Adventures with Fred and Carolyn
Rolling back to our time in Russia…Now for a bit of history. My fuzzy recollection was that the Decembrists were early Russian revolutionaries. What I’d forgotten was how early. (I was never good at memorizing dates.) Their strike for change was in 1825, nearly a century before the violent revolutionary times beginning in 1917. This … Continue reading “The Decembrists and Their Impact on Irkutsk”
We’re in the lovely valley, full of rich herby, floral scent, alert for a sighting. Surrounded by steep hillsides, softened with eons of extremes, it’s green and, due to the lack of trees, the views are endless. We squinted and strained to see two small groups of Takhi. These horses are the only truly wild … Continue reading “We See Takhi Wild Horses in Hustai National Park”
[Updated 14 July 2019] Ulan-Bator (UB) is a bustling city in a pause after strong expansion due to a faded mining boom. There are still hundreds of high rises under construction, but many are paused. It’s not a handsome or affluent city. Modern buildings sprout in the central city, surrounded by aging relics of Soviet … Continue reading “Day One in Mongolia”
We really can’t say what we expected in Moscow, but we were amazed and impressed by its energy, modernity and yet its respect for a long and complex history. In the city center are skyscrapers gleaming bright and mirroring one another. Yet just yards away, one can glimpse the ‘seven sisters’ architectural stars from the … Continue reading “Moscow Surprises Us”
One of the first things we did on arrival in St. Petersburg was buy SIM cards for our phones. Of three reasonable carrier choices we chose MTC as they had the best national coverage. All the carriers were great bargains compared with AT&T. For $8 we got one month of unlimited data / text and … Continue reading “Travel Support Technology”
It’s Day Two. That was a bucking bronco of a night train! We’d occasionally wake when the G-forces got extreme. Amazingly, though, we both slept well, even with the rocking of what Fred called a demonic nanny! We awoke near the town of Tyumen, shown on the map above. At our noon stop at Isham, … Continue reading “Sunday Morning on the TSR”
We arrived St. Petersburg in the evening, checked-in to the Corinthia hotel. The above view is from our room at 3am that morning. The standard of living here is quite high. Lots of positive emotions in the crowds of St. Petersburg and even more so in Moscow. People’s day to day lives look busy and … Continue reading “St. Petersburg and Moscow First Impressions”
Besides walking around the city and eating great food, we wanted to get to know the place better. The river and canals are the lifeblood of Sankt Peterburg, so a river tour was a must. There are a zillion providers, but owing to the narrow canals, boat sizes don’t vary much. We were careful to … Continue reading “Touring St. Petersburg”
Our first big challenge was buying new SIM cards for our phones so that we could text and call locally as well as grab some internet. Fred had researched the options and decided on the MTC brand. We’d noticed that making our way around wasn’t trivial. Virtually all signage was in Cyrillic. I know about … Continue reading “Getting Connected in St. Petersburg”
Our journey begins. Around the world. From home in San. Diego to San Francisco, Helsinki and here to St. Petersburg. We arrived Sunday evening after some 18 hours of travel, looking forward to the summer White Nights revels. In June and July, the sun never fully sets, only dropping to dusk, leaving a milky sky … Continue reading “St. Petersburg – Night One and Day One”