October 26, 2015
Dushanbe is a young city, officially founded in 1925; according to Wikipedia, before 1929, only the walking paths led to this capital. Despite the title of the capital, Dushanbe, moreover, has been politically competing with Khujand for quite a while. In addition, it is not so easy to reach the capital from other cities or countries: the local transport is…
October 2, 2015
Formally, Khujand has never been a Tadjik capital. However, due to its proximity to Uzbekistan, size, and economic success (compared to Dushanbe), Khujand had a leading role in Tajik Soviet politics. Called Leninabad in the Soviet times, Khudjand supplied the Tajik government with most of the high officials, which gave it the status of tacit domineering. By the way, Khujand…
September 28, 2015
Three weeks ago we rented a car in Saint-Petersburg to go to Karelia for three days – to celebrate Victor’s PhD. The best celebration for us is travelling and seeing as much as possible. In Karelia, we visited Ladoga Lake and less popular Onega Lake. Here come our impressions from the first part: the trip around Ladoga Lake and Ruskeala…
September 14, 2015
If you’ve been to Malaysia, but haven’t been to Langkawi, this means you actually haven’t been to Malaysia! Heavenly beaches, cheap Airasia flights from Kuala Lumpur and duty-free shops leave no excuse for you to miss it.
September 7, 2015
Thirty kilometers from Kazan up the Volga river, there is a city of Sviyazhsk. A small island of the great history. The stronghold town was built in the forests, transported by the Volga River, and assembled within one summer month of 1551. Sviyazhsk was constructed as a fortress of Ivan the Terrible, who conquered Kazan from it.
August 24, 2015
Few people realize that Central Asia is truly a melting pot of many different nationalities: Tatars, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, etc. For instance, may fled to Tashkent from starvation, others came to built communism, and some were simply deported here. It is not occasional then that the city even has German and Japanese graveyards. Being accompanied by a couchsurfer from…