my last stop in russia of course it looks nothing like this photo, this time to the east of Baikal. my guide book tells me that Ulan means 'red' in the local Buryat language. i have no idea who would find that interesting, the only thing of interest in this place is that largest Lenin head in the world, although it must be said he does look slightly stoned. that said Ulan Ude is a very different city from any other i visited in Russia, although it is just a few h...

I survived my 52 hour train trip to Irkutsk and immediatly got the buis down to a small town called Listvyanka. the trip wto Irkutsk was quite monotonos with just rolling hills and and forests but reaching Baikal was a real highlight. In terms of water volume Baikal is the biggest and deepest lake in the world it is also one of the cleanest . it holds about 40% of the worlds fresh water not including the poles all at a constant chilli 8 degrees. anyway enough of ...

My first real Trans Siberian trip was a relativly short hop of only 30 hours before i had my first stop at Yekaterinburg. I arrived at about 10pm at night managed to find a hotel and go out and get a bite to eat. On thing i found slightly strange was that all rains in Russia run on Moscow time. Iam already two hours ahead of Moscow time and will be 6 by the time i Leave for Mongolia so the time tables are going to make less and less sense the trip goes on. Anywa...

I arrived in Moscow on the overnight train from st petersburg headed to my hostel via the fantastic underground system. when i arrived i headed streight for red square. unfortunatly lenin mausoleum was closed on my first day but i managed to visit him the following day. the mauloeum is much smaller than maos. anyway i spent a few days in moscow i managed to see all the major sites including the kremlin, olmypic sites. before i started my trans siberian trip

Well Finland seemed a bit of a culture shock after the last few weeks. from small narrow old towns to a modern city set out in wide blocks. Helsinki is a great city with a real scandanavian feel. it is also the smallest city to ever hold the summer winter olympics. i visited the olympic statium (my third of the trip) went uip its panorama tower. also visited its excellant sports museum. while still had enough time to wonder around the streets helsinki really is a...