St. Petersburg is a fascinating city. Before I start exploring, my warmshowers host Sergei and I organize a SIM card, exchange EUR for Rubel and try to find a hostel to register my Visa. This is necessary if one stays in Russia for more than 7 days. However, 4 hostels say they currently cannot do that – the system does not seem to work. Afterwards Sergei tells me how the metro system works (it’s incredibly easy to use) and I go sightseeing. As the sun sets, I walk to the next metro station and head back.
The following day I do some maintenance on my bike and later go to the city again, willing to explore the eremitage. (Un)fortunately it has so much to offer, that the 2 hours, which are left before it closes, aren’t enough to explore half of it.
I check out the Bronze Horseman, Isaac’s cathedral, the kazan cathedral and the church of the savior on blood (which unfortunately is already closed too).
The next day I call the German consulate to figure out how I shall register my Visa. But don’t reach anyone. Either noone reacts or it is occupied. I actually planned to leave today, but Sergei invites me to stay for another day. So I decide to go to the consulate in person and visit the Ermitage again. At the consulate they can’t help me and tell me to call again tomorrow… So I now see ‘the rest’ of the eremitage. At some point I feel overwhelmed with the impressions it has to offer. It feels to me, like it’s too much at one place.
The next day we cycle together through the city until we reach a train station. We take a train out of Peterburg to Mga. This way we skip the part with lots of traffic and make it to a German war cemetery from 1941. There is a river, which Sergei wants to check out for rafting in the future.
We talk some time with an elderly woman. When we are about to leave, she invites me for dinner, but I decline since it is already getting dark soon and I still have to find a spot for my tent. Sergei goes back to Mga and I start cycling towards Veliky Nowgorod. I remember that I actually wanted to accept more invitations and should have maybe accepted her offer. I seem to have forgotten my Hobostove at my last campsite before Peterburg. Now I just place my pot on top of the burning wood – works too.
I get a taste of russian road conditions and just hope it won’t stay like this until I reach Nowgorod.
Fortunately after ~30km I reach a crotch where a man, who is taking his dog for a walk on a motorcycle, tells me there will be asphalt in 7km. In Nowgorod I meet my warmshowers host Peter. We walk and cycle through the city and its fortress until we reach his home. While we wait for his wife to come home, together we try to create a follow-up route and he connects me with a friend (Dimitri) from Yaroslavl. We eat dinner together with his wife and son and then I get to sleep in my own little guesthouse. The next day I plan my further route with Dimitri’s help, before going to the city to explore the castle and Cathedral. There also is an old monastery, where all buildings are made of wood. It’s been well maintained, but I only see it from the outside.
From Nowgorod I have to cycle on the Highway M10 for some time. Mostly I have some space on the sidelane and therefore feel safe. But twice, there is road maintenance for a few kilometers, which doesn’t leave enough space for cars and trucks next to me. Due to the time of year, smaller roads are either still covered in snow, or very muddy from the melting snow. That’s why I have to stick to asphalt roads, which mostly are highly trafficked. And, let’s face it, russian asphalt roads can still be in very bad condition.
I actually find my Hobostove in one of my bags. I haven’t forgotten it after all. Maybe more than 130 liters are too much.
I make it to Sergiyev Posad, one of the Golden Ring cities. After some sightseeing, I take a train to Moscow. At the train station I meet my warmshowers host Artem and we take another train to actually leave Moscow again. He just moved to the suburbs. (If I knew beforehand, I would have actually cycled there instead of taking the train from Sergiyev Posad. I just take trains into big cities to avoid the dangerous, high trafficked roads.) Anyway, after a well needed shower we go back into Moscow to meet some of his friends for a little barbecue party. The next day Artem takes me to the city and we buy some spare parts for my bicycle at Moscows biggest bicycle parts shop. It’s like a shopping mall for cyclists (but kind of hidden under ground). Then we go to the Kremlin and afterwards take the train back to his place. In the evening he and his wife hold a ‘new home’ party. Their friends come to see the new apartment they worked on for half a year. The following day I go sightseeing.
Another day later I pack my stuff after breakfast, take a train to Moscow, buy a few things and walk around a little, before going to another train station. I want to take a train to skip the annoying part again and go directly to Vladimir. The train station is quite complicated and I don’t really understand how I get to the right track. The staff doesn’t speak english, so they don’t really help me either. I thought I figured out where to go, but there is a closed gate. One man who seems to be as confused as I am climbs over it. I help him with his luggage. No option for me with the bicycle, so I turn back and try to communicate with the staff again. At some point someone comes and takes me to the gate and opens it. Now there seems to be a problem with my bicycle. But somehow they let me in anyway. It turns out I actually had to pack it in a bag. I knew about this for long distance trains, but not for these suburban trains. Also I don’t really get the resoning. It would just make it all much more complicated with all the bags on my bike. In Vladimir I do some sightseeing again and then head out towards Suzdal. The first part is very high trafficked and not really a pleasure to ride.
The 2nd half of the way towards Suzdal is actually pretty nice. Good asphalt and few cars. A combination I did not encounter yet in Russia. In Suzdal I come to realize, I might have already been sightseeing enough in the last couple of days and want to cycle. So I save some money, not paying the entrance fees for the museum and Kreml and just slowly cycle around the city before I head east.
The road continues the way it was before Suzdal. The sun shines and I cycle in a T-Shirt for the first time on this tour. In the evening when I look for a possible campsite, there is a hunter exactly at the place I wanted to stay :/ He seems to be a little annoyed and I go a little further to pitch my tent. Luckily he did not shoot at me 🙂 In the night it rains and when I go back to the asphalt road, my bike tries to collect all the mud from the way…
Further on I have to cycle on roads with lots of traffic for quite some time and it gets pretty annoying. In one situation, while cycling on the edge of the asphalt, a truck passes me way too close. The wind caused by the truck sent me off the asphalt. There was only sand and I couldn’t handle my bike safely there, so I made myself fall away from the truck, rather than risking to get crushed. While cycling on another highly trafficked road, another cyclist appears in my mirror. Andrew just started cycling from the last city I passed. He wants to check out a new route, and since I want to get away from that road, and company is great I follow him. Parts of the ‘road’ turn out much worse than expected, but we manage to get through. Just have to peel the mud off my fenders a few times and walk my bike for some sections.
At some point we can’t even really find the road we are trying to follow. We make it back onto the main road, follow it for a few kilometers and then turn into another smaller road, but this time Andrew knows that it will actually be cycleable.
The goal for the end of the day is lake Svetloyar. It was created by a meteorite and contains very clean water. After chilling out at the lake for a short while we go to the hostel Andrew had booked. Luck for me: he has a 2 bed room and therefore I can sleep in the second bed 🙂 The next day we cycle together for about 20 kilometers, eat something and part ways.
Later that day I cross the river Vetluga and suddenly encounter very good road conditions with very low traffic. Cycling through the forest I continue on that road for many kilometers. While waiting for the ferry to cross the Wolga, a strange guy tries to tell me some stuff. At first I think he tries to tell me about a better route to Kazan. But at some point it’s just weird and I don’t get what he is trying to tell me. He even calls his friend. An elder woman gives me a sign that he is talking bullshit and I escape the situation by buying a Pepsi.
The road I am now cycling on is getting new asphalt. So some part is very bad for cycling and then, before it becomes good, there is a 1km section where they are working on one lane. They don’t wait for me to signal the other side that they are free to go…when I’m at the end of the construction site, one car arrives late and goes into it with 100km/h, honks at me and dodges to the new asphalt… Today I want to arrive in Kazan. In the morning it hails, rains and snows and therefore I get up a little late. After I packed my stuff it starts again. After I had already been cycling in a T-Shirt a few days ago, I don’t appreciate snow again.
After about 2 hours it stops raining. Soon after, I find myself infront of a mud road :/
I only have to clean the fenders once to keep going. It is not as bad as I thought, but my bike is all dirty again. A while later, after crossing a small bridge, I find myself infront of a closed gate. My Navi tells me to go through, but since there are roads to the left and right I try to cycle around. I check all of my navigation applications, but they all point me through the gate. After some searching I find a way around. To me it seemed, like on both sides there is a restricted area, but a road in between. It appears not to be true. I arrive at another gate with a guard. The guard doesn’t look happy, that I am coming from the inside. He calls his boss, on my map I show him how I got there, we try to talk a little, and they let me go. I now cycle on the Highway for quite some time. When crossing the Wolga again, there is a car, pulled over by the police, which is held together by tension belts. Without these it would very likely fall apart. Unfortunately I did not take a photo, there really are some trashy cars on russian roads. In the evening I arrive at Bulats place in Kazan. The next day I check out the city with its beautiful Kremlin.
I feel the exhaustion from the past days and head back to his place. There I change the oil of my Rohloff hub and fix some minor stuff on my bike. Then we go to the city again and meet his colleagues. Bulat speaks German and works for Fujitsu, supporting German businesses. His colleagues Alex and Olga do so too and we speak German all evening. The barmaid speaks a little German too, it turns out there are actually 4 schools in Kazan, where German is teached.
When I leave Kazan, there is lots of traffic. It turns into a huge traffic jam, which is nice, because I can just cycle past them on the right and don’t need to worry about them passing me too close. One car seems to like what I do and follows my lead skipping a large part of the jam. The tick season has started. Many try to conquer my tent, good that they don’t get through the net. Only once I find 3 of them inside and just 1 gets to taste me.
This is one of the downsides when it gets warmer. In winter I didn’t have to worry about annoying insects. Since I arrived in Kazan the weather is great. I can finally cycle in T-Shirt and short pants.
While I take a rest at a busstation, a guy stops with his car. He seems to be a cyclist too, because there is a bike in the trunk. He invites me to stay at his place in Nizhnekimsk. I didn’t plan to go there, but it’s not much of a detour. I remember, that I wanted to accept more offers and tell him I’d show up the next day. I cycle the 70 kilometers to his place. After a well needed shower and a meal we go to his park and bicycle museum. It’s an amazing place, I have never seen something like it. Rais founded the bicycle museum 3 years ago and is the park manager. He is also responsible for the cities bike lanes. The park is designed like a miniature Amsterdam and in one of the buildings they teach children how to cycle, how to stay safe on the road and other related topics like first-aid.
So far this is the best russian city for cycling I have seen. And I can see the result. There are much more cyclists in the city. People want to cycle, just give them decent infrastructure and the rest will come by itself. In the evening we check out the fireworks, celebrating the end of WWII.
The next day Rais’ parents serve me a large breakfast and pack me additional supplies (eggs, onions, Chak-Chak, sweets, salt…) for the way. We take a picture and say goodbye.
At 11am it’s getting windy and I leave the city. A few minutes later it starts raining. Eventhough they wanted to keep me for another day, I am still motivated and want to cycle. After a few kilometers against the wind in the rain, I take a wrong turn up a hill. It’s a dead end, and I realize I had to go straight into the mud. I think about cycling back and taking the main road, but I really don’t want to cycle on those dangerous roads all the time and now with the strong wind it’s even worse. So, very soon I shall regret my decision, but atleast there is asphalt again sooner than expected. I cycle about 3 more kilometers and then there is another mud road. But this one will be much worse and longer and I can’t do that to my bike.
Instead of those 10 km, I cycle back, adding 20 to my route. So at around 3:45pm I am only 21km away from where I started… You can imagine, how my initial motivation is all gone by now. Atleast I can cycle now, and don’t have to leave the asphalt again. My navigation wants to send me into another mud road, but I only check out if it maybe is asphalt after the first hill (komoot said it was an asphalt road), which is not true, so I turn and take the next road, which is finally less trafficked and asphalt. I accept that life consists of ups and downs and since the 3 days before had been so great, this is what had to happen. I cycle a few more kilometers and pitch my tent before it gets dark. It is raining all morning and I wait it out. Somehow my shoes got wet from the inside the day before. I cycle 8 km and see that the asphalt stops. There is a shop and I go in to buy some food. Infront of the shop 2 alcoholics try talking to me, the guy is quite annoying. Why do alcoholics always want to talk to me, but end up just being annoying? When I stuff the food into my bags, the woman from the shop comes out, sends the alcoholics away and asks me if I want some tea. I gladly accept, we talk a little, and I get some delicious cookies. I am very undecided whether to cycle back or take the mud road. I try getting through the mud, but turn around after 1km. And then cycle back 20km. I tell Rais about my rough day, and he wants to pick me up. The forecast is pretty bad. There will be a thunderstorm coming up tomorrow, and the day after, it will also be raining all day. I accept that I might also take some rest days after 100 days into my journey. I wanted to cycle more, but also need to be honest with myself. It won’t be much fun in such bad weather. In the morning Rais asks me if I would give a talk in an instutute and a school. I think why not try something new. And it might be interesting to see a russian school. First we go to the institute, the students are about 18-20 years old and ask some interesting questions. They are learning german, but it’s probably at the same stage as my russian. So we speak english. As a bonus I get to learn my first tatarian word, the greeting “сезгә сәлам”. Afterwards we go to the school, the pupils don’t speak english and therefore one teacher does the translation. I realize it is much more difficult when you can’t talk to everyone directly. When we got back to Rais’, he tells me the local TV “НТР Нижнекамск” wants to interview me. It feels a little weird when noone really speaks english, but here is the result:
For it being the first time doing these things, it’s alright. Would be awesome if more people spoke english. I use my resting time to sort through my stuff and figure out what which items I could do without, especially when it gets warmer now. I also fix my front fender and correct the tension on my chain. Rais escorts me out of the city, driving behind me with his car, so that other cars don’t pass me too close. Then I cycle on the Highway M7 for 3 days before I reach Ufa.
In the evening of May 16th I celebrate my birthday with my host Alexey and Corin. Corin worked for the Swiss embassy in Moscow. She is also a part of the warmshowers community, but on her vacation to the Urals.
The next day Alexey shows me the city on our bicycles. We end up at his workplace, where we meet another cyclist Aljona, who just finished her tour through the Urals.
Cycling through towns, it’s getting more hilly. Towns become fewer and hills become larger. I wake up to a swallen eye – probably a mosquito bite. It got cold again, around freezing temperatures. Also it’s raining all morning. I wait out the rain and only start cycling after lunchtime. The next day I stay in my tent, it’s raining 24 hours. Another day with less rain follows, but instead it’s now snowing. I make it to the entrance of the national park Iremel and realize there is no way I could continue on the planned route. People there tell me the snow is hip high. I cycle back 7km to Tyuluk and set camp.
The next day it’s raining again until 3pm and I only then start to pack my stuff. When I am about to pack my tent it starts pouring down again. I decide I would not get far today anyway and call it another rest day. I was really looking forward to the mountains as a change of landscape and getting away from these big roads. But now it turns out as another dead end – the weather forces me back onto the main roads. Now I miss out the nice scenery, cycle on dangerous roads and have bad weather.
I cycle back and then towards the nationalpark Taganai. After 2 more days of cycling in the rain, I arrive in Zlatoust. While on my way to the entrance of Taganai, where I hope to find cheap shelter, the cyclist Anton appears behind me. He invites me to tea, which I gladly accept, it’s still pouring down heavily. We make it to his place, and after I showered, drank tea and ate Pelmeni we head over to Taganai. No shelter is available at the entrance, so we go to a nearby hostel, where I get a cheap 10 bed bedroom. The next day I make a plan for Taganai. Along the upper path I climb up Kruglitsa, sleep at the Shelter ‘Taganai’ and hike back the lower path. The way up to Kruglitsa is actually harder than I expected. Maybe I should have left my backpack at the last crossing, and pick it back up on the way down.
On the way back to the last crossing I lose sight of the marked path, but manage to get back on it soon. Shortly after the crossing, there is another crotch without any signpost. I am very confused and seem to have taken the wrong path. It somehow just ends. I walk back and take the other path, which leads me to the shelter. I take a place in one of the tents. It’s very warm in there, the other guy keeps the oven on during the night. At around 6am, it feels like 40°C to me, I am sweating like a waterfall and wonder how he and his wife can actually sleep like this. The next day I walk back on the blue path. It does not offer such great views and is much easier without any climbing sections. I appreciate that, since my feet still hurt from the day before.
