Category: Russia

    Detours After over one month of living like a Muscovite, I hit the road again to the south. In Moscow, I had focused on some of the longer-term projects while moving around predominantly with Moscow Metro. From now on, I’ll be constantly driving each day as I explore the Caucasus region, probably until I finish visiting Armenia by the end of November. Russia is very big. And sometimes there is no ‘next big city’ during the next five hours of driving, which is the amount...

A map of feelings St. Petersburg is often called the ‘cultural’ capital of Russia. The nickname was originally given by Boris Yeltsin, and some Russian people I met found the idea puzzling or controversial. In any case, I know that the world-famous Hermitage Museum is on the ‘must-visit’ list for tourists visiting the city. But during my 3-week-long stay there, I ended up not visiting the museum, and I still don’t regret it too much. During the past two years, I’ve visited 55 countries and many more...

A brief time travel and the start of the final chapter On September 5th, I took a flight from Moscow to Korea to visit family. It turned out that the day was my 2nd travel anniversary, which was a pure coincidence. I had thought about taking the time at the airport to record how I feel about having spent two years traveling. But as is often the case, at the end I was only grateful to have made it to the gate only 20 minutes before...

Border crossing into Russia Originally I was planning to cross from Estonia to Russia through the Narva border point. But I ended up entering Russia (almost) from Latvia. It was because I realized that I wanted to ‘do justice’ to my experience in Latvia and Estonia, instead of having to rush in those countries. So I had dedicated the entirety of my remaining Schengen days to Latvia, and decided to visit Estonia properly when the next Schengen window opens. It was my fifty something-th border crossing...