The Trans-Siberian Railway

Current location: Tokyo, Japan

The longest railway in the world connects Moscow, and with it, all of Europe, to the Russian Far East and East Asia. While commonly called the "Trans-Siberian", it's actually a network of railroads starting from Moscow and twisting and turning its way east, terminating at Vladivostok, Pyongyang and Beijing. The trip from Moscow to Vladivostok takes about 6 days, should you want to make it in one go. And if you really like trains, and don't get bored easily, you can actually ride a train from Europe all the way down to Singapore. Granted, you need to change trains a few times, but it's still possible.

Like most people, I divided my Trans-Sib trip into two parts. First, Moscow to Irkutsk, where I spent just under two weeks in and around Irkutsk and Lake Baikal, then Irkutsk to Vladivostok.

Both legs took about 4 days, which I think was ideal, not enough to get you really bored, but long enough to make you happy to finally get off.

The train itself provides little entertainment (except maybe some of the not-so-well-maintained toilets), so between the many stops and being yelled at by the provodnitsa, reading and sleeping became my main activities and during those 8 days I finished 4 books and slept 15 hours a day.

People restocking on water, beer, instant noodles and cigarettes
during a stop at, uh, somewhere...

Sunset at Omsk. (At least I think it was Omsk...)

3rd class is the only way to travel on the train.

Day setup.

The samovar provides hot water for your tea and instant noodles.

The art of Getting Lost

Current location: Vladivostok, Russia

I'm a lousy tourist. I rarely have a schedule, sometimes I know nothing about a location upon arrival. I just go somewhere, look around, and maybe ask somebody what I should see and do.
And I somehow always end up in places where nobody goes. I mean not anybody. And with good reason.
I drag my feet to some weird back alley with my camera, taking pictures of piles of garbage or old tyres or what ever, and the locals are watching me like, "what the fuck is that wacko doing here?".
Like yesterday in Vladivostok, while trying to find an interesting angle to this bridge they are putting up in the centre, I ended up in the middle of the construction site. I took off and found myself on this back street with nobody there.

You take your pictures with Lenin, I'll just take photos of this dump I found.

 I was hot, tired, soaked in sweat and managed to kick my toe on the damned curb. Then, literally 25 seconds later, while I was damning myself for getting lost again, I turn a corner and find this little yard with all these old cannons and a tiny tank, a tiny submarine and one not so tiny torpedo boat.

Artillery

I know they used to put the short guys in the tank-crews, but come on!
This thing must have been operated by leprechauns, guarding their gold stashes.

 Sure it's probably on some guidebook or map, but I seldom use maps, and on this trip I absolutely refuse to carry a guidebook. And even if I do have a map, I only use it when I need to get somewhere, that is, when I know where I'm going, but as I normally have no idea where I'm going there's little point in using a map.
Most of the time my wandering yields little more than sore feet, sweaty ass and sunburn, but every now and then I get lucky and end up in a cool place I would otherwise have not gone to.

Moscow

Current location: Irkutsk, Russia.

I ended up spending four days in Moscow. On the second day I visited the Museum of the Armed Forces, where I spent an afternoon ogling at various infantry weapons, artillery pieces, tanks, fighter planes, choppers and even ICBM-platforms; and was invited to a dacha to watch football and bathe in a banya, and was given my very own tracksuit (in case you didn't know, Russians love their tracksuits).

Days three and four I spent walking around town, joining the tourist hordes in the Red Square, relaxing in the many parks, marvelling at the extravagant architecture and the many statues and monuments that dot the city (evidently quite a few of the artist and architects involved in erecting these memorials were suffering from different stages of megalomania) and generally just getting lost in the city.

The train to Irkutsk left at 0035 on Friday morning from Jaroslavskiy station, and my Trans-Siberian adventure was properly kicked into gear.

Victory Park and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Detail from the huge obelisk above. St. George slaying a dragon marked with the swastika?

One of the Seven Sisters of Moscow.

 Authors note: Due to some technical difficulties, posting pictures is a bit of a problem at the moment, but when I get my gear working again I'll upload some more pictures for Your viewing pleasure.

The first day

I did not think that on the fist day of my trip I'd be riding around Moscow in a brand new Merc, or that I'd spend the evening watching football and smoking hookah with a houseful of young Muscovites and end up downing fancy drinks in a top end club overlooking Moscow under siege by a thunderstorm.

Still, that pretty much sums up my first day.

After arriving at Leningradskiy station at around 0800 in the morning, I made my way through the spectacular Moscow metro to Novye Cheremushki where my friend Dmitry was waiting for me. He took me to his place, we had a quick breakfast and mere moments later were on the grand avenues of the nearly deserted metropolis. Dmitry was happy for the lack of traffic, and told me that normally it would take ages to get anywhere by car in Moscow, but since nearly everybody had gone to their "dachas", or country homes due to the two day national holiday, the streets were as good as empty.

Having driven around for a good while, taking in some of the more well known sights, we stopped for a meal at a Ukrainian restaurant and were joined by two of Dmitry's friends, Nikolay and Dmitry, whom I would see again that night, for my host had invited people over to watch football and have dinner.

I don't much care for football, so I spent the evening learning Russian in a hookah-ring.
Once the game ended, Dmitry announced we'd be going out, and since I would never pass the infamous Moscow "face control" wearing what I'd brought for the trip, Dmitry lent me some of the contents of his closet. After a quick "makeover" I was deemed worthy and, though my pants and shirt were a bit tight ("You're a victim of fashion", I was told), headed for the heart of the city.
After several rounds of karaoke (none of which I took part in, sorry Dima), some Patron and cocktails, it was time to head home and crash.

The Beginning pt. 4

10,7 kg says the luggage scale. Close enough.
I did indulge a bit by packing my DSLR camera, a hammock, a cotton sleeping bag, a mosquito net and a bottle of Permethrin, all of which I could probably do without.
Still, if I lose the Permethrin I can board pretty much any international flight with my backpack as carry-on. Not that I intend to fly. At all.
Which brings us to The Plan.

My intention is to travel around the planet using only land and sea transport, mostly because you get to see much more of the world than when crammed into an aluminium tube flying in the stratosphere. (And cuz, you know, the indians say that if you travel too fast you leave your soul behind, which sounds bad...)

As stated in the description, the general direction of travel is east, with one major westward deviation in East Asia, where I do a near 180 in Japan and head for India.
I don't really have any obligations that would dictate the length of my trip, but a year sounds about right. Then again, I might get mugged and raped in a dark alley in Moscow or I might spend all my money on Pachinko in Japan. Or I might end up stuck in my hammock on a beach somewhere and live the rest of my life as a beach bum.
But "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all", so tomorrow I'll board the train and bid farewell to family, friends and Finland to embark on an adventure of my own.

Wish me luck, I fear I'm going to need all I can get...