Category Archives: Ramblin’ Across Russia Blog

The next stop on our tour was the wonderfully named city of Ufa, located on the west side of the Ural Mountains. We pulled in at four in the morning and were greeted by camp director, Gulnara, and camp counselor, … Continue reading →

One of the best things about this trip has been getting to see towns in parts of Russia that tourists don’t typically visit. At the camps, people are often curious and ask us about the other cities we’re traveling to … Continue reading →

The directors of the Elista camp invited an amazing local musician to play a few traditional Kalmyk songs for us. Amazing!

The Ramblers play ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ for in their underwear curious onlookers by a river near Taganrog, birthplace of Russian author and playwright, Anton Chekhov. Then they kill some mosquitoes.

The Ramblers perform an improvised version of ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain’ for the overheated train passengers during a routine stop in the middle of nowhere.

My watch read 4:20 AM when Matt shook me awake. “Hey, we’re here.” Apparently, we had just ended our overnight bus ride from Elista. None of us were really sure what had happened – we entered the bus at 10 … Continue reading →

Elista! I was super stoked to be off our Banya/train and actually excited to be on a 5 hour bus ride to Elista. We drove into the countryside and entered the state of Kalmykia sometime around sunset. I was awed … Continue reading →

After nine months here in Russia and quite a bit of traveling around Siberia, I’ve come to love the Russian train system. In addition to it being the primary way that Russians get around Russia, it’s also one of the … Continue reading →

We are currently in the city of Tyumen, gateway to Siberia, awaiting the next leg of our journey to Elista. We had a 24-hour train ride yesterday from Tomsk. Loading all of our equipment onto the tightly packed train was … Continue reading →

The buses, trains, and planes have all arrived from Novosibirsk, Beijing, and San Francisco, and our team is finally assembled! Once we were all together, Brendan led the Ramblers on a tour of the city. We visited the Old Fort … Continue reading →