It's not easy to escape Moscow and St. Petersburg — some live there for years and never see the rest of Russia. But for those willing to sleep in Soviet-era hotels, deal with dodgy travel agencies and sacrifice a little time, there's a continent of wonders to discover.
The Trans-Siberian Railroad is probably the easiest way to make a foray into the regions (see Getting Around Russia). It stretches 9,446 kilometers from Moscow to Vladivistock, passing across titanic rivers and through endless taiga. The trip will take you beyond the Ural Mountains to Lake Baikal, and then onward to Irkutsk and Ulan Ude, finally reaching the Pacific Ocean in Vladivostock.
Still, you can't enjoy Russia's real jewels from the windows of a train car. To do that, you need a little more time and a lot more chutzpah.
Here are a few possibilities ...
Riding the Retro Train
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Marina Kamenev / For MT
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When the tracks dip down to the coast of Lake Baikal, and the view is overtaken by shades of blue, days spent submerged in the gray of the capital dissipate.
This is often considered the best part of the Trans-Siberian Railroad trip, but for those who are not so keen on being cooped up on a train for about a week, there is an easier, old-fashioned way to sit and enjoy the landscape of Baikal without leaving the comfort of your retro-style cabin.
The Retro Train, a steam-powered locomotive, traverses the most visually stunning part of the Trans-Siberian trek in just over a weekend, replete with a guide telling the history of the construction and of the area. Food is included, and the Baikal Cruise trip can be done in rain, hail, snow or shine. And the price is reasonable. See Full Story.
People and Islands
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Courtesy of Alexander Trofimov
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When most people were on summer vacation, Alexander Lapenko was working 10 hours a day, six days a week in a reconstructed ship dock of the Solovetsky monastery.
He is the head of a four-person team building St. Peter, a 12-meter wooden ship they are aiming to complete in 2011. The prototype for St. Peter sailed the White Sea 310 years ago, taking Peter the Great to the Solovetsky Islands.
Historical shipbuilding is one of the many activities of the Northern Seafaring Fellowship, a loosely knit group of people with one thing in common: their vision of what the Solovetsky Islands stand for. See Full Story.
Venturing to Vologda
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Vladimir Smirnov / Itar-Tass
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Growing into a city from a 12th-century monastery on the Vologda River some 460 kilometers north of Moscow, Vologda could have at one time become the capital of Russia.
Ivan the Terrible, who was tired of court turmoil in Moscow, considered Vologda his safe haven and was thinking of moving there permanently.
However, when a brick fell from the vault of the St. Sofia Cathedral and almost landed on his head during one of his visits, he considered it a bad omen and abandoned the idea. See Full Story.
West, Where Russia Begins
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Maria Antonova / MT
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Pskov -- a frontier city whose walls withstood 26 sieges and were only overcome once -- still combines Russian defiance that has never known the Mongol invasion with the charisma of its provincial small scale.
Stocky churches typical of Pskovian architecture are interspersed with residential buildings, the fortifying walls that filled enemies with awe are now landscape elements of parks and boulevards, while the rivers and medieval towers all make Pskov seem like an ideal place to grow up and play hide-and-seek.
Although the tourism infrastructure in Pskov is only just developing, the destination could eventually rival neighboring Novgorod and be a starting point for a number of interesting side trips.
See Full Story.
For information on making travel arrangments, see Travel Agencies and Getting Around by Train.
