"Samara: City on the Mighty Volga" Samara by dcwizard

My company does a lot of work in Russia, though somehow I have managed for years to have missed the pleasure of traveling there. This finally changed when I had the chance to travel there for five days. I never expected that my first visit to Russia would be to Samara. A massive city on the banks of the River Volga, Samara was in interesting place to visit, although work kept me from exploring as much as I would have liked. (Please forgive me, the depth of information and traveler tips tends to be lacking when I visit places for work. But I wanted to take the chance to share some impressions, in case your travels take you to Samara. I'm afraid I do not read/speak Russian and the cyrillic text either, so my tips will try to provide as much information as possible.)

Samara Art Museum

I stayed in a sanitorium at the edges of town, so we were taking pretty long taxi rides into the center and back. Although it was at first difficult to discern what "center" actually meant, once I was better oriented, I found a nice center with plenty of cultural sites and monuments. I also found very charming the pre-revolutionary wooden houses which are still to be found in the center, not replaced by the usually ubiquitous concrete blocks, although there are plenty of those too.

Good Food and Company in the Basement

Highlights included the Samara Art Museum with a pretty extensive collection and temporary exhibits. My favorites include Russian paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, including some eye-catching and colorful modern avant garde works. The sun came out at the end of the week, heralding (perhaps) the arrival of Spring, best enjoyed with a stroll along the Volga's embankment. There are some good restaurants in Samara as well, where I enjoyed wonderful Russian specialties, especially fish, and of course way too much vodka!

• Pros:The River Volga, Great Restaurants
• Cons:Very Spread Out City
• In a nutshell:Some Pleasant Surprises for Those Willing to Look