Beata Matuszka- Luca Bergamin

Survival kit to the Transsiberian dream
An almost non-spy tale from Siberia. -

 “The recipe for Disaster, TrainWrecks and other good things.

Spoiler alert: this is not going to be one of those “live your life like if it was your last day on this earth”-thing coming from a Chinese fortune cookie, since we would probably pass such a day booing, caressing puppies and submerging ourselves with Nutella and Oreos. This is actually a one-month long tale, and luckily for us, it was not our last one on this earth. Also, no chocolate.

There is quite a chance that you’ve heard it already: we travel because we are open minded, we want to open our mind a bit more by jumping into other cultures, we definitely are cracking our mind open by being mindful and whatever, more open than our wallets during sales season. That, and also because we want to accumulate as many unique adventures and memories as possible, and chances are that we are not going to collect them while binge watching series on Netflix.

In this occasion, we are going to talk about how we managed to spend a month across Siberia and Mongolia, skimming through thousands of kilometers across railways, buses and sometimes camels, sleeping next to murdering wizards, plague carriers and generally angry soldiers with nothing but Vodka to drink for days and somehow we feel like our mind got a little bit more open than before (and  yes, we came back alive & in one piece). 

So grab your Kompot and jump in the wagon with a couple of very very open minded travelers, to learn a few tips and tricks about survival in the big nothing which is the Russian and Mongolian mainland, including:

-Playing with the time zones in Russia, to make sure you are not stuck in the middle of (literally) nowhere;

-Pettable and not-pettable: a guide on pets from different cultures;

-How to turn a bloodbath into a jolly singing competition (like in cartoons!) and, last but not least;

-”I am not an American spy 101”: how to avoid unnecessary suspicion when you speak English in a country that does not speak that language, and does not really like America.

Plus, if you are having an impossibly boring day in your office, you could take a look at our blog to find other tales, tips&tricks, and generally AWESOME stuff: http://neveraweekendhome.com/ 

And oh yeah, we are also on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/neveraweekendhome/

If you don’t like reading too much, check out our pictures on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neveraweekendhome/

Introduction video