We often make reviews of interesting habits and traditions of other countries. Another culture always markedly differs from ours, and many things of everyday life can surprise us greatly.
However, our lives can shock foreigners as well. Therefore, we would like to suggest you to look at Russia through the eyes of a foreigner or just think of interesting things we could share with our friends from other countries!

Map of Golden Ring cities. Photo travelrussia.net

Geography of Russia

So, like in most of encyclopedias, let’s start with geography! Of course, the first fact that comes to you mind is that Russia is the biggest country in the world, right?

But did you know that Russia has borders with 16 countries: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan and the United States. Russia is also bordered by two unrecognized states: South Ossetia and Abkhazia?

Or another great fact – Russia has the world’s largest active volcano Kluchevskoy. Its height is 4 kilometers 850 meters. A column of ash from the volcano rises 8 kilometers into the air. With each eruption, it becomes higher. Kluchevskoy volcano has been erupting for the last 7000 years.

As you may understand, that’s just a few from a thousand amazing facts about Russian geography and natural resources, the most interesting ones we have collected in article 17 Interesting Facts about Russian Geography!

There are almost 1100 cities in Russia. The oldest town in Russia is Derbent. It is called one of the oldest cities in the world, being about 5000 years old.
Here are other 20 Facts About Cities of Russia and how they stand out.

Speaking about geography, we want to pay your attention on the Nicknames of Russian cities (and not only Russian actually), so you won’t be surprised while reading our articles and noticing some “nicknames”of cities.

Russian traditional food, bliny

Traditional Russian food

From geography let’s slightly move to the Russian traditional cuisine. The features of the national cuisine are better preserved than, for example, typical features of clothing or housing.

Traditional Russian dishes stand out with its high energy value, they contain a lot of fat. It happened because of the harsh climate: it was necessary to always eat tightly, there is a Russian proverb regarding this topic: “While the thick dries, the skinny will die.”

The dishes in Russian cuisine are simple, rational and practical. People cooked mainly dishes from bread, flour and everything that the forest gave – honey, berries, nuts, mushrooms.
Originally most of the Russian food consisted of different types of cereals and dairy products. Meat was considered a festive dish.

The Russians learned how to preserve and preserve food – meat was smoked, dried, salted, vegetables and fruit were sour, pickled, salted (cucumbers, garlic, grape leaves, wild garlic greens), jams, dried fruits (prunes, dried apricots, raisins).

As for the most popular traditional dishes nowadays, we advice you to check 3 National Russian foods and after that – rush to the traditional Russian restaurant for degustation. If you are in Moscow – the recommendation of Best Cafes with Russian Breakfast is already available!

For the very Russian experience, in addition to the cuisine, you definetly need to explore the Russian traditional drinks (of course you know what is it) and what usually goes next – Russian Banya.

Travel Russia to Golden Ring, Sergiev Posad

Sergiev Posad, Golden Ring of Russia. Photo by: chukhlomin.ru

Where to go?

As for the most popular tourist routes, the leaders, as you may guess, are of course Moscow and our Nothern Venice – Saint-Petersburg. But! Another Russian gem is the Golden Ring.

Golden Ring is a touristy route of Russia passing through the ancient Russian cities that are the center of folk crafts and have preserved the unique monuments of history and culture of Russia. Golden ring consists of eight major cities – Sergiev Posad, Pereslavl, Rostov, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Suzdal and Vladimir.

Some sources include up till 23 cities in the Golden Ring. The rest of the list – the cities of Alexander, Bogolubovo, Gorokhovets, Gus Krystalny, Dmitrov, Ivanovo, Kalyazin, Kideksha, Moscow, Murom, Myshkin, Palekh, Plios, Rybinsk, Tutaev, Uglich, Yuriev-Polsky, Shuya etc.

Here are Fun Facts about Cities of Golden Ring and some golden moments of our tours.

For the bravest ones we advice as a route the Transsiberian Railway tour. Being the longest railway in the world, the Trans-Siberian Railway is one of the best ways to explore Russia and Asia.

Our Friendly Local Guides want you to be prepared for this trip, so here are all Facts about Siberia you need to know!

Matryoshka Museum in Sergiev Posad

What to bring home from Russia?

If you want to have a part of Russia after your Russian adventure, you can’t skip the process of buying souvenirs! Here are our Top-5 Russian Souvenirs, to make your friends and relatives happier than ever!

Another thing which you can also bring from Russia – amazing stories about some local phenomenons. For example, Russian Kommunalka. Have you headed about it before? Don’t worry, many people also haven’t!

What is a Kommunalka and how to live in it, read in our article Kommunalka – Communal Appartment in Soviet Russia.