Was it worth it? Absolutely! It was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would definitely recommend it. I learned so much about the culture and norms in different places, which is a completely invaluable lesson in empathy and understanding. I saw places that weren’t just major cities, walked through the countryside, and I think that’s also a really important part of this trip. When traveling, it’s so easy to just go to the main cities and never explore an entire country. It’s so rare to get the chance to see this much of a single country. Why travel alone? It’s partially an exercise in exploring my personal endurance, and learning…
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Final Day in Russia
Checking out For my final day in Moscow, I have made a list of the things I still wanted to see and try to be a bit more organized. I could spend another whole day wandering Red Square because those guys are out there dancing again and really what more could you want? I had to pack everything up and check out of the hotel, so here I do the muscle work of putting as much as I can squish into the roller suitcase. It’s carry-on size, but I’ll be checking it. Then I put everything I’ll need on the plane: clothes to change into, electronics, batteries, etc, in my…
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New Years Day
ABBA Ok, so I totally forgot to tell this story last night. So there’s this song that plays on the radio everywhere. I’ve heard it a hundred times this trip, but never before. It’s clearly from the ~70’s, and my guess was Oliva Newton John. But it turns out it’s ABBA, a song called “Happy New Year”. It’s popular here because I guess there aren’t that many new year songs. It’s a weird song because the vocal harmonies overlap a lot, making the lyrics difficult to distinguish. But what I can hear is the chorus of “Happy New Year” over and over and a line that says “We might as…
