a hui hou kakou

Russia came near the beginning of my travels in the summer of 2006. I spent a month there in June and July and it is one of my favorite countries. Part of my attraction to Russia is that most of what I heard about was negative. Even Russian friends advised against it. My experience was almost entirely positive. The people are some of the most friendly in the world, the countryside is beautiful. It is a place that feels like it is coming together after a time of decay. The most troubling thing for me is the alcoholism. It seemed a majority of the men are alcoholics. I hazard to say that without this holding Russia back it would be one of the most developed countries in the world. I hope to live in Russia for a time in the future. I was again in Russia for a short time in December 2006 and January 2007.

Arms of Russia

Arms of Russia

Map of Russia Portable televisions at St. Petersburg(Vitebskii) Station. June 2006. Sign for the St. Petersburg metro. June 2006. Statue in the metro. June 2006. St. Petersburg. June 2006. St. Petersburg Mosque. June 2006. St. Petersburg. June 2006. Cathedral of our lady of Kazan. June 2006. Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. June 2006. Tree in St. Petersburg. June 2006. I met Ilya on the train to Murmansk. He was very nice and fed me lots of vegetarian food. I ran into many vegetarians in Russia. June 2006. Midnight sun over the Kola peninsula. June 2006. All Russian trains have as much hot water as you can use. June 2006. View from the train. June 2006. Me on a Russian train. June 2006. One of my best friends when I was living in Finland was from Apatity. Here is the station. The train stopped for a short time on the way to Minsk, but I wasn't able to reach my friend to meet up for coffee. June 2006. Police car in Murmansk. I had a nice chat with the police here. Unlike other Eastern European countries the police in Russia never gave me any trouble. June 2006. Murmansk train station. Murmansk is a nice city. It is far north of the arctic circle and since I was there in summer there was no hint of it ever getting dark. I got my first sunburn of the summer in Murmansk! June 2006. Murmansk. June 2006. Lenin memorial. June 2006. Nastya and Sveta. I met many nice Nastyas and many nice Svetas in Russia, but these were the first!. June 2006. Lighthouse and Murmansk. June 2006. Another picture of the same lighthouse. June 2006. Sveta and Nastya again. June 2006. Church in Staritsa. June 2006./td> Countryside near Staritsa and the Volga river. I spent a couple days riding horses and wandering around this area. Absolutely amazing place. Perhaps my favorite place in the whole summer travels of 2006. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. More of the same area. June 2006. Boat I crossed the Volga in. June 2006. Beautiful abandoned church. This is my favorite ruin from the summer of travels. It isn't famous, no one comes to see it. There are churches just like it abandoned all over Russia. But this was a very comfortable place. Just me and some crows. June 2006. Inside the church tower. June 2006. Me on a horse. Taken by Sveta. This is the second friend I met named Sveta. She was riding horses the same time as me. Later we met up in Moscow and hopefully we will meet again. June 2006. Sveta riding a horse. June 2006. Road heading away from Staritsa. June 2006. The highway to Moscow. June 2006. One of the Seven Sisters, attractive communist architecture. June 2006. Same building. June 2006. Sign for the Moscow metro. June 2006. Lenin's Tomb and the Kremlin. June 2006. State Historical Museum. June 2006. Lenin's Tomb and the Kremlin. June 2006. Spasskaya Tower of Moscow Kremlin. June 2006. Saint Basil's Cathedral. June 2006. Saint Basil's Cathedral. June 2006. Outside the Kremlin. June 2006. My friend Sveta I met in Staritsa again. June 2006. Statue in the metro. June 2006. Another sign for the Moscow metro. June 2006. Moscow. June 2006. The Nastya and Sveta I met in Murmansk. After Moscow I returned to St. Petersburg to meet up with them. June 2006. A nice aviary at Peterhof. My Russian friends knew a short wall easily hopped over for free entrance. June 2006. Peterhof. June 2006. A fountain of Peterhof. June 2006. More Peterhof. June 2006. Peterhof. June 2006. Peterhof. June 2006. A water tower from the train to Sverdlovsk. June 2006. Another water tower. June 2006. Sailor from Astrakhan. He was in my compartment and it was interesting to try an communicate. He very much fit the stereotype of a sailor but was a nice guy. June 2006. Going down into the Sverdlovsk metro. Smelled strongly of kerosene. June 2006. I met Igor in Alaska at university. Here he is with his girlfriend. June 2006. Beautiful church in Sverdlovsk. June 2006. Memorial for the slain royal family, now saints in the orthodox church. June 2006. Lenin statue. June 2006. Nice old building in Sverdlovsk. June 2006. Saying bye to Igor. June 2006. Countryside in Siberia. June 2006. Train station in Siberia. June 2006. River in Siberia. June 2006. More countryside. June 2006. Nastia, I met her on the train and we spent many hours playing cards. June 2006. Church in Irkutsk. June 2006. I met Diana in Irkutsk and she was my host to see lake Baikal. June 2006. Ferry from Irkutsk to Listvyanka on Lake Baikal. June 2006. Me on the ferry. June 2006. The river going up to Listvyanka was beautiful. June 2006. Tiny church in Listvyanka. June 2006. Lake Baikal. June 2006. Coast of Lake Baikal. June 2006. Boat under the road. June 2006. Cows along the main street in Listvyanka. June 2006. Huge head of Lenin statue in Ulan-Ude. June 2006. Theater built by Japanese prisoners of war(slaves) after world war II. In some places in Russia someone would tell me that this building or that street was built by Germans or Japanese after the war. I don't know what happened to these people after they built things. Russia in general seems to still think very much about WWII. June 2006. Ivolginsky Datsan Buddhist Monastery. June 2006. Ivolginsky Datsan Buddhist Monastery. June 2006. House in the Russian Far East. June 2006. Abandoned church in the Russian Far East. June 2006. Motorcycle and sidecar. In the more sparsely populated parts of Russia I didn't see many cars, but lots of motorcycles. June 2006. Station in the Russian Far East. July 2006. Town in the Russian Far East. In eastern Russia towns are more spaced out, there are less of the giant apartment blocks and more single houses. July 2006. Station in the Russian Far East. July 2006. Sunset. July 2006. Coming into Khabarovsk I felt that I returned to civilization after so long in the wilderness. I just had a chance to wander around a bit before I got back on the train. July 2006. Another nice girl I met on the train and spent many hours playing cards with. July 2006. Finally a view of the ocean again. The Pacific, now I had crossed Eurasia! July 2006. At the train station in Vladivostok. July 2006. The train station in Vladivostok. July 2006. City Hall in Vladivostok. July 2006. Main square in Vladivostok. July 2006. Submarine from WWII. July 2006. Small building. July 2006. Olga. July 2006. Pasha is another nice person I met in Vladivostok. July 2006. I met Nastka at a vegetarian restaurant in Vladivostok. In fact many of the people I met in Vlad were vegetarians. July 2006. Night view of Vladivostok from the ferry to Japan. July 2006. I met Masha on the ferry, we spent two days chatting. July 2006. The beautiful sea of Japan. July 2006. Interesting sign on the former Korean boat. July 2006. Apartment buildings in Khabarovsk. December 2006. Russian church in Khabarovsk. December 2006. My friend Masha. December 2006. Soviet Jet at a museum. December 2006. Soviet monument. December 2006. Russian church. December 2006. Russian church. December 2006. Closeup of ice. December 2006. Masha and her friend. December 2006. Khabarovsk at night. December 2006. Khabarovsk street. December 2006. Masha's brother's. December 2006. Masha's family. January 2007. Small statue in Ussirilsk. January 2007. Building in Ussirilsk. January 2007. Building in Ussirilsk. January 2007. Hitching to Grodyakovo. January 2007. Hotel where I stayed in Grodyakovo. January 2007. Shop in Grodyakovo. January 2007. Grodyakovo train station. January 2007. Cat in the Grodyakovo train station. January 2007. Staritsa. Moscow. Sverdlovsk. Sverdlovsk. Vladivostok. Passport Stamps |back to travels |