Month: November 2018

Oh, Transnistria, you're so cute. You want so desperately to be a real country, but nobody will actually take you seriously. Transnistria (aka Pridnestrovia) is a strip of land along the eastern border of Moldova, Europe's poorest country. A remnant of the USSR, it claimed sovereignty during the 1990s and actually had armed conflict with [...]

What comes to mind when you picture Siberia? Lots of snow? Dogsleds? Big furry hats? As part of my journey along the Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian Railway, I spent some time in Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia. Back in its heyday, Irkutsk was a major trading city and the regional capital. Although it has waned in importance, it's still a [...]

Riding the Trans-Siberian Railway has been towards the top of my bucket list for 20+ years. I first heard of it from the liner notes of Loreena McKennitt's album The Book of Secrets, in which she describes riding it while reading Dante's Divine Comedy (her inspiration for one of my favorite songs, "Dante's Prater," which [...]

The best and the worst part of my time in Mongolia was the three nights/four days I stayed in the gers of nomadic families out in the countryside. I had arranged the stays through Ger-to-Ger, a community-centered ecotourism company I had read about on another blog. (If you're planning a trip to Mongolia, I recommend [...]

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is not a pretty city. It does hold the record for being the World's Coldest Capital, though, so at least it has that going for it? My first impression upon arriving and making my way to my AirBnB flat was that the traffic is surprisingly bad. Most everywhere reeks of [...]