Irkutsk is one of the main hubs for tourists in Siberia. There’s enough infrastructure to stock up on food and head either east (Vladivostok), south (Mongolia) or west (Moscow). When I arrived there, a number of administrative tasks were on my mind: Getting the visa for Mongolia, see a...

Siberia is quite a different experience during this journey. Upon arriving in Novosibirsk, temperatures at 6am were around the freezing point – which is actually not too bad. But to explore the city I needed some extra effort, avoiding to simply stay inside in a cozy little cafe...

The last day in Moscow started uneventful. In the morning, I did some shopping for the four day journey on the train and stocked some fruit and cup noodles. For lunch, I went back to the hostel where two roommates, Jeremie and Mark, were hanging out with two Canadian girls from the other dorm....

Sleeping with 10 people in the same room doesn’t actually bother me. By emphasizing the word “me”. Because I know that I do perform the art of snoring occasionally when being drunk or simply very tired. Therefore, I’m quite happy that others in the room snor, too....

Packing all necessary stuff into a backpack isn’t really that hard. With some experience, one knows what was missed during the last trip – or what proved to be useless and isn’t worth carrying around. And even for the inexperienced travellers, there is a wealth of Rucksack...

My Russian is steadily improving and I am quite proud of if. Today, I formed my first sentence in Russian (without the help of my trusty book) to ask for “one liter of sparkling water” in the shop. And I actually got what I ordered. But I am still mixing up two essential words:...