It is huge, but clean and not as chaotic as you would expect this big a city to be. From almost everywhere you can see at least one of the […]

Circle of Light Festival

While I was in Moscow, the International Circle of Light Festival took place. Professional graphic designers from all over the world had created colorful animations and video mapped facades of different buildings throughout the city, such as the Bolshoy (=big) theatre and several pavillions at VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of […]

Update from Moscow

Hi everyone, I am still travelling, lots of gabventures going on at the time… That’s why there have not been any new posts lately. But everything will appear here in due time. How I lived in the Estonian forest and helped a young couple with their cool projects, how I […]

Pushkin – a palace worthy of a tsar

On my last day in Saint Petersburg I decided to go to Pushkin, a suburb named after the famous Russian poet who had begun his education in this place. After 30 Minutes on the metro and almost an hour in a crowded mini-bus that was speeding over ill-maintained bumpy roads […]

Four days in Saint Petersburg

Petrograd, Leningrad, Venice of the North, Paris of the East, or just Peter – Saint Petersburg has been called many things. And each of these names describe a different side of this beautiful city: You can find buildings of Soviet architecure, although not too many; they don’t “spoil” the old […]