Back home

After 156 days, over 20'000km and more than 500 hours in trains, buses and cars we arrived in Baden. We are greatful that we had no injuries or diseases and nothing was stolen. Thanks to everybody who contributed to this trip - we had an excellent time!

Baden, Switzerland

Visiting Katrin's GPs in Warsaw

We finally arrived at the last station of our trip before going home to Switzerland, it felt so strange to know that we will be back so soon! With Katrins grandparents we spent two relaxing days in Warsaw by exploring the city's sightseeing points and the Polish cuisine. We mainly tried the pieroggi - kind of ravioli - with every possible stuffing, mmh! As for the sightseeing the city has some nice corners to offer, such as the old town, the Novy Swiat Street (lots of coffee places) and the Lasienki Park.

Warsaw, Poland

Schengen?

On our trip we crossed many borders. Some of them were in remote mountain areas of special countries where you would not be surprised seing some strange things happening. Inredible but true, the worst border was the often praised Schengen border! We entered the Schengen area from Ukraine into Poland. Short before the border a large group of ladies entered the train with huge bags of cigarettes. Then it went fast, they had tools with them to open every compartment of the train to fill them with cigarettes. Shocking was that everybody knew about it. The train crew as well as border posts on both sides. You could even sew how 50 US bribe changed the owner. After this border we were in Schengen and no further control occured until Switzerland - welcome to Schengen...

Kiev

An overnight train brought us from Moscow to Kiev. For the first time in a long time we didn't need a visa - just wonderful. On the other side the "Sowjet charme" of the elderly ladies remained making things like buying a ticket nothing but annoying. Kiev itself has quite a lot to offer. A nice river, historical houses and nice places. It was pretty easy to imagine how the EURO 2012 (Poland-Ukraine) will be celebrated on these squares.

Kiev, Ukraine

Moscow

Moscow is a very nice city with many things to explore. The mausoleum of Lenin, Kremlin, the impressive red square or the Basilica - beautiful. If you happen to be in town on a summer Saturday you see dozens of weddings in all variations of strech limos. Incredible how wealth is being shown which can sometimes be annoying.

Moscow, Russia

Why friendly

You read a lot about how it was during Sowjet times etc but one would think that in the year 2008 these clichees are no more applicable. Well, unfortunately not! To be correct, this is not about Russians in general but about people in public jobs (selling train tickets, working in shops etc). These are typically older ladies. It's amazing how unfriendly they can be. Before understanding what you ask for they typically respond with an arrogant "niet" (no) and turn away to check whether the make up is still ok (hoping you walk away). If you insist they have some other tricks like speaking even faster in Russian that you definitely don't understand them anymore or, the favorite trick of the train station employees, send you to another sales window. A typical large Russian train station has about 50 windows - you can imagine how much fun it is to send people to Nr 49 where they tell you that your ticket can only be sold at Nr 16 etc etc. After moving around you typically return to the first window...

Transsiberian: Irkutsk to Moscow

In one and the same train for 6000km and inside one single country - an amazing experience! It's very relaxing and you have plenty of time to read, eat, sleep or enjoy the enormous forsts. During the stops you can stroll around the platforms and but snacks and drinks that you won't go hungry.

Transsiberian Railay - Irkutsk to Moscow, Russi

Lake Baikal & Irkutsk - Siberia

We arrived in Irkutsk (Siberia) early in the morning and headed straight to a village called Listvyanka at the shore of Lake Baikal. It's an amazing lake in many senses. With over 1600m depth the deepest on the planet, with over 20% of the world's sweet water massive in size, incredibly transparent (apparently 20m sight) and even in July something like 5 or 6 degrees Celcius "warm" (the swim was really short). Around the lake are mountains making it difficult to travel in summer - in winter it's easy as you can drive on the lake (frozen from January to May). We stayed with a local family in a nice little wooden house, a toilet in the backyard and an amazing "banya" (Sauna) - felt great. Our "host mum" cooked for us. Food is delicious, be it smoked Omul fish, pelmeni or blini - delicious. Irkutsk is a nice city but there is not much to write home about (probably we're still impressed by the lake).

Irkutsk & Lake Baikal, Russia (Siberia)

Crossing from Mongolia into Russia

The Kazakh - Chinese border was tough but relatively fast (as mentioned earlier), the Mongolian - Russian was very easy but incredibly slow. There were no boogeys to change this time (we did this at the Chinese - Mongolian border as they use different sizes) and they only had a brief look at our passports. Nevertheless they made it to take over 10 hours!!! We were entertained by Mongols who smuggle T-Shirts and faked Croc shoes. Amazing how they spread these goods all over the train and even tape them onto their legs below the clothes (sounds great when they walk as they let the plastic cover of the shirts on). As soon as the border checks are over they leave the train (in the middle of nowhere).

Mongolia

A huge country, a lot of space, many horses and only mutton to eat - a brief summary of Mongolia. You can roll for hours by train and see nothing but a few horses, some camels and once in a while a yurt. On the other hand you have the frequent trains from Russian and China bringing in quite some tourists and all kind of goods (including the latest cloth trends - well at least what they think is a trend...). A special mix. If you intend traveling overland you will realize the remote part of the country. Hardly any roads and large distances make trips lasting several days... .

Beijing - Ulaan Baator & Ulaan Baator

We had a wonderful first train leg from Beijing to Ulaan Baator in Mongolia (30 hours). We were together with a very nice Swedish couple in our compartment and had a great time. Watching a Swedish movie, eating Chinese noodles and playing Swiss Jass. The arrival in Ulaan Baator was a bit special. After yesterday's national election in Mongolia the situation was very tense and 4 people were killed in the protests this night. The president announced "State of emergency" at midnight meaning markets are closed, all public transport is discontinued and there is a curfew from 22.00 to 08.00. Until now we mainly got this information but haven't really felt it in the streets.

Mongolia