Just one hour by train to the North from St Pete and I'm in Karelia. I love this place, this endless pine forests, they start here and end somewhere in Norway or Finland, somewhere at Arctic Ocean, I love this sands ans lakes, I like to jump over trenches that are still here since Winter war.
I'm charmed by Karelia, I'm waiting for elf behind the tree or for Tokugawa warrior because these views remeber me some film about shoguns' Japan. I remember how it aws in the school when we hiked somwhere in Karelia for a day. We was sitting at the fire, playing guitars...
Suddenly I realised, how Russia is big and different, i just went for 50 kilometers and everything has totally changed, another trees, another ground, another faces. And didn't get as far as friend of mine - he went to Petrozavodsk and told me stories about locals who's sitting in the train and chatting whose grandmother was eaten by bear, just like in Deadman of Jim Jarmush. So, if I go not 50 kilometers but 500 it would be just a new contry, and 500 more kilometers a new country and so on to the Vladivostok. Amazing!

Today I met a man who lost $100 mln. in the stocks during current financial crisis. This is significant part of his fortune but he seems to be ok, even positive.

We had so much money in Moscow lately. Due to the high prices for the natural resources, money has flooded in the country and it's heart — the city. Fortunes were spent just to show off and we got really used to it — the money. The city become so expensive to live in with it's fancy cafes where they serve cup of coffee for $8 (and there were no niche for normal cafes with the real estate prices climbing into the sky).
Things has to be changed now, the stock market has lost about 60% of the value, there are cuts is financial and real estates sectors. There is a strong feeling in the city that we are on the edge. People got nervous, many of us has something to loose or should I say to get (cheap coffee for example).

When I'm getting tired of Moscow, I just drive out. In 20 km from the city you can find yourself in the village somewhere deep in the forest.

Moscow is overheated. Too hot to work, to hot to be in the city. Trying to have a cold shower, I found that there is no cool water in the pipes, warm only. The only chance to cool off is to get out of the city.

The new resource www.gdeetotdom.ru allows you to find a photo of almost any house in Moscow or St. Petersburg.

A very useful tool if you're thinking about renting or buying a flat or just want to make sure that you will be able to find the house you need easily.

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You will regret if you don't see these places while in Moscow...

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Check out our new interactive map of Russia on Google... You will find brief descriptions of the major cities, destinations, and train routes, as well as links to more information.

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There's a new, interesting website that allows you to search public transport routes in Moscow. You enter your starting point (street or address) and your destination and it tells you the best public transport options (buses, trams, metro, etc). Could be very useful when you're trying to get somewhere that has no nearby metro station. Here's the site:

Moscow Public Transport Search

It's still in Beta version and at the moment there are some problems with entering street names (it's not clear what transliteration is needed). But the 'Object' search currently works well. And the Russian language search works fine.

Update: Way to Russia in cooperation with RusAvtobus created our own version in English, where you can mark the locations on Google Maps. Check out Moscow Guide -> Public Transport Search

Just a quick warning for those planning to take Trans-Mongolian or Trans-Manchurian train journeys in late July or August. Due to the Beijing Olympic Games, tickets for trains starting in Beijing will not be able to be booked the usual 45 days in advance. They will go on sale only a few days in advance.

There might also be some trouble obtaining tickets from Mongolia to Beijing at this time. Tickets on this route can still be ordered in advance, but due to high demand there might be problems. Some agencies are recommending clients should fly this part of the trip.

Trains within Russia, from Russia to Mongolia, and from Russia directly to Beijing will be unaffected. At least, these tickets shouldn't be too much harder to obtain than they are any other year.

The famous Russian Art Lebedev design studio has a very interesting internship program for foreigners.

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