Monthly Archive: April 2016

Why Haven’t I Been to Russia Yet?

Every traveler has it. That one destination you dream about above all others, that magical locale that pulls you in with some special lure that speaks to you in a way no other place on earth does. The city or country or continent you can’t rest until you see.

I have one of those too. And thirty countries after I began my exploration of this vast and fascinating planet, I still haven’t seen it.

It’s a question I ask myself often when I make my travel plans: Why haven’t I been to Russia yet?

Ah, Russia. Land of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. Home of Red Square and the Kremlin, St. Petersburg’s Hermitage, and the Trans-Siberian Railway’s epic winding cross-country route from Moscow to Vladivostok. Art, ballet, literature, architecture, history, vodka. So many reasons to experience this magical country.

And yet…I still haven’t.

Russia and I have a long history of near-misses. It began nearly two decades ago (eek!) when I was in college. A friend and I had a chance to take a winter break trip to Russia; my parents agreed and were willing to finance it as a cultural experience (God, I miss being a college student); our plans were all set and then—everything fell apart. Our trip was cancelled after the tour guide pulled out (understandable, but still heartbreaking for both of us), and my dreams of seeing Russia were scrapped. But, only temporarily, right?

Several years later, I had another chance. While living in London during graduate school, a group of fellow students were planning a trip to Moscow. I was excited to join in on the adventure…then saw the cost. The brief trip would have totaled more than $1000, not terrible in retrospect perhaps, but far beyond the budget of my student self. Once again, I had to give up the dream…temporarily, I was sure.

Russia would still happen. I would find a way!

But, eight years later and here we are. I’ve been many incredible places, but I haven’t yet fulfilled my ultimate travel goal.

Why haven’t I made a Russia trip happen yet, when I’ve managed to see so many other corners of the globe? It’s a question that still haunts me. Sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t go anywhere else until I see Russia.

But…Russia is hard. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from many who’ve visited there. It’s intimidating. It’s expensive (Moscow in particular, which is always at the top of “World’s Most Expensive Cities” lists). It’s not necessarily a breeze for solo travelers. The visa process is a pain. Russian is a difficult language (I know: I took a class, finally, to at least get my feet wet for future travels), and not everyone in Russia will necessarily speak other languages like English to help travelers out (not that they are obliged to, of course, but it does throw up one more hurdle for a non-Russian speaker. Hey, at least I finally know the Cyrillic alphabet! That’s something, right?)

So yes, there are plenty of reasons that Russia is a more challenging destination than many others. And honestly, I think that’s what’s kept me away. There’s always somewhere easier, less stressful, less imposing that I could visit, and so I do. But is this okay?

I’m going to throw down the gauntlet right now and tell myself, No. It’s not.

Yes, Russia is a challenge for many travelers. Travel there, especially if I opt to go solo, won’t be a cakewalk. But Russia has been calling to me since my teens. It’s a place I need to see. I need to soak in the magnificent artwork of the Hermitage, stroll down Nevsky Prospect, see Lenin’s tomb in Red Square where so much 20^th century history unfolded, watch a world-class ballet at the Mariinsky, dip my toes in Lake Baikal, and ride the Trans-Siberian railway from one end of the vast country to the other. My life as a traveler won’t be complete until I do. So it’s about time I make it happen. No more excuses.

I have a number of other trips coming up this year and next, so it may take a while to properly plan and execute my journey. But I’ve waited twenty years; I can wait two more, right?

2018: The Year of the Russian Adventure? Yes. I like the sound of that.

Have you been to Russia? Is there any place like this for you that you’ve always dreamed of seeing? How did you finally make it happen?

Eastern/Central Europe, Russia, Travel Musings

Apr

2016

The Annoying Travel Question

Melissa Kaplan0

Recently, I was catching up with a friend and the talk turned to some of the travel adventures I have in store for this year. I was outlining my summer trip to Europe (don’t have my tickets booked yet, but you know, whatever!), and when I finished rhapsodizing about the countries I planned to visit and the places I hoped to see, my friend asked the following question, “So, are you going with anyone?”

Why does this question annoy me?

I mean, it’s not totally unreasonable for someone to ask. Sometimes I travel alone, sometimes with others, so what I’ll be doing on any trip is never a given. Was I feeling like I needed to defend my decision to travel solo, if that’s what I was going to do? No, I wasn’t. My friend wasn’t asking about my plans in any sort of critical or judgmental way, and has never expressed the sentiment that I’m crazy to travel by myself. (In fact, no one ever has. Am I just extraordinarily lucky in that respect? Anyway, that’s probably a blog post for another day…)

So why do I find this question—which I seem to get fairly often from many people in my life—to be somewhat off-putting?

I think the answer is because it completely misses the point.

When I plan a trip, I’m almost never thinking of it in terms of being a “solo trip”, “trip with friends,” “family trip,” etc. Of course, those factors come into play in the type of experience I’m likely to have. And sometimes, who I’m going with is the point of my trip—for instance, a birthday cruise with my mom or a weekend in Portland with my best friend who lives several states away.

But generally, I don’t travel to be with people and I don’t travel to be alone. I travel to travel.

If I had to articulate why I’m going on any given trip, my answer would nearly always be, “Because Country X looks amazing and I really want to see it.” That’s it. I want to go there, so I do. Maybe alone, maybe with friends, but no matter what, if I want to see it badly enough, I make it happen.

And honestly, while this mentality is pretty common among hard-core travelers stricken with severe wanderlust, I think it’s still a bit of a foreign concept (no pun intended) to many others who don’t fall into that category. Most of my friends would never consider going on a trip alone. To them, travel is something you do if the opportunity arises and you have someone to go with, not a cherished goal that you prioritize and make a reality no matter what, whether solo or with company.

It’s almost as though having a travel companion “legitimizes” travel to many people, because that’s something they can understand. What they can’t comprehend is wanting to see a new place badly enough to be willing to do it alone. It’s the sort of thing that makes us travel junkies stand out as a bit odd. Not that I have any problem with that…but I do wonder if that’s where this question really arises from. Are people just trying to contextualize my efforts to see the world into something they can relate to and understand?

I guess that makes a certain level of sense. But I still think it’s rather unnecessary to raise the question at all.

Asking a potential traveler “are you going with anyone” just feels strange to me. Honestly, why does it matter? Will the Julian Alps be more or less memorable with someone by my side? Will the Plitvice waterfalls somehow look different? Will the curry in Brick Lane in London taste better? I don’t think so.

There are certainly advantages to both solo and accompanied travel. But generally speaking, when I take off on a journey I’m doing it for myself; to satisfy some wanderlust I desperately need to quench. Or to just pop into a new place that looks cool. But it’s about the experience itself, not who I choose to share it with. This may not be the case for everyone, but it’s almost always true for me.

So in future, when anyone asks about my travel plans, I’ll tell them yes, I’m traveling with my friend so-and-so, or no, I’m going alone this time. But I’ll also add—as I nearly always do—that I’m going no matter what.

Are there travel questions that annoy you? What are they?

Travel Musings

Apr

2016

Postcard from DC: Cherry Blossoms!

Melissa Kaplan0

It’s that time of year again, the very best time to be in DC (and loads of tourists seem to agree with that statement): Cherry Blossom season is here!

Well, technically, the blossoms have pretty much peaked at this point, and—full disclosure—I didn’t actually make a trip out to see them in full bloom around the city’s monuments, despite some recent gorgeous sunny weather. Major fail re: my goal to see more of the beauty in my own backyard.

However, it’s worth pointing out that I’ve been to see the cherry blossoms many times before, and as beautiful as they are—once you’ve seen one blossoming tree, you’ve seen them all, right?

Yet the truth is I really do love the beautiful buds that pop up all over DC this time of year. As many years as I’ve spent living here, I’m still not immune to their beauty.

Fortunately, I have a lovely, pink and white blossoming tree right in my own front yard! It’s not technically a cherry blossom tree, but it’s gorgeous, and I look forward to seeing it bloom for an all-too-brief week or so every year. This magical tree has already transitioned from fluffy white flowers to more sedate, smaller pink buds…still beautiful, just in a different way. And soon, it will turn green and leafy, and while that’s definitely a big improvement over its barren winter state, I do admit that I’ll miss walking past those white blossoms every day.

So, in honor of my favorite neighborhood tree, here’s a photo from a few weeks ago showing it in its full springtime glory, followed by some photos of the official cherry blossoms from earlier years when I was ambitious enough to brave the crowds and go into town to see them. (It really is always worth it. Next year!)

My neighborhood almost-cherry-blossom tree!

Cherry blossoms near the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.

DC, US travel, Washington

Apr

2016