Picture of the Week
An open discussion on a street corner in Chelyabinsk

Chronicle Entries

November 1 thru November 8
Chelyabinsk to Kazan
Gary and Lisa travel to Kazan in hopes of interviewing a soldier recently returned from Chechnya, but instead share a family's personal pain and grief. For Gary and Lisa, the long journey is almost over, and then on to Moscow!

Chelyabinsk
Gary and Lisa travel to Chelyabinsk, a formerly closed city near the Urals. There they spend a day with the communists who gather on Revolution Square, and go home with one old Soviet patriot to see the few mementos of what he calls the better days.

Novosibirsk
After a two day train journey to Novosibirsk, Gary and Lisa meet up with two fellow journalists assigned to do stories on their trip. The pair look over Gary's and Lisa's shoulder while they attempt to photograph a story on Gay life in Novosibirsk.

October 10 thru October 16
Irkutsk and Lake Baikal
Gary and Lisa join a scientific expedition to study fresh water marine life in Lake Baikal and help use the Web to bridge a gap between long seperated family members.

October 2 thru October 9
Ulan Ude
Lisa and Gary travel to a tiny Buryat village outside Ulan-Ude with only a letter of introduction written in Buryat to guide them. A family of farmers takes them in, introducing them to traditional Buryat customs, religion, and cuisine, all of which involve vodka, and one of which is a bit hard to swallow at first...

September 26 thru October 1
Chita
After a two day train journey, Gary and Lisa go afoot to take a detailed look at Lenin Street, Chita's main thoroughfare. They also get a portion of their 15 minutes of fame when a local TV crew interviews them for a segment on the nightly news show "Express Information."

September 18 thru September 25
Birobidzhan
Gary and Lisa travel to Birobidzhan, capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, to find out whether local Jewish culture survived the Soviet era. Five days into their stay, the local authorities come knocking on doors looking for the "illegal Americans", who don't have the city stamped in their visas.

September 14 thru September 17
Khabarovsk
Lisa and Gary get an inside glimpse of the new post-Soviet business world, and hit the tree-lined streets of Khabarovsk to ask about the upcoming presidential elections.

September 12 and September 13
Vladivostok to Khabarovsk
Lisa and Gary hit the road in style (if not comfort) in a Soviet-made Kamaz cargo truck. The highway is long, bumpy, and occasionally clogged with crossing cows, but many hours and very little sleep later, they arrive in Khabarovsk, dirty, tired, but intact.

September 1 thru September 11
Moscow to Vladivostok
Gary and Lisa arrive in Vladivostok and begin the adventure. A visit to an ancient lighthouse, a search for friendly fishermen, and a day with Vladivostok's "novi Russki."

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