200

I left home nearly a year ago and here with this very entry, the blog has hit 200 entries. Not that I'm going to have a cake or anything, I'm just happy I've been able to keep it together over the past 11 months and 7 countries. Here are some other final pictures from Sara, Peter, and I's great adventure.Riding horses in Mongolia. I honestly still have a red mark on my ass from that day. On our way off the island here we look happier than we should have been considering the shitty car, bumpy road, and unknown future. This was a happy moment on the train. Other passengers beware.A hilarious moment on the very first day of our journey. If you want to know the story, you'll have to ask Sara yourself.Goodbye to all of our Russian friends. We'll miss you.

Oh, the places we went and the people we met.

The Main PlayersFor the past month it has been the three of us traveling from Beijing to St. Petersburg. I've heard time flies when you're having fun but we had an amazing time and time didn't fly.Peter was a bit of a surprise addition to the trip since it was a little last minute but I can't imagine the trip without him. Through his eye in the video camera, we will produce a short film that will attempt help other people have a clue of what the trip was like for us.Sara and I had initially planned to roadtrip through Australia. I remember calling her from Shanghai to hash out where in the world we'd decide to take our trip. At that moment we had no idea how great our trip was about to be. Nerpa!

It all began in Beijing
Through family friends of Sara's, we met Mr. Yao Di, our personal tour guide of Beijing. With him we went around to all the touristy Chinese places and some incredible Chinese restaurants. In Mongolia we were amazed by little Puce's art. An odd thing that struck me: he loves Bob Ross and learned a lot about painting through watching his shows on Mongolian TV.Our first true friends made on the trip, Katiya and Gana were such helpful people. Gana was a great host when we stayed at his home in rural Mongolia and Katiya taught us our first Russian, about Russian culture, and was just fun to hang out with.Without Artiem, nothing in Baikal would have happened. This young guy was our personal tour guide and great friend throughout our time in Siberia. We had some tough times, but I even look back on those fondly, remembering that rough day hitchhiking out of the Small Sea.Our Russian party people. These guys hazed us like pledges. We met them at the Small Sea but caught up with them in Irkutsk for a final farewell dinner. Francis is French-Canadian and Line is Danish. We met them at our hostel in Moscow but continued to party with them in St. Petersburg. Just our type of people, we shared music, vodka, and the dance floor throughout the week. Tanya was our partner in art outside of the Red Square. She helped us with an inventive clip that won't be seen until the trip's film is released sometime in the Spring of 2008. Annya from Cuba Hostel. At first we thought she hated us, but then we learned it's just her spunky attitude and that just made us like her all the much more. She took us out to the great bars of the St. P. night scene and it couldn't have been more fun.With Peter here is our dearest Sasha. We spent her 20th birthday with her walking around St. Petersburg and then took to the bars later that night to party with her. She was so good to us but both as an employee of the hostel but even more so as a local friend.I can't stress how much of our good times were multiplied by having these final characters with us. Here is Mickey Mouse, aka Dave Carter, the creator of the Dave Carter Show. We met him in Moscow but hung with him for a week until he left for Eastern Europe. His sense of humor is so unique, I can only beg you to go to his site and watch his animation. To prevent hairy situations Steven from Brooklyn always kept a shave kit handy and usually experienced his life in his mind before doing so in "real life." In St. P. he was constantly having an out-of-body experience and instead of leaving for Helsinki, he just suddenly disappeared into thin air. Stephen is out of focus in this pic but it's still indicative of his character. We got off on the right foot from the beginning since he's currently a student at U of M but times only got better as we all hung out more. As I post this, I'd just like to give a birthday shout out to him and hope that wherever he is, he's enjoying some Roman Charity.

Remember Me? The slightly more obscure characters we met along the way

Talk about people you don't want to be next to on the train. If you look up close you can see the creepy cuts all over his face but fortunately for you, there's no way his smell can permeate from your computer. He liked Sara. He told her about his family problems while he drank his cheap beer. Elisio is a photographer from Mexico City. We practiced our forgotten Spanish with him while wandering around Moscow at night. He wasn't quite as crazy as us which meant he got left in the wake but he was an interesting character. These kids were enamored with Sara and just before we were all trying to sleep. She was a trooper and hung out with them but I couldn't be asked to converse and went to bed instead. These two Belgians bet us we wouldn't remember their names. Well, um... they were right. But they were also the people who didn't mind not knowing where we were from in the states because it "was all the same" to them anyways. I'm just bitter than I lost in poker. It doesn't get much cuter than this. The question is, can those who were on this journey remember which of the many trains we rode was this photo taken on. The correct answer? On the leg between Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk. The obscure character here isn't the Russian party person, but the outboard motor sitting behind him. It was the same motor that took us tubing on Lake Baikal the day before. This guy. A vodka pusher. The type that suddenly regretted not paying attention in English class back in school when he couldn't piece together a conversation. But that's how it was in Siberia, and when conversation got flat, we just took out the camera. The best thing we brought on our trip was the Incredible Friend-Making Machine, the Frisbee. On an evening in the small sea, we met this entire group of people. We did vodka shots and tried to hit empty beer bottles off wooden posts. Siberia!This guy needs more face time. Just look at him; he opened all of our beers for us with his teeth. Thanks man.If we only knew the trouble these guys would get us into. Max the Lawyer. Here we are enjoying some of our first Russian pivos at a long train stop. Some of the sweetest kids on the planet, these Mongolian little people played basketball with us on a dirt court. I blocked all their shots. Just kidding, I played nice, that's why it looks like they like me. Peter and this Chinese girl had a thing for each other. He saw her walking down the street in such a beautiful outfit and said, "Ni-how." Just kidding. She was our waitress. But it was cute that he asked for an umbrella and she held it for him as he toured the gardens. SHAO PUNK-UH! Easily one of the most eccentric characters we met along the way, since she didn't like the music of Flumie's 80's night, Shao Punk broke it down on the dance floor with her headphones in her ears. Courtesy of the zoom lens, here's the girl that stole all of our attention outside the Church of Spilled Blood. Peter showed these kids a thing or two about soccer outside Tibetan Buddhist temples in Ulaanbaatar. Even Sara said the same thing when we met this guy: "Damn, your girlfriend is hot." The first and still the only time I've ever had anyone waiting for me with my name on a placard. Thank you LG Hostel.

Yes, there really is a Mongolian Barbeque in Mongolia

But it was only built in the last year. So that's pretty lame. And no, it's not really Mongolian-style cuisine.

And now, the Mongolian travels have come to an end. Tonight Peter, Sara, and I leave for Russia and will spend the next 48 hours on a train practicing Russian and drinking vodka.

As for the blog, posts will go up as it's convenient. With such a busy schedule it's difficult to find time, or better yet to waste time, sitting on the internet. And when I spend such long periods of time away and need to upload such a huge amount on photos and stories, I think the quality is greatly compromised. But that's the way it goes and I don't really expect things to change. So as the travels go I'll try to update the blog but traveling in new places I can't predict how often it will go.

There. I've written my silly disclaimer and feel better. Thanks for reading.

No Trails: Horseback riding through Mongolia