peacetraveler22 | Travel Announcement: Return to Russia!

It's now official! I just purchased my tickets to Russia. :) Here I am, standing on the frozen Neva River in Peter. Glorious! Dates of the visit will be 23 February - 9 March. For those in the U.S., airfares on Aeroflot are incredibly cheap now. Nonstop flights from Washington, DC or New York City to Moscow cost only $492 USD roundtrip, including taxes. I can't even fly to many places in the U.S. for this price.

The first week I'll travel with my Russian friend on a road journey to some new cities, though I'm not yet sure where. Proposed options include the following:
(1) Moscow → Yaroslavl → Vologda → St. Petersburg → Moscow

(2) Moscow → Vladimir → Novgorod → Cheboksary → Kazan → Moscow

Where to go? What to do? Suggestions for other intriguing driving routes from Moscow? Help me! :) I'm mostly interested in unusual people, wild and frozen nature and village life. Museums, Orthodox churches, and standard tourist attractions aren't really important to me.

If there's interest, I can try to arrange a reader gathering somewhere in Moscow the second week. Although I'm not sure where in the city is convenient for most people? If you know a good gathering place, like a restaurant or pub, please tell me in the comments.

I'm excited for the trip, to see if attitudes toward an American visitor have changed since my visit last February when I attended the Olympic Games. Since then, relations between our countries have shifted dramatically and even here on my blog I've noticed more anti-Americanism and hostility, even when the topic of my posts have absolutely nothing to do with politics.

Btw, I'm sure many of you saw Ilya Varlamov's post hanging in the TOP all day yesterday, but if not I suggest you give it a read. A foreign tourist's brutal impressions of Russia. Her story makes my first Russian post seem like a fairy tale. I think she was harsh in her review of the country, though she's certainly entitled to her opinion. It's especially amusing to view the reader comments to the story (over 4,000 of them now!!).

Russia - your country remains a fascinating place for me, and I'm very happy to return!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shannon you like Russian railways and this news is interested for you!
From 1 February launched a new double-decker train between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
http://pass.rzd.ru/luxtrain/public/ru?STRUCTURE_ID=1374&layer_id=4814&refererLayerId=4813&id=136

but this news only in russian :-( English version http://eng.rzd.ru/ don't have all infomarmation if compare with russian version

sorry,my english is terrible

Hello! Thanks. :) I was supposed to take a double-decker train to Sochi last year, but unfortunately it was full and I went on a regular train. To Peter, I've only been on the Sapsan. Your English is good! :) Now, I'm considering taking the Trans-Siberian Railway to Lake Baikal. What do you think? Will I survive for three days on a train? :))

i am 35 year old man, I've never been on Lake Baikal :-( as like many Russian living in central Russia. My very long trip to the east Russia was in 'Gorny Altai' republic! I drove about 3 days by railways in third-class car to the city Biysk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biysk) . I read your report on the trip to Sochi, very interested and the importance of personal space for an American!
Рersonally for me, travel in third-class car is not tiring, interesting to see how the changing nature of how during the many days trip.

Last year in August, I went from Moscow to Veliky Novgorod (only one night) in third-class car (platzcart) and my neighbor was a Canadian citizen ( from Montreal) !!!

it was very unexpected for the entire car, that the foreigner was not going in the first class. She was a single traveler ! she did not speak Russian, only English and french. She compose by himself russian trip ( 2 weeks)
Montreal->Paris->Moscow->Golden ring city ->Veliky Novgorod->St. Petersburg -> Paris->Montreal

Travel Announcement: Return to Russia!

new double-decker train Moscow-SPB

Re: new double-decker train Moscow-SPB

Re: new double-decker train Moscow-SPB