05/05/2015
Trip To Russia Continued - Part III:
Itinerary
Sorry for the long break, I had to prepare everything for the trip. Short reminder: All started with being fascinated of Russia, it remote and - for me - almost unknown areas, those names of places that just make me curious. And with discovering that the easternmost part of mainland Europe is close to the city Vorkuta (8).
A city with 70.000 people that can be reached from Moscow (1) only via train or air. Of course there are roads and cars but there is no connection with the rest of the country. Despite that you can explore it with Google street view. Quite fascinating for somebody from an area as dense populated as central Europe.
A bit south of Vorkuta the northern end of the Ural Mountains is located, with its highest peak Mount Narodnaya (1,894 meters - number nine on the map), forming the natural boundary between Europe and Asia, with a total length of about 2,500 kilometers, ending in the south close to the border of Kazakhstan.
So I zoomed to that area and found the city of Orsk (3), almost at the border of the two countries. Also in this area: Magnitogorsk (4). Again. That has to mean something.
I had a look on Magnitogorsk and learned that it is a transcontinental city with one part lying in Europe and the other in Asia. Not to mention the Magnitnaya Mountain that was almost pure iron. Was - because most of it ended up in the iron and steel works of Magnitogorsk.
Didn't that sound like a perfect itinerary, following the European border from the south to the north? I checked the website of Russian Railways, just for fun - and saw that all of the cities are connected by train. Though it might take some time between the different places - for example ~50 hours from Moscow to Vorkuta. But still. It is possible.
The only problem was to get to the far north on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains - there is no train, there are no streets. All stops in Priobye (6). Well, there is almost nothing in this area.
After some research I found out that there is a ferry on the "Ob River", connecting Priobye with Salekhard (7). That's part of Siberia, by the way.
So then it was settled. I simply had to do this trip. With a slight shortcut as I have only one month to do that, therefore I have to fly from Moscow to Orenburg (2) otherwise I would lose to much time.
That's the plan:
1 - Moscow
2 - Orenburg
3 - Orsk
4 - Magnitogorsk
5 - Ekaterinburg (if there is time)
6 - Priobye
7 - Salekhard
8 - Vorkuta
9 - Mount Narodnaya (if it is possible)
10 - and back to Moscow.
Source: Most of this information I got from Wikipedia - you know how to search there. ;-)
Russian Railways
http://eng.rzd.ru/
