Another trip, another travel blog. This time, I flew to Romania, then took the train to meet up with a Russian friend in Moldova. As before, this blog has been produced by copying my travel diary verbatim, editing for spelling/grammar and adding photos. ...

A few weeks ago, I travelled from London to Marrakesh by train (and boat). Like with my Moscow to Shanghai trip, I kept a travel diary and have once again reproduced it in blog form. ...

Earlier this year, I travelled from Moscow to Shanghai to visit my brother, taking the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian railroad. This was my first major trip travelling alone and on the insistence of a lovely German woman I met in a Moscow hostel, I kept a travel diary of the trip. I found this to be a hugely valuable exercise, as it allowed me to capture my feelings in the moments of a journey that really meant a lot to me. Now, on the insistence of a friend, I’ve posted my travel diary below, where it may be of some interest. Each entry is reproduced as it was written on the day it describes, during or shortly after the moment (bar spelling/grammatical fixes). ...

If you’ve ever looked at language courses, the chances are you’ve run across The Pimsleur Approach and its lofty claims. Recently, I followed the Pimsleur Russian course as well as the similar, though slightly less well publicised Michel Thomas Russian course and wanted write up some of my thoughts them. ...

Final update on my Russian learning before I jet off to Russia. Check out part 1 and part 2. This post covers January to March. ...

More updates on my efforts to learn Russian between September and December. Check out part 1 here. ...

Travelling across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad has been on my bucket list for the better part of a decade. When, in late May 2012, my brother moved to China to teach English, this gave me the perfect excuse to start planning an actual trip. Taking the train from Moscow to Beijing would put me put me only a few hours from visiting my brother and check off a major item from my bucket list to boot, so my plan formed quickly. But I hate to be ’the tourist’ - I wanted to speak the language and interact meaningfully with the people. I’d attempted to learn Russian once previously with little success. With the looming possibility of being unable to communicate effectively for several weeks, I vowed that this time would be different. This is the first in a series of posts on my attempts to learn Russian that will hopefully be useful to others doing the same. ...