Category: Russia

  • A Year and a World

    A Year and a World

    After our seven week trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, we were on yet another train, this one from Saint Petersburg to Tallinn, Estonia, when Linda asked me if I really thought the Trans-Siberian Railway trip was anything special. At least for her, it was just one more train trip out of the many we had…

  • Russia Is a Geography, Not a State of Mind

    Russia Is a Geography, Not a State of Mind

    Our trip across the Russian Federation was quite the adventure. We traveled about seventy-five hundred kilometers in thirty-six days across five time zones on the Trans-Siberian network of railways and local trains, cars, and buses. Along the way, doing a lot of walking, and using public transportation, we explored ten cities, three villages, and the countryside around…

  • Off to the Baltic

    Off to the Baltic

    With the three day jazz festival over, we had a free day and night and the administrator (I think more like the manager) of the hotel suggested we take a trip to the sea. She told us we could take a cab, but the bus went right there and it was so much cheaper. We…

  • Touring Kaliningrad and the Jazz Festival: Days 2 and 3

    Touring Kaliningrad and the Jazz Festival: Days 2 and 3

    On Sunday the weather turned warm and sunny and we decided to explore Kaliningrad. As I mentioned in my post Kaliningrad and the Jazz Festival, Kaliningrad is not a tourist city. As we wandered we noticed there were not many dogs, not much cell phone photo taking, no other languages spoken other than Russian, and…

  • Kaliningrad and the Jazz Festival: Day 1

    Kaliningrad and the Jazz Festival: Day 1

    We spent the first full day recovering from jet lag, and getting ready to attend the jazz festival. When we got to Kaliningrad on Thursday, it had been cold and raining for a week, and the weather was hardly what one would call summery. The Jazz Festival was being held at night for three nights,…