Tag-Archive: russia

Butterflies, Red Ducks and Cold Winds around Siberia’s Lake Baikal

A fun way to learn about Siberia’s rural culture is to get off the Transsib train in Irkutsk and spend a week hiking around the South-West coast of Lake Baikal. The world’s second largest drinking water reservoir is 600 km long and feels more like a sea than a lake …
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2011/06/14 Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

Billions of Chinese Chopsticks are Made from Russian Wood

The 5153km train journey through five timezones from Moscow to Irkutsk is the best time to read up on interesting facts about mega-country Russia: for example that the Taiga in Siberia is the planet’s biggest forest with a quarter of the world’s wood reserves. Birch trees make up a fifth …
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2011/06/10 Tags: No comments

White Nights in Russia’s Western Metropoles

James Bond films and all sorts of preconceived ideas popped into my mind as I crossed the Russian border on the high-speed train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg. But the customs and passport control officers were very friendly women and it was smiles all round as they stamped my visa …
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2011/06/07 Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment