Irkutsk was a funny place! In hindsight, I think we were a tad cautious there at first, a little niggle from having read that the only muggings reported outside of St Petersburg and Moscow were in Irkutsk, but it only ever really takes a day to feel familiar with a place, and once that happens the inhibitions one has about wandering aimlessly, finding shortcuts down backstreets and exploring busy local markets quickly disappear. Anyway, like I said, we were immed...

The Lonely Planet guide book (we've made the transition from Rough Guide to Lonely Planet, which is good - Lonely Planet has better maps and pictures!) said take the "kupe" carriages (2nd class, compartments), not the "platzkart" (3rd class, open carriage), and the lower the train number, the newer and better the train. But at £78 per ticket for 85 hours of travel, covering 5185km and 5 time-zones, how could we refuse the platzkart of the 340...

I have to confess to being slightly daunted by the prospect of our visit to Moscow. But after a couple of days in St Petersburg, it wasn't any more difficult, and despite the stories you hear, we didn't get stopped by police and hassled about visa registrations, we didn't get lost, we didn't get ripped off, and no-one tried to nick our stuff (well, not to our knowledge, and not successfully, anyway)! We both preferred Moscow to St Petersburg, actually. Perhaps no...

Russia makes no attempt whatsoever to make life easy for tourists. Right from getting the visa to enter the country in the first place, down to small things like buying a cup of coffee. I guess it doesn't need to, tourism being such an insignificant income to a country basking in oil-generated billions (well, obviously not everyone basks in this, the transition from Communism to capitalism creating one of the largest (if not the largest) in-country gaps between r...

If hostels had an equivalent of the Oscars then Jimmy Jumps Hostel in Vilnius would be the Titanic of them. Awards came raining down, including most comfortable beds, best location, most original breakfast (home-made waffles), best common room (big, airy loft room with very comfy couches), best DVD selection, best bathroom (biggest/cleanest) and I'm sure I could think of more, given time (and yes, before anyone points it out, I know Titanic was crap but at this p...