Thread by @DavidSantoro1

Trans-Siberian (family) trip, a thread:

Exactly a year ago, I took a month-long trip with my wife @LTSantoro1 & then 2-year-old daughter from St Petersburg to Beijing via Mongolia on the trans-Siberian railway & we stopped & visited multiple cities along the way.

Our trip:

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Pretty much everyone told us it was a crazy idea: it's too long, dangerous & insane to do this with a 2-year-old.

Turned out to be a fantastic adventure in all aspects (& don't worry it's not the craziest thing I did).

We just had two bags like this one:

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We began in St Petersburg, where I had a work meeting but still found time to visit my wife and daughter. Here are a few pictures:

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We took a boat to Peterhof Palace:

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Then we took the train down to Moscow:

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Then Kazan in southwest Russia, on the banks of the Volga and Kazanka rivers; Kazan is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan:

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We then made our way to Yekaterinburg, which is east of the Ural Mountains & is best known for its "Church on the Blood," built in the early 21st century on the site of the 1918 Romanov executions:

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Then we traveled to Tobolsk, a small town in Tyumen Oblast known as the historic capital of the Siberia region:

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Next was Novosibirsk, the third-most populous city after Moscow & St Petersburg:

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Tomsk was next. It's considered one of the oldest towns in Siberia & is a big educational and scientific center:

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Then Irkutsk on the Angara River:

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From there, we traveled to Lake Baikal, the southern part, near the Listvyanka village. Wish we had more time there:

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Then we took a train down to Ulaanbaatar (& it took ages to cross the Russia-Mongolia border):

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We took a few trips elsewhere in Mongolia, to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park outside of UB & we went to the outskirts of Gobi:

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Finally, we made our way down to Beijing, where I also had meetings, but still managed to escape & visit a little bit for a change (I always go for work):

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We also made our way to the Great Wall:

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And that was it. It was awesome in so many ways, and traveling by train is fun. Not a trip we could do right now.

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End.