1668 Kilometers: To Moscow with the Trans-Siberian Railway

The sky was grey on this Sunday morning, it was raining again, but today was the day. 1668 kilometers from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway. I arrived at the main station at around 9:20 AM, and train number 15 was already listed on the departure table. But wait, what was going on? It was 9:20 AM, but the train had already left at 8:12 AM? Did I miss the train?!? And why does it say “7:20” in the top right? The surprise: In Russia you can travel through time just by going to a train station, and that

„Красная линия“, the red line of Yekaterinburg

For the first three nights I was staying at NovoTel Ekaterinburg Center. The hotel is located in the city center, the room was 57 € per night and quite large, and surprisingly the young man at the reception also spoke fluent Italian. From the window I had a good view on the TransHotel, one of the oldest hotels in Yekaterinburg, and the skyscraper “Vysotsky” (“Высоцкий”). The weather was already bad in the morning, and sadly it would stay like this for the next days. If you think an english breakfast can easily pass as a main meal, you should definitely

Russia: Planning, Preparations and Immigration

I’m a train nerd and so I’ve always wanted to go to Russia and ride both the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Сапсан (“Sapsan”, russian for “Peregrine falcon”, a variant of the german ICE). While sitting over my travel plans for the year 2017, it became apparent that there would be a two-week “hole” in my calendar between February and June. Somewhere in my mind a memory about a huge military parade in Moscow in early summer or so started shouting loudly. One Google search later I knew that the yearly “Victory Day” (День Победы) parade would be held on May 9, the