The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

Travelling by land from Russia to Georgia via Georgian Military Road AKA Invasion Highway. Spectacular scenery and exotic border crossings. Travel story, photos and video.

How to survive and eat well as a vegan in Russia? A guide for vegan foods and their names in Russian.

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary in Moscow, Russia on a crisp and sunny October day with president Vladimir Putin.

Travelling the trans-siberian railway all the way from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, Russia. And visiting Voguls on the way. We started our Trans-Siberian railway ride from Kuokkaniemi, a small village situated near Sortavala and Finnish border in Karelia. The trip ended in Vladivostok near Japan and Korea totaling well over 10.000 kilometres. It would have been possible to do the trip in about eleven days, but we wanted to stop every once in a while and look around. We bought our tickets one by one, just to the next destination, and got this way a lot of experience of Russian bureaucracy, despotism of the police (militsiya), and the lack of any kind of logic in Russia. We knew right away that our Experiment would at least be challenging. In Santeri’s words: Russia should be avoided at any cost.

Sixteen funny ways to entertain yourself in the Trans-Siberian 2-week train ride through Russia. Start to prepare for the trip well in advance: don’t change your shirt, socks or underpants at least for one week. Eat pea soup before the trip so in the train you will be able to entertain other passengers by farting “International”.

Vegetarians, nudists, herbs-smoking rastas and hippies in the Russian Rainbow gathering in Karelia, Russia in 2006.