I explored 70 REGIONS OF RUSSIA : The Truth About My Solo Travel

Wow, it's been a journey. I've visited 70 regions of Russia. In this video, I will share why I started to travel in Russia and why I travel here so much, what I like and what I dislike about traveling in Russia, and my insights from this long journey of my travels in this country. I will see Russia. I will explore. I have no idea what awaits me ahead. Vladivostok. Hello from Vladikavkaz, Khazan, in Udmurtia Republic. Meet the Nenetsky region and its capital, Naryan-Mar. This is really the edge of the world. Welcome to Yakutia. Is there anything interesting to see in Russia? Isn't the whole country just cold and full of bears? Wherever you go, you will find the same monuments, similar churches, and identical Soviet buildings. There are no decent roads, the trains are old, and the former glory of the USSR is crumbling. So why travel in Russia? When I just started my traveler life, I thought that to find something beautiful and interesting, I need to absolutely go abroad, far away from Russia. I never even considered an option to travel inside of my home country until I visited 20 countries, and then the pandemic started, and I had to consider Russia. So I went to the Lake Baikal, and I climbed Mount Elbrus. By the way, right now I'm in the area of Mount Elbrus. The North Caucasus is one of my most favorite regions in Russia for staying here, living, and for traveling, of course. So I just absolutely fell in love with traveling here after these experiences, and then it started. I wanted to explore more and more regions, and it became an addiction. And then my videos about Russia started to get views on YouTube, and I was so surprised that Russia is interesting to somebody, because as I was born and grew up here, life seems just normal as it is for me. But it was so interesting for people from different countries. And also I was surprised that many people have this very stereotypical image about Russia, which is so far from reality. And this became one of my goals, to show the real life in different regions of the country, to explore remote and most amazing places, to explore the ethnic diversity of the country, and to share all of this with the whole world. So I just cut my finger so bad when I was catching my drone after making those shots. So this is the price of beautiful videos sometimes. My blood. I hope it was worth it. By the way, guys, I'm very curious when and why did you start to follow my channel? And also what kind of content would you like to see more? Let me know in the comments. Well, I guess that many of you are interested to travel to Russia one day, and maybe even learning the Russian language. So in this video, I would like to introduce you to Rosetta Stone, who is also the partner of this video. 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Just scan the QR code here on the screen or click the link in the description to get over 60% off for a lifetime subscription on Rosetta Stone that gives you access to all 25 languages on the platform. Woah! Let's talk about things that I like about traveling in Russia. First of all, it's the vastness of this country. It was 8 hours flight from Moscow, 8 hours flight, and I'm still in Russia. Feels like the edge of the world. And the real reason, I'm gonna share with you the real reason why I love to travel in Russia so much. It's that we have a lot of ебня, sorry for my language. It's not a very polite word in the Russian language, but this is the word that I love so much. It means places that are very hard to reach far from civilization. Usually, it takes several days by a train, then a boat, then several days by hiking. This is how we get to Chara Desert. Or maybe several days moving by reindeer. That's how you get to these places. It's the place where there is no external noise. You connect to the nature and to your inner self. And Russia is just full of these kind of places. I mean, the country is half empty. That's why I love to travel here so much. Another reason why I never get bored traveling here is also cultural and ethnic diversity. There are more than 190 ethnic minorities living in Russia, and every region is so unique in its culture, traditions, cuisine, language. There are several official languages in some of Russia's republics, Russian plus the language of the ethnic groups living there. For instance, now I'm in the republic Kabardino-Balkaria, so there are also official languages as Kabardin and Balkar. And just yesterday, I met some really interesting Kabardin people. They taught me their language, some phrases, told me some of their traditions. And for instance, the republic which is not so far from here, Dagestan, it has more than 50 languages that people speak there, and 16 of them are official. So sometimes traveling inside of one country, Russia, feels like traveling the whole world and getting to know so many different cultures. Trying national dishes, everything from the nearby tundra. Now, let's talk about things that I don't like about traveling in Russia. The biggest one is distances. Yeah, I know, I love the vastness, but I don't love distances. But sometimes you need to spend so much time on the road because of how huge Russia is and not all the places are well connected. It's quite common to hear from Russians, oh, it's just 2 hours flight or it's just 20 hours train because we're used to the vastness of the country. In Russia, we have a completely different understanding of distances. In Europe, they say, oh, I have a long 3 hours train. In Russia, we say, oh, it's just a 7 hours flight to Magadan. Our Trans-Siberian train lasts for 7 days from Moscow to Vladivostok. And recently, I made a trip by train from Vladivostok to this region of Russia, to Pyatigorsk, which took me 33 days. Well, I did some stops, but still, 33 days to travel by train from the east to the west of Russia. In Central Russia, cities are well connected between each other. But in the Far East, if you want to travel, for instance, between Magadan and Vladivostok cities, you won't find direct flights, but you'll find flights with a connection in Moscow, which is so ridiculous, but that would be the cheapest option. But overall, I can't complain about public transportation in Russia. I would say that our cities are quite well connected by planes, trains, buses, rushutkas. And living abroad, in Europe, in US, I know that public transport in Russia is developed really well. And also, I appreciate so much that our trains and buses are always on time, like a Swiss clock. Also, it feels quite weird to complain about these distances once you get in the destination. You know, when you make some trip, like climbing a mountain or some really hardcore camping, and at the moment you struggle so much, and you want it to end, and you think that you will never do it again. But then, after some time passes, you memorize this trip as one of the best experiences in your life. So, it's kind of the same game with the distances in Russia. You get so tired on 8 hours flight, or on a long train, or a long hike, but once you get in the destination, and when you see all of this, it's hard to complain. So, if you also like to travel to Yebnya, or places in the middle of nowhere, where you can just connect to the nature in the wilderness, there is so much opportunities for that in Russia, and distances are part of the game. And the last part of this video, my insights after traveling to 70 regions of Russia. And that would be that I will always make my own opinion about places or countries only after I visit them myself and make my own opinion, and I will not let anybody else, the media, or anybody to form that opinion for me. There were so many situations when somebody would tell me Oh, why would you go to this region of Russia, it's so boring, there is nothing to see, it's awful, but then I would have the greatest experience ever. Or somebody would tell me Oh, don't go there, it's so dangerous, but then everything would be fine, and again, I would have the greatest experience, and after doing that, I would not believe that somebody would tell that it's not worth going to that place. And that leads to my second insight, which is to keep positive attitude wherever you go. If you are looking for something bad, you will always find it everywhere, and you will think Oh, this place is so awful, but if you are looking for something good, you will find it everywhere around you. You are creating your own experience everywhere, every day, all the time. Oh, one more. If you visit Russia, please go to more places than just Moscow and St. Petersburg. To get to know the real country, you need to go to some villages to see the rural life, you need to go to some republics to understand the ethnic diversity and the feeling of our multi-cultures and try different cuisines in different republics. You also go to places in the middle of nowhere like this to feel the true vastness and do some long train trip, and then probably you will get the feeling of what Russia is. So, it's been a journey of 70 regions, my camera is also shocked, it's been 70 regions, and still a long journey ahead of me, many more ethnic groups to meet, many more places to discover. I really want to visit every single region of Russia, that's a goal of mine. Let me know which regions have you already visited in Russia, and which ones would you like to visit the most and why, and what kind of travel advice would you like to get from me. I would really like my content to be helpful for everyone who also wants to discover places here. And with this video I also want to say how grateful and blessed I am to share this journey with you guys. Thank you so much for following my journey, travel more, enjoy life, and who knows, maybe I will see you in real life on some mountain path in the middle of nowhere here in Russia or anywhere else. Take care, спасибо, and пока-пока!