Ok. I get Croatia now. It is warm, welcoming, and picture perfect. It is everything you want on your holiday to the Mediterranean. Or rather, to the Adriatic. It is so picture perfect, nothing out of the ordinary seems to…
Tallinn, Estonia: Like Riding a Bike
We pull into the station in Tallinn (Estonia!) aboard our train from Saint-Petersburg. It would be the last, last, last train ride of our round-the-world trip. As we disembark, I quickly notice how very European the world we are in…
Saint Petersburg and Our Rule Addiction
Founded by Peter the Great back in seventeen hundred and three, Saint Petersburg recently had its three hundredth birthday. The name was switched to Leningrad in nineteen seventeen when Lenin rose to power. But was quick to switch back around…
Moscow Mules: Russian Alphabet Basics
We spent two days (and an evening and a morning) in Moscow. So little time to see one of the great cities of the world. I’m embarrassed to admit that is all the time we could give it. The good…
Yekaterinburg, Russia: How to Save Humanity
It is three thousand four hundred kilometres – a two full-day journey – to get from Irkutsk to Yekaterinburg. It is the most amount of time at one go that we will be spending on a train on the entire…
An Evening on a Trans-Siberian Train
We board our westbound Trans-Siberian train in Irkutsk. In Russia there are four classes: third, lower second, upper second, and first. We opt for lower second to: save a bit of money, and, avoid meeting no one but other foreigners.…
Baikal Lake, Russia
Lake Baikal. Our first taste of Russia. The majority of travellers cross Russia starting in the West, ending in the East. But not us. Not this time, at least. Our decision to do the Trans-Mongolian route east to west meant,…
Tsenkher Hot Springs
Us not so keen to join Zoe on an overnight horseback ride, Jen and I opt to rent mountain bikes and do a day trip from Tsetserleg to the Tsenkher hot springs. We read a fair bit online about how…
Tsetserleg Loop: A Mongolian Frontier
After some very easy coercing by our man Joe back in Ulan Batar, we signed up for a two night tour out of Tsetserleg, Mongolia. We would be traveling over six hundred kilometres almost entirely off road. Some of it…
Central Mongolia and the Holy Mountain
For the second half of our three weeks in Mongolia, we decided to base ourselves in Central Mongolia. Out of a town called Tsetserleg (pronounced “Tsetserlay”). We did so because we were very quickly and easily persuaded to do so…