Travel tips

Like Tolstoj, I haven’t finished reading ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ [Бра́тья Карама́зовы] novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 
I started it, liked it a lot but then I got side-tracked by our wedding prep. I read it until the naughty father is killed. Then, I got married.

Our wedding day was a great one. We had planned it pretty well. Not everything went as we had planned, though. Some things were different. Some others went even better. Overall, it was a success… at the very least, because we enjoyed it so much!

Now, we are planning again. For a new adventure (our social (ad)venture!), quite complex too because it’s a project and it’s a trip, right?

Are we ready to go? We are getting there and this is the most important thing. Planning is about learning to adapt to how things evolve around us. Isn’t it?

• Logistics-wise, we are making progress. We are submitting visa applications. We are contacting people on Couchsurfing (thanks, Rike for accepting our request in Berlin!). We are looking into our equipment & gears - watch this space for a future blog on this!
• Techie-wise, we are also making progress. Have you seen last week’s blog? Check it out for the picture of what you can do with Google Translate and a smartphone!

Then there are our readings. ‘Professional’ readings about Design Thinking, communication design, social impact, etc. All those readings that will help us in our project.
And narrative readings, like ‘The Brothers Karamazov’.

This classic novel is about faith. It is about a dramatic struggle between personal and collective faith. It is about the intimate and anthropological struggle between faith and reason, and how it translates in society. One can strongly feel a sense of holiness in this novel and still feel that holiness is accessible. There is something about the divine involvement in human matters, including the very worst ones.
And the struggle is not only spiritual. It is also a struggle for justice and a power struggle.

We don’t know who wins. We won’t know because this is the story of life. Human life, personal lives…

Are we going to understand a little bit more about us, about Russia, about our stories through our travelling?

It’s been an exciting week for us. We’ve got an itinerary, a ticket and a date.

Itinerary

For the first country that we will be visiting in our travels. Russia Россия !!

We will go to:

• Moscow
  for its architecture and… because we love capital cities!
• Kazan
  for its history and because we are fascinated by its all-faith centre.
• Yekaterinburg
  for its proximity to the Urals, because simply we love mountains.
• Krasnoyarsk
  for the Stolby Nature Reserve and… because we’ll need a break after 33 hours in the train ;)
• Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude
  for the Lake Baikal because it’s the largest (by volume) and the oldest lake in the world. So impressive!

Ticket

Our very first ticket for the trip. Berlin to Moscow. 25 hours, 4 countries, 2 train berths. Purchased from the Russian Railway website. Much cheaper than any other websites and travel agencies on the web. Highly recommended. Only hiccup: it’s in Russian. But that’s not a problem and can actually be quite fun… Google Translate is there to help (see picture).

Date

7th October 2017 (yes, it’s only an ironic coincidence to happens to be Russian President’s birthday). Note it down to wish us safe travels!

Any recommendations on the places we’ll be stopping at? And on any social enterprise there? Share in the comment box below or write on email/Facebook.