"Russian Federation" Russia by m_spirello

Moscow & St. Petersburg 2005

Madness, complete madness - everything backpacking should be and more - including -17 degrees, 4 feet of snow and god knows how much vodka... see this little ditty...

St. Petersburg, Karelia, Murmansk & The Golden Ring 2004

A small but confortable former communal flat in St. Petersburg was my home for two months in 2004. Ostensibly in Russia to work for a scientific institute, I ended up with enough time on my hands to visit Karelia and Murmansk to the north, and the "Golden Ring" of ancient towns and cities around Moscow.

Celebrating the Return to Europe, Russia 2003

The longest single leg of the overland trip from Bangkok to the UK was the 4 day train ride from Ulaan Bataar to Moscow. My travelling companions on what turned out to be something of a drunken blur included a small band of Englishmen returning from a year in Japan. Naturally crossing the Ural Mountains and returning to our beloved Europe was toasted Russian-style in the restaurant wagon.

I spent the following two weeks in Moscow and St. Petersburg trying to figure out the intracies of Belarusan visa requirements, and planning how to get back to my little island on the other side of Europe. The full account of this trip can be found at:

this website

The Kremlin - Russia 2001

Young and naive, my first adventure in Europe took a turn for the ridiculous when my travelling companion Kieran and I, shocked at how cheap the tickets were, drunkenly decided it would be a great idea to surprise our parents by going to Mongolia and sending them a postcard...

The four days aboard the Chinese sleeper train were to prove fascinating, with our fellow passengers including North Korean botanists, an Armenian surgeon, a French photographer and an Australian anarchist on the run from the Swedish law.