traveling – Sophia Paul

Dogsledding Expedition Russia 2018

2018-02-10 Innsbruck – Wien – Lviv – Kyiv – Moskva – Kostroma –
St. Peterburg – Innsbruck 2018-03-05

In February 2018, my friend Selin and me traveled to Russia by train to take part in a dogsledding expedition. It took place in Kostroma, where I already was three years earlier (read more about this trip here) but this time, it was organized by our friend Konstantin and his company FernWind. To keep friends and family updated, Selin and me started a Telegram-channel where we posted about our experiences. This blog is based on the channel and includes some quotes of it. Most pictures were taken by Dmitry Sharomov.

Preparations in Austria

It was Selin’s idea to go to Russia by train. “You’re crazy!” was everyone’s reaction. And at first sight, I thought so too but then I wondered why so? Why take the plane if we have the time to travel over land? It is better for the climate and also more interesting and adventurous. Selin didn’t want to go alone of course so I decided to join. She had found a night train that went via Ukraine but was not bookable online. Most other connections vent via Belarus which was not an option because that would have meant to buy an extra visa for passing(!) the country. Also, we wanted to visit Ukraine and see Lviv. It was a bit of an adventure itself to actually buy those train tickets. Selin eventually bought them at the counter in Vienna but in Innsbruck, I was told that “this train can only be booked in the call center”. So I bought it by calling the hotline and giving them my credit card details. It worked out in the end and I got a reservation in the same compartment as Selin.

To get our visa for Russia, we sent our passports to a German travel agency that handled everything for us. When they finally came back, we were very excited.

Ukraine: Lviv

And so it begins!
11 February 2018 16:52 Husky expedition 2018

We arrived in Lviv after interrupted sleep due to passport and luggage checks in the middle of the night. We stayed at a very cheap but well-equipped, clean and new hostel close to the center. During our stay in the city, we did a Free Walking Tour and met a fellow EGEAn Olena whose company we enjoyed very much.

Yesterday was another wonderful day in Lviv, full of beautiful old buildings, charming museums, hidden cafes, and good Ukrainian food. We got to know the city from a new angle when we joined a free walking tour. In the evening we met up with Olena again and had an amazing evening sharing stories and talking about anything and everything. 5 hours went by in a blink of an eye.
Everything is insanely cheap, we paid 12€ for two beers, two ciders, one juice, two pizzas, a bowl of popcorn and an amazing cake. Three people full and happy with 12€!
Now we safely arrived in Kyiv and are waiting for our train to Moscow. We had a great time in Ukraine and are excited to wake up in Russia tomorrow.
14 February 2018 17:01 Husky expedition 2018

Russia: Moscow

After another night in a train, this time with a lovely Ukrainian lady in our compartment, we made it to Moscow and spent one day there.

Moscow is a huge city. So many people in the metro! We visited the St. Basil’s Cathedral which is smaller than expected and the historical museum. Then we had a little adventure buying a SIM card and finding the taxi driver.
Now we are tired and happy to be sitting in a warm car. We will pick up the other participants now and then go to Kostroma to finally meet the huskies!
15 February 2018 16:21 Husky expedition 2018

Kostroma

We made it! After a long odyssey picking up all the other participants from Moscow’s 3 airports, a night in a hostel and a 6 hours bus ride, we finally made it to Kostroma! The people are super nice, it’s pleasantly cold, and most important of all, we met the huskies! Now we are warming up in our hut, learn some theory and will then start practicing with the dogs 🙂 don’t worry, husky pictures will follow soon ☺️
16 February 2018 13:17 Husky expedition 2018

get-to-know-each-other
becoming confident
sled training without dogs
Nobody can resist the husky puppies
The hut we stayed in

The expedition

After three intense days of training, we set off to our tour. Selin and I shared eight dogs who were eager to pull us through the snow. While it had been snowing in the past few days, now the weather was perfect and nature showed off its beauty.

Yesterday and today were our first expedition days. We covered 15km yesterday and twice that distance today. The weather is amazing. Pure sunshine and not too cold. We are together with a dog team of 8 and two sleds behind each other. Our dogs are strong and kind but today at the last bit they got tired and we had to tie one sled to the snowmobile to reduce our weight. Today we will sleep in a hut without running water and with the toilet outside.
22 February 2018 16:59 Husky expedition 2018

Jum likes rolling in the snow
food for dogs

Today was a relaxed day with less distance and a lot of slow deep snow. The sun was shining and the dogs were working well. We are very proud of them!
We are sleeping in a fisherman’s hut and had ucha, a fish soup with fresh fish from the nearby Volga.
23 February 2018 18:59 Husky expedition 2018

The last two days were just breathtaking and amazing. Next to the fisherman’s hut there was a beautiful frozen river. Yesterday was a though day, we stomped through the deep snow and our dogs were pretty tired in the end, but we arrived well in our new place: an old Soviet “pioneers” camp, similar to a scouts camp 🙂 finally, showers and real beds! Dima, our photographer, shared his stories. He’s 51 years old and has been a photographer for expeditions all around the world. He was a photographer for Greenpeace on the rainbow warrior for 8 years, he went on expeditions to the Amazon, Antarctica, Mongolia, Namibian desert, there isn’t a place where he hasn’t been and hasn’t taken pictures! And he is such a kind and gentle soul. It’s really an honor to have him here with us and to hear his stories.
Today is our last day on the sled. We’re going back to the farm and have the longest distance yet before us (30-35km). But it’s hopefully going to be a smooth trip on the Wolga with less deep snow 🙂
25 February 2018 08:16 Husky expedition 2018

Snow portrait with two of our dogs, Sonja and Tim

We made it back to the farm and were very proud of the long distance the dogs had covered. The trip was amazing and all participants, Russian, German and Austrian came closer together as a team. We were particularly amazed by the two young Russian guides who had joined us who had started learning English about a month ago when the first FernWind expedition came. By the time we left, they were able to have a simple conversation and even made jokes in English.

We stayed in Kostroma a bit longer to reflect and plan the Husky tours for 2019 before we got on a train once again – this time going North to St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is amazing. The city is beautiful! We love the architecture, the food is great and we met wonderful people.
Yesterday, we explored the Nevsky Prospect, went shopping in the house of books and the Hermitage museum took our breaths away.
In the evening, we spontaneously decided to visit the Mariinski Theatre to go to the opera. We arrived in our expedition outfit, rubber boots and husky perfume; but totally worth it. The performance was great and we enjoyed very much after the long time in nature and far away from cultural events like this.
3 March 2018 21:46 Husky expedition 2018

opera outfit
famous book store
lovely architecture
Putin for coffee breaks

Although I’d been to St. Petersburg before, I loved to see the city again and to recognize the places I already knew. We joined a Free Walking Tour and learned a lot of new things about the history of the city and saw new and hidden places.

I took a plane back home and was very happy to have been on this trip. It was great to travel with old and new friends and share wonderful moments with them. I am looking forward to visit Russia again, maybe one time also in summer. 🙂

Brazil 2016

traveling

In August 2016 I flew to Brazil. The reason I went there was a three-weeks field work trip to Rondônia and Brasília for my Master studies. And before that I explored the South of the country on my own. I went to Porto Alegre, Campo Bom, Curitiba, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. I stayed with three awesome couchsurfing hosts, a friend and in a hostel. The kindness of the Brazilian people was amazing. They were always happy to help.
The field trip started in Brasília and then we explored Rondônia – from Ji-Paraná to Porto Velho to a small village where we did research about a farming project. In the end, we went back to Brasília to present our first results there.

Botanical Garden Curitiba

On the street

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Dogsledding Expedition Russia 2015

traveling

Following the trail of 400 year old Russian history, an international expedition of twelve dogsleds covered roughly 200 kilometers – and I was in the midst of it. Some months earlier I could not imagine myself dashing through Russian snow on a sled pulled by six strong Siberian huskies. I was studying in the Netherlands when my friend Dima, a Russian photographer, invited me to join this expedition.

I arrived in St. Petersburg in February and spent some days there with Dima and the four Spanish expedition participants. We quickly learned that in Russia, even broad rivers like the Neva freeze over, that Russians love the sun in winter and that they have very good food…

After a very long night-train ride, we arrived in Kostroma, the capital of the Kostroma region and basecamp of our expedition. Here, Masha (from Moscow) joined us. Communication turned out to be slightly cumbersome as only Masha and Dima spoke Russian and English – and only Javier and Susanna spoke Spanish and English for translating to Maria and Antonio who didn’t speak English…But despite those difficulties, we learned everything about dogsledding and how to talk to dogs in Russian.

I was a bit worried at first when I heard that everyone would be on a sled alone. What if I couldn’t do it? If I had a problem? Then I took my first short ride on a sled with four dogs and I didn’t worry anymore. I was just full of joy and happiness. I loved the feeling and forgot about the cold temperatures around me. I knew it was going to be fine.

The expedition preparation didn’t only consist of training. A city tour, visiting a spring festival and traditional puppet-making were included. We also had a presentation about security, the historical context and the legend of Ivan Susanin. The latter is said to have sacrificed his life for the young soon-to-be Tsar Mikhail Romanov by misleading Polish soldiers who wanted to kill the teenager. We were going to follow the reverse route that Mikhail took to find shelter in the Ipatiev monastery in Kostroma.

When I heard each of us would steer a dogsled on their own, I was worried. But then I was just full of joy and happiness!

The start at the monastery was a big event with TV cameras, music and a funny guy who kept the kids entertained. I was impressed that so many people had come to see us leave. We waved goodbye and covered the first part of the journey on the frozen river. We stayed in Kostroma for another night before our route took us first to Barskoe, then to Medlevki and Domnino, the village where Mikhail hid with his mother.

We only made slow progress on the second day. It was unseasonably warm which made the snow soft and the task more difficult for dogs and humans. I tried to get my dogs used to my voice and shouted “Давай! Dawaii! Go!” and “Стоять! Stajat! Stand!” a lot. But in reality, they only “listened” to what I did with the brake. As soon as I let it go, they would run until I pressed it really hard again. We arrived at our accommodation after sundown and were welcomed with bread and black salt, a tradition in this region. But the day doesn’t stop when you arrive and are really tired and only longing for bed. First, the dogs need to be freed from their harnesses and have dinner (meat and water). This takes a while – we had 72 dogs! Only then it was dinner time for the human participants. Afterwards we had the chance to experience a real Russian sauna that is called banya here.

I tried to get my dogs used to my voice and shouted “Давай! Dawaii! Go!” and “Стоять! Stajat! Stand!” a lot. But in reality, they only “listened” to what I did with the brake.

The next day was the longest. We had 43 km ahead when in the very morning my sled broke. Not only did one screw go missing; due to the soft snow, I couldn’t brake properly and the plank holding the brake broke too. I somehow managed to stop and was a bit desperate. What now? There was no way I could go on without a working brake. Luckily, the Russian mushers and one of our ski-doo drivers helped out. They gave me another sled and said I should continue while they repaired mine. I was very glad to have those people around me before but at this point I would not have been able to go on without them. I now could enjoy the changes in landscape from open fields to swamp to birch forests. I couldn’t stop looking around. Also when it got dark, I didn’t feel tired but excited what I will see next. That night we slept on the stage of a theatre. It was part of a very small village that consisted mainly of ruins, a big horse stable and a small shop.

On the following day, we had very warm weather again and clear skies. It was perfect for taking pictures but difficult for the dogs because they prefer colder conditions. When the sun started to go down, we saw a white and blue church on a hill. We had reached the turn point of our expedition, the village Domnino. We were accommodated in private houses and I was once again astonished by the hospitality of Russian people. Although they didn’t speak the same language, the Spanish men had a nice chat with the homeowner and the girls were invited to banya by his wife.

One of the few moments the dogs got tired.

One of the few moments the dogs got tired.

The morning program was one of the highlights of the trip. Followed by two TV teams, we took a short detour to the stone that acts as memorial for Ivan Susanin and his story. Two actors made the history of 1613 come alive and replayed it. After taking loads of pictures and giving interviews, we started our way back. Unfortunately, the warm days prior showed their effect on the streets. The asphalt was coming through and my dogs of course preferred running there instead of the part of the street where there was still snow. For me that meant running with the sled to not damage it and shouting “Лево! Leva!” (Left!) what didn’t impress the dogs at all. Luckily we returned to the forest paths again where there was still enough snow.

The sixth day was the coldest of the whole week. Nevertheless, we had to cancel the last day and the final kilometers back to Kostroma because of bad snow conditions and weather forecast. So we spent the following rainy day mostly inside and had time to relax, sleep and reflect. In the evening we celebrated the successful expedition, shared our experiences and especially thanked our very important interpreters.

I am happy to have been part of this expedition. I learned that you don’t need to speak the same language to communicate or to have fun. I made friends with people I could hardly talk to. I saw the beauty of Russian winter. I experienced hospitality and kindness all around. I had the chance to build a relationship with those amazing huskies who never grew tired of pulling. I now know some simple words in Russian and I hope to need them again someday soon. Увидимся!

Website of Olga’s Husky farm (in Russian): http://husky44.ru
Want to join such a tour too? https://www.fernwind.de/husky

This blog post was originally written for Pangaea Project (Link).