News from the Eastern Blog

When two British friends went to live in Russia, they were inundated with questions from friends and family asking them “What’s Russia really like” and driving them up the wall with supposed “facts” about Russia, gleaned from the largely anti-Russian British media.

How do you answer all those questions? Easy. You start a blog about Russia.

News from the Eastern is the result. Caroline, who lives in Moscow, and Katie, who works in St Petersburg, have been writing for nearly six months now, covering the oddities of Russian life, their personal experiences travelling around Russia, and with the odd political post mixed in as well. From their introductory post:

“We’ll pass through the timeless, well-known stereotypes: queues, beetroot soup, fur hats and of course snow… lots of it. On the way we’ll encounter some new ones: the fear of the unpolished shoe, the omnipresent “VIP”, “facecontrol” and of course mayonnaise… lots of it.”

I particularly liked this beautifully written account of a Siberian skiing trip and this post about staying in a small Russian village called Tashtagol.

News from the Eastern isn’t all travelogues though. What I really enjoy while reading is that I never know what to expect from the next post. Take this evocative article about Shampanskoe for example:

Ickily sweet, bubbly and dirt cheap, no Russian celebration would be complete without the obligatory bottle (or two) of Shampanskoe, Russia’s answer to the rather more famous and – dare I say it, more palatable – French Champagne.

You should also keep an eye out for Caroline’s photos, which are scattered throughout the site – I loved the Fur Hats picture in this post. More of Caroline’s photography can be found at her site: http://carolinephotography.co.uk/

Plug Your New Russia Blog

Well, that’s it for this week. As ever, I’ll finish off with a reminder that I’m always keen to hear of new blogs about Russia. If you write one, or know of one, send me a quick message, and I’ll write a brief introductory post here on Siberian Light.

Tagged as: Russia Blogs