September 2nd, 2011
2away in Beijing
2 Comments, 2AWAY, CHINA, CITIES, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.August 31st, 2011
Are there really 9 million bicycles in Beijing?!
No Comments, CHINA, CITIES, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.In the last days I was looking through our older posts and had a feeling that everything sounds far too positive. We are always impressed by the cities we visit, everything is always great, exciting, wonderful and so on and so forth. Almost every traveller would get quite sceptical when reading this…. However, in case of Beijing every positive word will be 100% absolute truth. This is indeed one of those places which gets under your skin. It impresses already from the first sight and every days shows you more and more faces, which are all different, but equally appealing. This is something to start with I am sure, all of you saw this face of Beijing before. So… there are many prettier ones!!
August 29th, 2011
2away in Mongolia
4 Comments, 2AWAY, MONGOLIA, PEOPLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.August 28th, 2011
Horseback riding in Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
No Comments, LANDSCAPES, MONGOLIA, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.After spending 7 days on the way in the Gobi desert, both of us got quite tired. Big distances, long hours of driving, mostly flat and deserted landscape… we felt we needed a change before leaving Mongolia. We wanted to spend more time on one place, enjoy some green scenery and, if possible, do some horseback riding, which we quite enjoyed on Olkhon island in Russia. Due to its proximity to UB and beautiful landscapes, Gorkhi-Terelj National Park seemed to be the best solution and we happily signed up for a short trip (only 2 nights).
August 25th, 2011
7 days in Gobi
No Comments, LANDSCAPES, MONGOLIA, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.Mongolia is a very big country with beautiful, unspoiled countryside. It offers everything one wishes for: mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, desert, etc, etc. Independent travel in the country is quite a challenge due to the poor infrastructure, infrequent public transportation and almost complete absence of roads, however, many tour companies in Ulaanbaatar organise trips to almost every corner. After giving it some thought, we decided to go for the Gobi first to experience something that we for sure can’t find back home – the desert!
August 22nd, 2011
Ulaanbaatar – city of contrasts
No Comments, CITIES, MONGOLIA, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.After spending 4 weeks in Russia we were very much looking forward to crossing the border to the next country on our Trans-Siberian route – Mongolia! We took a bus from our last stop in Russia, Ulan-Ude, directly to Ulaanbaatar. The ride took almost 12 hours but saved us quite some money, was not so tiring as expected and made a great preview of Mongolian nature
August 14th, 2011
2away on Olkhon Island
2 Comments, 2AWAY, LANDSCAPES, PEOPLE, RUSSIA, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.Having talked to quite many travellers along the Trans-Siberian route, we can say that Olkhon Island has become an absolute must-see. Majority of the people we met either already visited or were going to visit or were sad they didn’t have enough time to stop there for a few days. We were lucky to have enough time and decided to head to the island to check it out as well
In the last week we have been travelling quite intensively – hopping off the train to a new city in the morning, doing sightseeing during the day and hopping on the next train in the evening (sometimes in the middle of the night ) to get to the next destination the following day in the morning. With such a tight schedule it became quite difficult to update the blog regularly. This afternoon we arrived to Olkhon Island at Lake Baikal where we are going to spend the next four days enjoying the nature and brining you up to date with our adventures Since Kazan we stopped in Yekaterinburg, Tobolsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Irkutsk. You can check our picture galleries to get an idea about some of those places, but Lake Baikal deserves a much more detailed story
July 30th, 2011
Following the traces of the Russian Tsar family
2 Comments, CITIES, RUSSIA, TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY, by Masha.There are many interesting and beautiful cities in Russia, but two of them made a special impact on us, mostly due to hisorical events taking place there. Yekaterinburg and Tobolsk are carved into Russian history as both of them were home to the last Russian Tsar’s family: Tobolsk – for 8 months and Yekaterinburg – for the last 78 days of their life.