When Orkhon said, the way to the mineral springs would be difficult, he was not exaggerating. The term "rough terrain" has never been a better fit. We are in the mountains around the Tsagaan Nuur, the "White Lake" in the Arkhangai province, central Mongolia. Orkhon is the mountain guide of a three-day [...]
An American guy on the train told me: "Don't stay too long in UB." I wasn't planning on, but I ended up staying over a week and a half in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia. Why? - Circumstances. Now I'm sitting here, in Sun's Nomads Guesthouse (10 U.S. dollars per night with breakfast), located [...]
The first horse I come across in Mongolia is lying on my plate. Oogi's sister has cooked a big lunch during the camping trip. Although it tasted good, eating horses was not the purpose of the trip. Actually, I wanted to sit on them, not chew on them. Apart from this, Ulan [...]
"You want to travel all alone? Wow, you are so brave. - That's what they said at home," says Johanna. Ruoyin and I are laughing: "Same here." The three of us met on the bus to Olkhon. This is the island in Lake Baikal - a hot tip by Sasha, my "couch [...]
"Das ist mir scheißegal! " Sasha shouts, pulling his eyebrows together. We laugh. "That really sounds German" I praise him. Sasha is my "couchsurfing host" in Irkutsk. He lives in a large two bedroom apartment in the city center. He is a programmer and speaks excellent English - a welcome change from my previous encounters [...]
Our train stewardess is holding two bags under my nose, one has black instant coffee, the other one has coffee with milk powder and sugar. "With milk, but no sugar," I say in English. She looks at me confused. No one seems to order such a thing. She takes the initiative and [...]
The driver repeats her sentence in Russian for the fifth time, I repeat mine in English for the fifth time: "How much does it cost to Yaroslavsky Station?" We don't understand each other. By her tone, I realize that she is getting angry. She opens the door and points her finger outside. This is how I get thrown out of a Moscow street car. "You can't get far with English in Russia", I heard this before. How bad it really is, however, you can only feel when you're actually there. Whether it's the street car driver, the cashier at the supermarket, the kiosk person or train station staff, they all speak Russian and Russian only. Somehow you can make it work anyway, you just shouldn't be under time [...]