Leaving Russia

Mongolia-Russia Border



One of Russia's most difficult challenges is leaving the country. With strict visa regulations and sometimes a period of days required to travel to border crossings, travellers must plan their exit carefully.

Man love, old-fashioned manners, and generosity will be missed. The word, Nyet, will not be.

Exiting Russia: 2.5 hours.
Entering Mongolia: 2o minutes.

One word: Russia.

Full marks

Irkutsk, Russia

English translations are a guaranteed pleasure of travel. However, Russia has a special skill for taking already-translated words and then re-translating back into Romanised spelling. One of my favourite examples of this was the ballet production of Romeo and Julietta, based on the Bill Shakespeare play of the same name.

Among all this Romanisation chaos, Irkutsk has taken the cake. The town’s main drag is Karl Marks Street. What would Lennon have said?

One word: Marksists?

Grand central (and not so central) stations

Moscow, Russia

Is it a ballroom? Is it a palace? No, it's a Moscow subway station. To serve a secondary purpose as bomb shelters, stations in Moscow were built hundreds of metres below ground-level. However, commuters are rewarded for the long, long, long escalator ride down with the unique designs of Moscow's Metro stations.

While the station pictured looks to be for first class passengers only, other stations celebrate the glories of revolution, the proletariat, or just a good old-fashioned cult (Lenin). Alas, such architecture can be found solely in subterranean Moscow.

One word: Façade.

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma

Moscow, Russia

They say that Moscow is a country within a country. But there's more: within Moscow itself there is often an era within an era within an era.

Standing inside the Kremlin, it is impossible not to notice the juxtaposition of the Kremlin tower, the Soviet star, and the gigantic Mercedes Benz logo, which is perched on a building in the background.

It is combination that defies logic but, in Russia, it is totally natural.

One word: incongruous.

Rising to the occasion

St. Petersburg, Russia

It was with skepticism that we journeyed to the supermarket in search of a loaf of bread.

Visions from the ‘80s clouded my mind. All I could think of was massive queues in the snow and row after row of empty shelves. I feared that this was to be a brutal Russian rite of passage.

My fears proved to be unfounded: a wide selection of bread provided for a fine lunch.

One word: Fed.

Meet you at the McDonald’s on Lenin Boulevard?

Minsk, Belarus

A co-incidence or a “told you so” moment? The biggest McDonald’s in Minsk stands proudly on Lenin Boulevard. It was a photograph too delicious to miss.

One word: Triumphant.