My fav region in Europe. The Baltics, the Balkans, gorgeous landscapes, super cheap prices, and great, great beers…

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A Walking Tour in Tallinn, Estonia

A Walking Tour in Tallinn, Estonia I’ve been anticipating my arrival in the Baltic states for months. I’d heard that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were steeped in history, dripping with culture and that their cities were full of the most am...

A Goodbye and Thanks to Finland, and Hello to Mainland Europe

I’ve not only waved a temporary goodbye to Scandinavia, but also my two good buddies who took the trans Siberian train with me, so it’s onwards into Eastern Europe all alone… Looking back at my time in Finland, I feel so happy about the thi...

2 Days in St Petersburg

St Petes is to Moscow what Beauty is to the Beast. After a month in Russia I thought I had worked out Russian cities, with their Soviet hangover still lingering, mass apartment blocks, they were interesting if not pleasing to the eye, but t...

Backpacking in Moscow – 5 Best Things I saw

It only cost me $300 in visas, 10 nights on trains and too many bottles of vodka to county to finally make it here, and it was worth all the effort. Moscow, I’d heard, was in the top 5 most expensive city in the world, so when I managed to...

Visiting the Russian circus in Moscow

When in Rome and all that. So I finally made it to Moscow, 6000km, endless nights in trains, a huge detour through Kazakhstan but at last I’m here. I’ve dreamt about visiting Moscow for over a decade, I wanted a photo in front of St Basil’s...

Getting from Russia to Kazakhstan: Omsk to Astana

I don’t like to follow people’s paths, I always have a burning desire to blaze my own trail, to find my own way to when I subscribed to taking the Trans Siberian railroad from China to Russia, 1/3 of the way around the world, I knew I had t...

Packing for the Trans Siberian Train – Essentials

The most epic train journey of them all, and one which every traveler has on their bucket list, the Trans Siberian conjures images on Soviet train carriages, drinking Vodka with people in your cabin, vast landscapes and huge distance – it’s...

Going to Lake Baikal, the World’s Deepest Lake

My first stop on the Trans Siberian proper was Irkutsk, from all accounts it was meant to be quite dreary, non-eventful stop but after a day of sightseeing and a night of vodka, I certainly don’t subscribe to that. That combined with the fa...