One of the top concerns of international travel, right after finding free toilets in your moment of need, is food. Low blood sugar and unfamiliar cities don’t mix. One moment you’re winding your long, hungry way toward the Guide Book’s top-rated breakfast cafe, the next moment you’re standing in an empty cobblestone street [...]

We’re home.

It takes some getting used to; “The people around me can understand what I’m saying? For real?”

I’m still waking up at 4 in the morning and going to bed before sunset, but we’ve more or less recovered. As such: on to St. Petersburg.

We arrived early into a beautiful morning. St. [...]

Today’s our last day; we leave tomorrow morning.

So sad.

I’ve only made it through half our time here on the ol’ blag, but I’ll get to the rest eventually. Just not while we’re here.

In the meantime: NO PRANCING.

(Image credit for prancing man: Andrew’s sister Jane. I never managed to grab this shot while in [...]

To properly capture the full arc of day five, we have to begin before dawn.

Russian train cars are charming in many ways, but climate control is not one of those ways. (Also septic disposal, which is accomplished by simply flushing the toilet onto the tracks—but I digress.) Some cars feature a top window [...]

We’re back from St. Petersburg and points north. E has a vicious blister on her little toe, and I… well, let’s just say I appear to have unwittingly consumed some Petersburg water, even though I thought I had carefully avoided it. (Teeth brushed with bottled water: check.) Aside from that and three [...]

Day three was pretty quiet. Owing to the perfection of the weather we decided just to head out to one of the parks, accompanied by some chocolate croissants.

A sixteenth-century church. One of the few with a tent-style top.

Tonight we get on a night train bound for St. Petersburg and points north. We [...]

We set out under a white sky that drizzled indecisively most of the day.

The Russians really value their authors. The gentleman above wrote a thick book on World War II. The horse heads you can barely see in the background are set in the bank of a hill and, when the water is [...]

Well, let’s get this photo out of the way right out of the gate:

Red Square at twighlight, trying not to look exhausted.

We arrived at around 4 AM our time, and stumbled into the puddly, smokey Moscow airport in a daze of excitement and slight trepidation. Apart from a sour young customs lady who snapped [...]

On Saturday Elizabeth and I are headed to Moscow. I am calm about this as long as I don’t look at any Cyrillic.

In honor of this, my first trip to a country where I don’t speak the language (i.e. a country that doesn’t speak Ammmerikan), I’ve convinced myself that it is actually a reasonable [...]