Russian artist Katya Guschina sketches Transsib

She says:

I am really keen on two things: travelling and sketching. When i started my first yeat at university, i got an opportunity to combine my interests in one project - sketchbook about Transsib.
Transsib is nearly 9000 km long and it is one of the biggest railways in the world. Starting its way from Moscow, it goes through Udmurtia, Ural, Siberia, lake Baikal and Far East. This journey takes five days by train. For this project i used sources about the Transsib, blogs, books and personal memoirs of my friend and family. Follow the railway to see all the Russian beauty from the window of the train.

She sketches:













All of her sketches:

• first part
• second part

What are your picks for the top travel destinations in Russia?

Ty asked:

What are your picks for the top travel destinations in Russia for those wanting to visit both the older, culturally rich areas and the newer, modern cities?

Hello Ty!

I've already spoken about lake Baikal; it's really top destination.

Other from that, I believe my mom when she says there is nothing like Solovetsky Islands. I've never been there myself (yet) but I've heard amazing stories from those who have. You can see Instagram hashtag for live photos here.

It's magical place, they say, closed from the world and full of history. Monasteries and Gulag for political prisoners, amazing nature with scent of toska.




There also is Valaam. It's an island closer to Moscow and St. Pete but it has similar monastery-prison history. I've been there and I can admit you feel differently there. It's unexpressible. Worth coming there.

Instagram hashtag for Valaam in Russian is here.







If we speak about modern cities, I'd recommend to visit Astana which is not quite Russia but a capital of ex-USSR Kazakhstan country. It have been developed lately and now it's quite astonishing. Not much to do there, but for a modern city lover it could be interesting.

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This post is an answer to one of The Listserve replies I’ve got.
You can ask your question, too.

When you travel away from Russia what do you miss the most?

Violette asked:

When you travel away from Russia what do you miss the most about your home country? I am interested because I have just moved from Australia to London and its the less obvious things that I miss about home.

Hello Violette!

I’ve traveled to Asia for 6 months with my gf; that was the longest trip I’ve taken so far.
Before I decided to go I was worried that I’d miss Russian language around, or ability to buy Russian paper books. I was also afraid to miss my friends and mom.

It turned out all wrong. I didn’t miss any of that. Friends lived next door, mom came visit.
It was also so relieving to get time and space free of previous life!

I felt the same moving from Moscow to St. Pete 8 years ago, leaving all of childish and students’ life behind. All those objects from past, so good to leave them behind. Life feels much fresher.

But what then I missed in Asia being away from motherland?

Old movies.
We watched a lot because we really missed them. Good thing there are many old Soviet movies with English subtitles (see CC label) on official Mosfilm YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/mosfilm/videos?sort=da&view=0&flow=list

Food featured in old movies.
Seriously, I started starving without special sausages. Pickled fish, too.

Real clothes.
In Asia we were wearing only summer clothes. Sometimes I thought I have nice jeans at home and some day I will wear them, too. In a place where it’s not so hot.

Cultural life.
There are a lot of activities in St. Pete. Starting from cinemas and fancy cafes — to book reading meetings and watercolor workshops. It’s so easy to do all this in your mother tongue.

We adopted a cat later. And now I guess I'd miss her the most. She cannot fly oceans like mom just to see me.

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This post is an answer to one of The Listserve replies I’ve got.
You can ask your question, too.

Drinking tea inside the train

'Ah, Russian tea, served by the provodnik...'

— The Man in Seat 61 (@seatsixtyone on twitter)

What happens if you stop paying attention to prohibitions in Russia

I leave here a piece of the Lonely Planet's Lessons from the road: mistakes travel writers make (so you don't have to) - part I article. Because they tell about Russia there.

Pay close attention to the shortest phrases in a Lonely Planet guidebook. Advice like: don’t swim in the river. No photos. Watch your wallet. Those nuggets of travel wisdom are usually earned the hard way by a Lonely Planet author. We’re going to tell you the back stories behind some sage guidebook advice.

One warning though: don’t try this at home. These are mistakes professional Lonely Planet writers have made, so that you don’t have to.

No photos
When Lonely Planet author Simon Richmond says no photos, he means it.

While researching Lonely Planet’s Trans-Siberian Railway travel guide I left the train to stretch my legs at Illanskaya station, an early-20th-century red-brick complex with flower gardens so picturesque that I took a couple of shots with my camera. Within seconds I was strong-armed by three men into a building in the corner of the compound where, after thinking that I was being robbed, I was presented to security officers as a spy.

With seconds ticking down to my train’s departure I begged the guards to allow me to return to the train to retrieve my bags, including my computer, research notes and practically all my cash. But the train was already pulling out of the station and into Siberia.

After convincing the authorities that I was a travel writer rather than a spy, I eventually made it to Irkutsk with the help of several kind and sympathetic people. To my joy I discovered my belongings in the safekeeping of the police, having been passed on by the honest train conductor. As I ran down a checklist of my luggage, listing every item down to ‘seven pairs of dirty underwear,’ I found not one thing was missing.

‘This is the Russian way,’ said my Irkutsk guide. I was eternally grateful and humbled.

Russian trains, the description

I've stumbled upon my next favorite travelog and also suddenly found there amazing detailled explanation of taking Russian train (luckily for this blogpost, it was written in English).

So if you would like to take one (would it be simple Moscow-St. Petersburg trip or the whole week-length Transsiberian adventure), go read this post:

http://www.fivefeetflat.net/2012/09/tips-for-the-trans-siberian-railway.html

(and follow this girl for excellent reading she produces)

Vyborg (Viborg, Viipuri)

Last week-end my mom came to visit me and we went to the town of Vyborg.

The town itself is very nice, buildings are realy Scandinavian and everything is so slow there as if you were at the countryside and not in 2 hours train ride from St. Petersburg. Vyborg is situated between Russia and Finland and was once Swedish, then Finnish, then Russian land. People who live there generally are not the best species because there is few work to do so the brightest move to St. Petersburg (except for businessmen). Though when we went to jazz festival and organ concert we've seen some nice faces. Also there is situated big and beautiful parque Monrepo (from mon repos - my pleasure/leisure) where we did spend a fair half of the Saturday resting near the water.

My spanish friend Carlos (hi Carlos!) asked me to put some photos from Viborg on my blog and I thought really, maybe one of you would like to visit the town some day.

It's easy to come there from Finlyandsky railway station (metro station Ploschad' Lenina, the red line at the metro map), the road takes 1.5 - 2 hours and costs about 250 rubles. There are buses from Parnas metro station but it's so far away and they can run out of tickets so you'd better use the railroad. The problem is to book a hotel because not all of them are on booking.com and others do not know yet about booking online but you can always come for one day only.

More photos inside (or see everything on Facebook)!